Page 13 of A Conflict of Interest

“Jeez—sorry about that. Uh—yeah! Nic. She’s amazing. Just the most amazing woman… a very lovely woman.”

“Uh… uh-huh.”

“She’s wonderful. So smart and intelligent and talented.”

“She’s the newest member of our team, but she’s been wonderful to work with. Her sister—” He paused. I raised my eyebrows, fully aware of the other two people in the breakroom giving me weird looks for taking a call in the breakroom on my laptop. Ugh, everyone thought I was an idiot.

“What about her sister?”

“Her sister is… not… around. She’s, uh, pretty close with her sister, and she’s really throwing herself into work while her sister is away. I don’t actually remember where the sister is, but… well, best not to ask about her. Nic’s pretty sensitive about the subject. Sorry, I’m, uh, I’m getting distracted.”

Okay, that sounded kind of weird. Something was up with the sister that Liam wanted secret, and under normal circumstances, I was good at letting sleeping dogs lie, but this sounded like something important to Nic, and I was so mortally embarrassed by only now realizing she was a woman that I wanted to know everything possible about her to make up for it.

And maybe if she was a woman… it was a weird thought and one I wasn’t having, but if I did let myself have the thought, I would think that she would be more able to fill the gap Veronica had left. Not that Veronica had left one. Or that I was going to get into anything with Nic. She was still hung up on her ex.

But I’d ask Nic about the sister another time. And pretend to Liam that I wouldn’t.

“Distractions are fine,” I laughed. “Nic said it’s a comfy small firm where you’re all friends and are pretty friendly with your clients, too, so, Nic and I are besties now and so you and I are friends by extension.”

“Well, sounds like you got the important primers on the situation. Let’s skip the formalities and get right into the meat and potatoes of the gig.”

Meat and potatoes. Yeah. I could work with that. Meatandpotatoes. Right.

I was a mess.

∞∞∞

I kind of liked events loaded up with lights, actually. It was fun last year when we’d had our holiday party with all the lights. They’d pared back to a normal number this year, but I’d kind of liked it better the other way… maybe I’d accidentally order another few hundred boxes.

Still, the important part was that it was a big social event filled with people from all different departments alongside the investors that Anna and Lucy were trying to win over together with the guys in Outreach, and I got to take my mind off thoughts about Nic and why she’d just gone along with me calling her a man—I’d avoided the subject the past couple of dayssince Liam dropped the bombshell, because I was mature and loved to hide from difficult conversations—by showing up here and dressing up and being pretty and having a fun time with it all.

The event space was big and beautifully decorated, ornate columns wrapped with lights and chandeliers kept low, tables dressed in white tablecloths with tasteful gold trim, plush red carpet giving the whole space a festive feel even before the big Christmas tree had been set up in the center. I stuck close to the front, together with where Anna and Lucy were talking to the big client who’d been heavy on everyone’s radars lately, Matthew Gould, a man with a thick moustache and a Christmassy red tuxedo suit. I mostly just listened along and nodded and backed up everything Anna and Lucy said—I wasn’t really following a lot of what they were talking about, but I could show up as a hype girl—and when the company president Michael Berg showed his face for once and whisked the three of them away for something, I hung out at the edges trying to scope out who wanted to talk to me when I got jumped by Matthew Gould showing up again, sooner than expected.

“More than enough of that,” he said, dusting off his jacket, and I jolted a little, turning away from the table and back to look at where he beamed at me. “How are you doing, Miss Huntington?”

“Oh—oh, well, good. Did you finish your serious talks with Anna and Lucy already?”

He smiled warmly. “Ah… they were trying to talk business. I wasn’t feeling like talking about business right now.”

That was so understandable. Sometimes you just didn’t want to do work. Nothing wrong with that. “Well,” I said, standing up taller, beaming, “if you want to not talk about work, you came to the right person.”

He nodded. “I like your outlook on things, Miss Huntington.”

“Oh, just call me Kelcey.”

“I like your outlook on things, Kelcey.”

I waved him off. “Actually, just call me Kelce. We’re all friends here.”

“I like your outlook on things, Kelce.”

“Aren’t Anna and Lucy just the best?” I said, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “They’re my favorite bosses ever. And they’re such a cute couple.”

He chuckled. “They certainly are a handful, those two. And of course, Lucy’s grandmother Miss Charlotte is awfully charming.”

“Oh, um…” I’d met Miss Charlotte here and there, and, um, I wasn’t… well… I wasn’t the most charmed anyone had ever been. She’d kind of insulted me a lot, and I had a very thin skin. “She’s definitely… well, I admire her confidence in saying what’s on her mind!”

“They’re all so lovely. Anna’s parents as well. Have you met them?”

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