by Kayla, Mia
I’d been telling the same story to Mary for years. Had they never paid attention?
“Yeah, crown jewels.” Mary pushed out her lip. “I don’t like it when you stay in the city. That’s not your home. This is.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me, mad like the kitten she was.
“It’s different now, Mary. He has a girlfriend now,” Sarah added with a smile too happy for her own good.
“Girlfriend? Who? I thought I was the only one who’s supposed to be your girlfriend.” She slammed her fork against the plate, and I laughed.
Boy, oh boy.
I eyed Charles, and he simply shook his head, amused.
We’d thought that we had issues with Sarah’s teenage rebellion. Wait till Mary turned into a teenager. I imagined she would be worse.
Sarah threw Mary an are you dumb look. “Sonia? Remember her?”
“Oh.” Mary relaxed back against her chair, and her smile resurfaced. “When are we going to have dinner with her here?”
“Soon.” I sipped my coffee. “Real soon.”
Becky reached over and fixed Mary’s white collar on her blue plaid uniform. “Maybe … if Uncle Brad is up for it, you can go spend the night at his place on a weekend.”
Mary sat straighter and bounced in her seat. “Oh. Can I, can I, can I?”
With a nod of my head, I once again had a happy Mary. “Now, go eat your food, sweet Mary. You’ll be late.”
After breakfast and in typical weekday fashion, we all stood. The girls got their backpacks ready for school. Becky assisted in giving them their lunches. I cleaned up the table. Charles washed the dishes, and Mason loaded the dishwasher. We were a well-oiled, domesticated machine.
The girls made their rounds with good-bye hugs and kisses. When Becky grabbed the keys from Charles, I turned toward him.
“You’re not taking the girls to school?”
Because he always took the girls to school, right before driving straight to work. We all drove separately.
“No, Becky will take them.” He pecked Becky on the lips before turning to me. “We have to talk.”
My spine straightened, and I blinked up at him. I knew who and what this conversation was going to be about. Had they caught us having sex in the utility closet? Or my desk? I swore, my door had been locked. My hands clenched and then unclenched.
Was it my fault that I was in love and addicted to every part of her body?
I’d deny all the sex. We’d be fine. Sonia and I would simply keep it to after-work hours. It was hard, hard being around her and not wanting to be inside her, but I’d make sure things were strictly professional at work, going forward.
“If this is about Sonia, there’s nothing to talk about. I’ll meet you at work.” I reached for my briefcase and turned to leave.
“Brad.” One word. Loud. Authoritative. It was the tone he used on the girls, the tone that meant business.
“Yes, Brad, we need to talk. This isn’t working out,” Mason added. “Everyone at work is talking.”
Mason’s even tone was my cue to leave. He grated on my nerves. And, to think, we had been getting along.
“I don’t care.” I was already walking, but he blocked my direct path to the door leading to the garage. I was now sandwiched between both of them.
“Did you really have sex on the copier?” Mason’s tone was condescending, and his face scrunched up, disgusted, as though he’d never, ever had sex in the office. “That’s crossing the line.”
Yes. “No, and if I did, it’s my fucking copier. My company. My life.” The muscles in my neck tensed, and my hand tightened around my briefcase.
“Your company?” Mason chuckled without humor. “That’s funny. I think we all have one-third equity share.”
I tilted my head from side to side, releasing the tension from my neck. “You’d better stop, Mason. You’re pissing me off.”
“I’ll stop when you fire her,” Mason spat out.
That turned a switch in me. I stepped into him, pressing a finger into his chest, eyes narrowed. “Sonia is my concern. Not yours. So, you don’t get to decide what happens to her, what she has for lunch, where I take her on dates, and most definitely, if she’s still working for me, which she still is, by the way.”
He glared. “It’s too late. You’re outnumbered, and we’ve already decided. We’ve already hired her replacement.”
The air knocked out of my lungs, and I stepped back.
I flipped around and narrowed my eyes at Charles. He never went above me—ever. He’d have discussed it with me first, but decision was written on his features.
My mouth went lax. “Don’t I have a say in this, Charles?” There was no bite in my tone, no strength in my voice. Once Charles made a decision, it was as good as done.
Charles sighed. “Brad, you’re not thinking straight. People are talking. This is as much for her as it is for you. Women talk and can get nasty. They’re already starting to say she only got where she was by sleeping with the boss.”
I cringed. Maybe I’d fire all of them then.
I threw up a hand. “She’s been working for me for two years, and she has had the same damn position.” I walked to the kitchen and dropped to the chair, already tired. “Who? I want names.” No one could talk about Sonia like that. “Names. Because they’re fired.”
“See? See how stupid you’re being?” Mason shook his head, as if he was exasperated with me.
“Mason,” Charles scolded in his fatherly tone, “stop.”
Then, Charles’s attention was thrown back my way. “You know this isn’t going to work. How are you going to give the woman you love her annual review?”
“Based on how many times she gives him head,” Mason muttered, and I wanted to fucking throw him through a window.
“Mason, just get out.” Charles pointed sternly to the door. “If you can’t be an adult about this, just get the hell out and go to work.”
“I can be civil,” Mason said quietly like a chastised child. He dropped to the seat opposite me at the kitchen table.
He was here for the show. Damn bastard.
“Brad, listen … this is for the best. Deep down, you know it is.” Charles placed a heavy hand on my shoulder, but it wasn’t the strength of his arm that weighed me down; it was the enormity of the truth.
When Sonia was around, all I could think about was being near her, inside her. With her, my normal work ethics were thrown out the door.
“I promised I wouldn’t fire her. I promised her nothing between us would change.” I begged him with my eyes.
“But it has, little brother. It has changed. It changed the moment you fell in love with her.” Charles was always the one to tell it how it was, straightforward and honest, just as he saw it.
I rubbed one hand down my face, knowing he was right.
“It’s fine. I have the perfect solution,” Mason added. “I’ve already set things in motion.”
* * *
Sonia
I strolled to my desk from the elevator. It took every ounce of energy not to skip all the way to work and look like a happily-in-love dope. Because, yes, I was happily in love with the BILK turned BILF—which I did multiple times a day.
I hadn’t told him yet, knowing, once I said it, I couldn’t take it back. A part of me was afraid, of giving myself so fully. But everything with Brad felt so right, so real, so forever.
If someone had told me months ago that I’d fall in love with Brad, I’d have denied it and bet my life savings and 401(k), too, that it would never, ever happen.
But yet, here I was.
Le sigh.
If there were a cloud nine, I was on cloud one million. Every morning was brighter, and my mood could not be dimmed, no matter how crappy my day was going. Traffic? No problem. Schedule gone wrong? Not a big deal.
This was the feeling of being in love—utter, true love. And I was here. In the present, working the best job I had with the perks of seeing my beloved day
in and day out, in and out of work.
Tonight, we were having a Harry Potter marathon at my place. I was beyond excited, still in crazy awe that Brad hadn’t watched a single movie.
The stack of boxes placed by my desk made me skip to a stop. I tilted my head, taking in Phala, an intern for Mason. Her stick-straight Asian hair lay by her shoulders. She spoke with a little lilt in her voice, her natural intonation, to match her petite frame and small features.
“Sonia?” Her eyes went wide. “I thought … I thought …” If her eyes widened any farther, her eyeballs would pop out of their sockets.
“Whose boxes are these?” I walked around to see two more boxes on the floor. “Are these Brad’s?” Did he have extra files laying around that I didn’t know about?
“No … I … uh …” Phala’s cheeks burned bright enough to almost rival the red on her lips.
I blinked and noted a plant placed on top of the boxes—her bamboo plant. The one I’d seen on the third floor, on her own desk, by Mason’s office.
An intense ringing initiated in my ears, the kind that I knew would blow up, bomb-style, soon, real soon. Call it premonition.
I carefully framed my next words. “These are your boxes.” My voice came out so softly, I doubted she heard. When her gaze drifted to the floor, my chest seized, and I gripped the desk for support. “It is, right?” I spoke louder this time. “Phala! Are these your boxes or not?”
When she tipped her chin, I exhaled, feeling as though someone had knocked me on my ass, yet I was still standing.
I stared at the desk, the clean lines of my tape dispenser, right by my stapler, right by my phone. My desk. A desk I had spent the last two years working at.
This couldn’t be Brad. This had to be Charles. I’d broken my part of our agreement, and this was the consequence. Or is this Brad’s decision? Did he know? Was he already tired of me, just as he had been of the other women before me?
But this was different. Between Brad and me, it was different. He’d promised. He’d said he loved me.
I swallowed hard, heat burning my eyes. Breathe.
But there was no point. I clutched my chest and rocked back, resting on my heels.
Phala’s arms wrapped around me, hard and tight. Though I didn’t know her that well, I rested against her, using her body to keep me upright.
“I thought you were smarter than this, Sonia.” Her tone was apologetic, sad even.
I pulled back and swiped at my tears. Anger replaced the unbearable sadness as I reeled back, and with a firm voice, I asked, “What is that supposed to mean?”
She twisted her hands and fidgeted with the edge of her silk shirt, staring at her pointy red shoes that matched her ruby-red lipstick.
“Speak, Phala. What do you mean?”
She spoke to her shoes as though the pair had asked her the question, “You of all people know how Brad is. How he treats women. You know how many women have gone through that door.” She motioned at his office door. “And out the company door. You warned everyone who walked through his office.”
I stepped into her, eyes burning with a fury that churned in my gut. “You don’t understand a single thing,” I promised. Because she didn’t. Brad and I had made love yesterday and the day before and the day before that. How he felt for me was different.
But it was her look. The same look I’d given other interns and account reps. And hadn’t they told me the same thing? Hadn’t they told me what they had with Brad was special?
I staggered back, and both hands flew to my chest.
Is this time different? Am I just another girl to him? Was he already bored? My mind was a tornado of thoughts, pulling me every way possible.
“Does he know?” I rubbed at my forehead and took deep breaths, feeling the walls of my world closing in. Isn’t this exactly where I was with Jeff? Right here, thinking he loved me all along, but really, he was screwing my replacement at his office.
I shook my head. The need to get out of this horrid place was unbearable.
“Does he know?” I blinked up at her through clouded irises. “Does he know that you’re his new secretary?”
She nodded again in confirmation, and that was when I ran. To the elevators, out of the building, to my car and straight to my apartment.
The tears were hot and heavy and endless. When Jeff had done what he did, I’d sworn I’d never end up here again, never be that girl again … and yet, here I was.
* * *
Brad
“What do you mean, she just left?” I stared at Phala, a former intern of ours because, after this, she was definitely fired. By me.
She stood there, teetering in her four-inch heels, looking anywhere but at my face.
“Brad, chill out. It’s not her fault,” Mason added, not making it better.
“And these?” I pointed to a stack of boxes by my Sonia’s desk. “What the hell are these?”
“Boxes?” Her voice was timid and unsure, and she searched Mason’s face for answers.
“Why are you moving in now?” Mason asked. “I said the sixteenth.”
She blinked, doe-eyed and clueless. “I thought you said the sixth.”
Fuck. My muscles tensed, and I gritted my teeth. I was so fucking livid. “Smart move there, Mason.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and took deep breaths, willing the blood boiling in my veins to chill.
“It was a simple mistake,” Mason said, though his voice was without its usual authoritative flare.
I pushed my finger against his chest, using all my restraint to keep steady. “If she fucking takes this out on me, I’m taking this out on you. If she fucking leaves me for this … you are a dead man.” I pushed a finger in his face. “Dead.” Then, I turned to Phala. “And you’re fired.”
Mason opened his mouth to speak, but I shut him up real fast. “Don’t even think of it. Since I’m not sticking my dick in anyone but Sonia, my previous secretary issues are no longer a concern.”
I stormed out of there, running to the elevators, out the building, and driving to her place.
The doorman let me up, and I banged on her door, relentless, pounding like it was a punching bag. She hadn’t been picking up my calls, and I expected her to be an angry, hell-raising mess, but when she opened the door, her face was eerily calm.
I stepped into her place, and immediately, I dropped to my knees. “I’m sorry. Mason and Charles didn’t even consult me.”
She lifted a shoulder, unaffected, and averted her gaze, walking farther into the apartment while I pushed myself to stand.
Her indifference gutted me. If she didn’t care about her job and could leave work altogether, maybe it would be that easy for her to walk away from me. I wanted her angry or even upset because that would only prove that she was as affected by this as I was.
“I want you to know I had nothing to do with it. I’ll find you another job.” I reached for her, but she flinched, and I dropped my hand. A deep, dire desperation I’d never felt coursed through my veins. “I love you, Sonia. I won’t let this get between us.”
She walked toward the other side of the room, arms crossed over her chest. I couldn’t read her face or see her eyes, my guide to know how she was really feeling.
“I can’t afford this place anymore.” She spoke quietly, mostly to herself.
“Move in with me then.” I didn’t hesitate when the words fell out of my mouth. I didn’t even flinch or second-guess what that entailed. I had hopped on the love train, running full speed ahead, and there was no stopping now.
She flipped around, her hands fisted at her sides, eyes blazing. “Don’t say stuff you don’t mean.”
Yes! A reaction. I’d take it.
“I mean every word.”
Where her features hardened, mine softened. Where she tensed up, I eased up and stepped into her. I wouldn’t touch her until she was ready, though my need to touch her was unbearable.
She shut her eyes and shook her head as though she were trying to sh
ake things off in her head. “Stop, Brad. Just stop.” She hugged her stomach, her gaze dropping to the ground. “Please. Just stop.”
Stop what? Stop being with her? I couldn’t do that.
“Why?” I swallowed, my voice emotionally choked. I took another step closer, needing to be nearer.
“Because …” She trembled and gripped herself tighter as though she were trying to keep herself upright. “Because I want to stop believing you.”
I pulled her in by her waist, unable to resist the urge any longer despite whether she rejected me or not. She fell into me, and I promised myself I wasn’t going to let her go.
“Believe it. Because it’s true. All of it.”
She buried her head in my throat, and she shivered. “I’m scared,” she whispered, true and honest and one of the very reasons I adored her.
“Do you think I’m not? I’m scared about every little move I make. I’m scared that one stupid, idiotic move could ruin what’s happening between us.”
She lifted her head, searching my face.
“I’m not talking other women or things like that because, believe me when I tell you, no one has captured my heart like you have.” My hand went to cup her cheek, and I grazed my thumb against her cheekbone. “I’m talking about your job, what I’ve been saying to my brothers, what I’m saying right now. Asking you to move in with me. Knowing it sounds crazy and not caring that it does. Because it’s what I want, what I want you to want. Worrying about saying how I feel because it might be too much. It might push you away.”
Her eyebrows pulled together, her look pensive. “I’ve been here before. And it didn’t pan out, and I’m scared to do it again because, this time, our relationship is moving faster. It feels different, deeper.” She released a breath. “I knew there was so much at stake when I took the leap into us. My job at first, but now, it’s more than that.” She shuddered against my hold. “I don’t give my heart easily. The last time I did, I was heartbroken.”
I hated that she was comparing me to that asshole of an ex. I would’ve never let Sonia go if I’d had her then, and I sure as hell wasn’t letting go of her now.