Page 62 of Craving Their Omega

Penelope

I get back to my office without looking over my shoulder to see if Xavier is following me or what expression is on his face. I close the door behind me and pull out my phone to call Jonas and ask him to pick me up for lunch.

As the wife of the three CEOs, they’ve given me free reign to do that, and Jonas seems happy enough to do it.

I wait for him outside and when he pulls up, I slide into the passenger seat instead of going to the back.

He raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything about it.

“Everything all right?” he asks, glancing over at me as he pulls away from the building. “It might not be any of my business, but you look like you’re having a rough day.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” I reply, slouching down in my seat. “There’s just a lot going on.”

He nods. “Life is like that sometimes. I’d imagine it’s even more like that when you’re involved in all this.” Jonas lifts one hand from the steering wheel to gesture around.

“What’s ‘this’?” I ask him.

“Oh you know, being entangled with CEOs on this level and dealing with a big company. Even if you were just working for them, I’m sure that would come with a lot of stress.”

I nod along because he’s right. Even before we started this whole thing, it wasn’t like working for Vantage was what I would call relaxing.

“That’s true. I feel like a fish out of water most of the time. Like I just don’t fit in. I’m not fashionable or clever like some of the other assistants.” The image of Sienna touching Xavier’s chest flashes into my mind and I have to forcibly shove it away. “I just feel like I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time.”

“Can I tell you a secret, Ms. Penelope?” Jonas asks.

“Please do.”

“I guess it’s really two secrets. The first one is that most of us have no idea what we’re doing. We’re all just stumbling through as much as we can, trying to piece together enough knowledge to not completely mess up. The second secret is that you being exactly who you are is a wonderful thing. I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I’ve had a lot of people in my backseat. You’re a special one.”

I smile at his words, feeling a little bit better from the fatherly way Jonas talks. At least someone doesn’t think I’m a failure, I guess.

“Thank you. I think I needed to hear that.”

He smiles and pulls up in front of a neat, quiet little cafe. “My pleasure. Enjoy your lunch, and just give me a call when you’re ready to go back to the office.”

I nod and slide out of the car. The cafe is cute, and it smells invitingly of coffee and warm bread, so I walk in and look around to find a table.

“Penelope?”

I turn when someone calls my name, and I’m surprised to see Xavier’s sister Bella sitting at a table to my left. She grins at me, waving.

“Hey! I thought that was you.”

“Hi.” I try to smile back, but it probably isn’t all that convincing, considering the way Bella arches an eyebrow.

“So what’s going on?” Bella asks.

“What do you mean?”

She gives me a look. “Come on. I can tell when someone’s had a bad morning, and you look like you’re going through it. Do you need someone to talk to?”

I bite my lip, debating. On the one hand, it’s probably bad form to complain about someone to their sister, even if Bella had offered to be there if I needed someone. On the other hand, it’s not like I have anyone else to talk to, and I feel like I might literally explode if I can’t get some of this off my chest.

“Your brother and I got into a fight,” I admit after a while. Bella’s eyebrows go up, and I clarify quickly. “It was just a little argument, I guess. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Hey, you don’t have to qualify it with me,” Bella says. “Here, why don’t you go order something and we can talk about it?”

It sounds better than sitting at a table alone, going over everything in my head, so I agree and go to the counter to order a sandwich and soup.

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