Page 68 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Ma’am, I can assure you—” Helena started, but Scarlet held upher hand.

“If you choose to go, I will of course compensate you with a generous severance and glowing recommendations as well as annulling your non-compete agreement. And honestly, I would have given you the glowing recommendations to you anyway, even without you catching me in a compromising situation with my personal assistant.”

She said the last just as Yosef appeared at her elbow to present her with a steaming cup of tea. If his ears could have burned redder, Helena was sure Yosef’s hair would have caught fire. Scarlet only smiledserenely.

“If you choose to stay, nothing will change, though I will ask that you not speak of what you saw to anyone, even though everyone out there already has some ideas that might more or less be true. I just ask that you not confirm or deny anything. Frankly, it’ll add to your mystery and that can pay dividends when I appoint you to succeed me in thecompany.”

Helena did not know what to think. All she could do was sit there and blink while Scarlet waited for her to process it.

She even absentmindedly took her cup of tea from Yosef before she could put two thoughts together.Don’t ask her if she’s firing you, don’t even bring it up, don’t ask if she’s not firing you…

“So you’re not firing me?” she asked despiteherself.

Scarlet’s smile widened. “No, dear. That would beillegal.”

“Oh.” Giving herself another moment to think, Helena took a long sip from her tea. “I guess I would like to stay and just continue on as things were. Maybe with a code word for when you two are going to be … preoccupied.”

Scarlet snorted. “We did say I was getting amassage.”

Helena snorted into her tea. “Well, yes, but also youdoactually getmassages.”

Her boss shook her head bemusedly as she continued to stare out the window, the gray world of the city reflecting in the blueness of her eyes. “It must seem so crazy that a woman of my age would be caught in such a position with someonelike him.”

“Why?” Helena genuinely asked.

Scarlet looked down at her hands holding the teacup, as if she were just waiting for the liquid to evaporate so she could read the tea leaves. Of which there was none because this was a well-made cup of tea. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Idon’t even know what I’m going to say, sotell me.”

“That why should I worry about what anyone thinks of me. Men my age do this sort of thing allthe time.”

Helena had to nod at that. “You’re right. That is one of the things I would say. Though if I’m being fully honest, I went through the depth and breadth of emotions yesterday, but I know that had more to do with me and my ownhangups.”

That elicited another chuckle. “Do you know how incredibly annoying it is for someone as young as you to beso wise?”

Helena smiled. “One of my therapists said I’m an old soul.” Then she hesitated before adding. “I know what it’s like to hold secrets that you know are difficult for other people to understand.”

Now Scarlet looked at her, not speaking, again simply waiting, as if to say,You know one of my secrets. What is yours? It’sonly fair.

Letting out a long breath at the risk she was about to take, Helena steeled herself for whatever reaction she received. “In high school, I bullied a girl so badly she committedsuicide.”

Scarlet’s eyebrows shot up, as surprised as Helena had been learning her secret.

Helena smiled, sadly serene. “I’ve carried that with me for years. And I will for the rest ofmy life.”

Scarlet let out a long breath, “I am sorry for making you reveal something like that. For making you relive it. I did not have the right and I should have known better.”

“Actually, you didn’t. I have another reason I needed totell you.”

Now Scarlet’s eyebrowsfurrowed.

The younger woman sighed. “I have a friend… though I don’t know if I can really call him a friend anymore, who I recently have caught being unfaithful, and he’s threatened to reveal my secrets here at work in retribution if I say anything to his spouse.”

“Ah, I see.” Scarlet nodded as if she were all too familiar with that sort of threat.

“I was already torn about having not told his husband, who is also my friend, but now I’m so deeply hurt by him, by his actions… That’s really the worst part. He was my friend. For years.” The familiar lump rose up in Helena’s throat, and she took a deep drink of her tea to try to swallow it down. “I still care about him.”

Drinking her own tea, Scarlet returned to her contemplation of the worldoutside.

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