Page 84 of Work with Me

I let myself imagine it: riding bikes on the greenbelt. Or taking them with me to San Francisco and doing tourist shit like Alicia had done with me and the bats. Watching the sea lions with Noah. I wouldn’t take them to Alcatraz; that was creepy. We’d sit in Golden Gate Park listening to music or walk along the beach or tour the California Academy of Sciences. We’d be a family.

Was I ready for a family? Was that prickling in my fingers excitement or terror?

At dinner with Alicia’s family, she’d been so strong, so confident. The way she always was at work. At work, we’d become partners. Could we do it with her family, too?

I flopped back on the sofa and let myself fantasize. I’d introduce them to my mother. She’d be enchanted by Alicia’s maturity and drive. Would we spend the holidays with her family or mine? Maybe Christmas in the Alps would be best. Or the Caribbean. I pictured Alicia in a bikini. Walking hand-in-hand on the beach with the moon glistening on the water, listening to the roar of the surf, warm water lapping at our toes. I lost myself in the fantasy.

So that’s why I was huddled under my comforter, cocooned in Alicia’s scent, when three sharp bangs rattled my door.

Grumbling, I threw off the comforter. Only one person knocked like that. I padded to the door and looked through the peephole. Sure enough, Cooper stood there, still in his work clothes, staring daggers at the door. Fuck, what’d I done now?

I opened the door. “Hey, Coop.”

He stepped inside and scanned me from my T-shirt to my boxer briefs and bare feet.

“Is she here?”

“Who?” I shut the door. He was wearing his about-to-yell-at-me face.

“Our former consultant, Alicia Weber.”

Fuck. She needed his testimonial. I never lied to Cooper, but this one time, I could obscure the truth a little.

“Why would she be here?” I went back to the couch and tossed the comforter and pillow behind it. He wouldn’t be able to smell her, would he?

He sat in the chair facing the kitchen. “Really? You’re going to lie about this to your best friend? At least, when you slept with that intern, you came clean about it.”

How the fuck had he found out? Alicia wouldn’t have called him. And she and I were the only people who knew what we’d done a couple of hours before. I flopped onto the couch. “What are you talking about?”

“When you weren’t at dinner—”

Fuck. Alicia had asked me to text Cooper to tell him I’d miss it.

“—Tyler told me that you two have been carrying on for weeks.”

“Tylersaid that?” I’d never have thought he’d snitch on us. Of course, I’d thought everyone was oblivious to how close Alicia and I had become.

“He said he thought it was common knowledge.”

“What was common knowledge?”

But Cooper wasn’t having any more of my innocent act. His face was red in the lamplight. “That you’ve been fucking the consultant I hired. Frankly, I thought she was too professional, too mature, to fall for your”—he waved a hand at my boxers—“charms. Jamila said she was unimpeachable. The pinnacle of integrity. I guess Alicia fooled her, and she thought she could fool me, too. But as they say here in Texas, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.”

“They say that here? I’ve never heard it.” I had to stop him before he really got going.

“I’ll see that she never works for a reputable company again. She won’t be fucking her way through Austin’s tech leaders if I have anything to say about it.”

“Now wait a minute—” I stood. I really wished I was wearing pants. And my ass-kicking boots.

“You’d done so well. Three months here without an incident. And then she shows up, and you fall off the wagon.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “She’s not even your type.”

“Listen to me, Cooper. I did not fuck Alicia while we were on the project together.”

“Tyler seems to think you did.”

Pain stabbed through me. “We’ve known each other for fourteen fucking years. And you believe a junior programmer over me, your best friend?”

“Yes, we’ve known each other for fourteen years, and I’ve never known you to show the slightest bit of restraint where your dick was involved. You fucked every heterosexual woman in our freshman dorm.”

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