Page 81 of A Break in Communications

“But—well, Anna, it’s just—when you met me in your office, you assured me you and Lucy weren’t…”

Anna raised her eyebrows. “When I told you we weren’t just a fling, we were serious?”

“No—” Sean put his hands up. “No, no. You said it the other way around. What? You said you’d had a clean break. I’d told the whole committee that you weren’t—”

I said as casually as anything, “Yes, you said I could take that break to help look after my grandmother. Even Anna took a break too to help.”

“No, no, no,” he said, flushing redder, and we were backed up by the absolute best person for the situation, which was Kelcey drifting over to our side swaying with that dreamy look that said she was absolutely back in Veronica’s snare. Poor girl. She was happy for tonight, at least.

“Hey, you two,” she said, beaming at me and Anna. “Oh, god, it’s so cute seeing you two together all lovey-dovey.”

“Hey, Kelce,” Anna said. “Do you remember when Lucy and I started dating?”

Kelcey puffed out her cheeks, thinking it over. “Jeez, it was, like, forever ago. I’m surprised you’re not married yet. You’re both go-getters.”

I slipped my hand into Anna’s, interlacing my fingers with hers, and I squeezed her into my side. “We’re in no rush,” I laughed. “Just happy I get to have the love of my life here with me.”

Sean scrunched up his face in confusion, poor man. At this point, Berg looked at Sean like this had all been his misunderstanding, but either way, I was just as baffled at how this was possible when Anna rested her head against mine and said, “And the love of my life here with me. Just don’t tell her I said that, she’ll get a big head.”

Jesus Christ. Was my heart going to keep falling through the floor every time Anna said something like that, for the rest of my life? I’d believe it. Kelcey swatted the edge of the table in sheer excitement, and it got Anna’s mother to stop gawking at me and Anna and look at her instead.

“Oh—Kelcey,” she said, absolutely glowing. “I wanted to get a chance to meet you and say hello—I’m Veronica’s mother, but you can just call me Maria. Or you could just call me Mom.”

Anna hung her head. “Oh, here we go.”

Kelcey lit up at Maria. “It’s so nice to meet you. Anna and Veronica have both talked about you so much.”

Kelcey didn’t quite get the implications here, and her just going along with it was going to make Maria think she and Veronica were getting married by the new year… which would serve Veronica just as well. Berg cleared his throat. “So—I’msorry to interrupt, but—Anna, Lucy, I don’t know if Sean got across that—”

“That it’s going to complicate the matters of the promotion since Lucy and I are a couple?” Anna said lightly. “Of course, I remember. I told him I trusted whatever solution he’d come up with.”

I nodded, piling on to gaslight an old man. Not the noblest pursuit, but Anna and I both played dirty. “You told me you had the solution in mind when I mentioned taking that break to look after my grandmother…”

“Uh.” Sean shifted awkwardly. “Right… that.” I could see the wheels spinning in his head, and he started sweating bullets when Berg looked at him.

“Sean, what’ve you been on?”

“Nothing—nothing. Ah—my mind must have gotten into the holiday vacation ahead of the rest of me. Don’t worry, I’ve got it together.” He blanked, hanging there for one awkward second while Anna’s parents gushed to the eternally oblivious Kelcey, until finally, he spoke like he was in a dream. “Well… with the press release having been such a success, we’re hoping to expand the role of operations within the department, and—well, Lucy and Anna have been such an effective and coordinated team with running this ship, they’ve essentially already both held the role. So, with operations expanding, I think it makes sense to spin the role off into two positions… it would let them both get to where they naturally thrive in leadership and remove any conflicts of interest as well.”

My heart missed a beat, and I could tell from the slight tensing of her hand in mine that Anna’s did, too, as we exchanged a quick, subtle look, eyes flicking over at the same moment to meet each other and back again. Berg raised his eyebrows at Sean. “Not at one point in the meetings did we discuss this.”

“Oh, er, well. Come to think of it, we didn’t do a very good job leaving a paper trail… we’d discussed it more face-to-face. I guess that’s on me. My skills with communications are slipping. It’s a big role for one person, you know. It’ll make more sense with both of them.”

I jumped in before I could think it through. “We’d definitely had the discussions around it. It had just been contingent on keeping Gould’s account and how the press release went.”

Anna smiled flawlessly. “And with your performance on stage, Berg, I think we can safely say this was a success.”

“It really was,” I said, matching her serene smile. “We’ve got Gould firmly back with us, I think.”

Berg, a sucker for flattery, stood up taller, even though he sighed. “All right… Sean, we’ll have to have a long talk. But I suppose it makes sense. We’ll just have to discuss logistics…”

“Of—of course,” Sean said, his face red, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. Poor guy. He was retiring, he’d be able to put all this behind him soon enough. “Well—thank you for your hard work with everything, you two. Real… powerhouse couple. I think you’re right that this has gone perfectly.”

“Merry Christmas, Sean,” Anna said, raising her glass. “Here’s to Sean’s leadership, selecting me and Lucy for this job.”

“Here’s to Sean,” I said, joining in, and Anna’s mother raised her glass, suddenly remembering we were there.

“Here’s to Anna and Lucy,” she said, ruining our streak. Sean would be fine.

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