Page 101 of Scandalous Secrets

Me:OMG!

He laughed loudly from his office. I shook my head at him and put my phone on my desk, my cheeks burning. Keeping this secret was going to be harder than I thought.

It was time to find another job. It wasn’t something I had discussed yet with Troy, but I was sure he would understand that we couldn’t go on like this. If I worked somewhere else, then there would be no reason we couldn’t be together. As fun as sneaking around was, I didn’t want to hide my love for him.

I had secured that part-time writing job at Erica’s paper, but it would never be enough to afford my apartment. It was doubtful it would pay for even a quarter of my monthly bills. I needed to find another job that was comparable in pay to this one. I opened a new Word document and began typing up a résumé. It felt strange, knowing if I was hired somewhere else, it meant I wouldn’t be working here anymore. It felt like a goodbye and a new beginning all at once.

Chapter 44

Troy

My father’s boisterous presence was felt before he even stepped foot in my office. I wasn’t expecting him to come by, but I never was. He liked to show up unannounced, like he was trying to find me doing something or catch me off guard. Kathy’s forced laughs and clicks of her heels followed my father down the marble floors toward me.

I looked at Monica, who was already looking at me somewhat warily. I gave her a reassuring smile that it was probably nothing. She nodded and went back to typing on her computer, but I could tell her guard was up. Mine was, too.

A moment later, my father stepped into my office without a knock and with Kathy following in behind him. Just the sight of her annoyed me, with her pinched face from too many injections and her pursed lips. I didn’t know if she was just really committed to this job or if she had a thing for men twice her age. I was starting to suspect that something else was going on between them, and it pissed me off. My poor mother. I wondered if she knew.

“Hello, Dad, this is a surprise,” I greeted, standing from my desk and shaking his hand.

“Troy, my boy!” He smiled.

He was in a surprisingly good mood.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked, partly about his visit and partly about his mood.

“I’m geared up for tomorrow’s trip, of course! Aren’t you?”

“Uhh…”

I racked my brain, trying to figure out what he was talking about without him knowing I was clueless. When I checked my calendar this morning, I saw nothing about a trip, especially one for tomorrow. It was February, which was when we usually went on our company retreat, but I had heard nothing about it. I thought maybe he wasn’t doing it this year. I hadhopedhe wasn’t.

“The company retreat, of course!”

My heart sank.

“The one we do every year,” said my father, his smile faltering slightly with annoyance.

Why the hell wasn’t it on my calendar? This was something that was planned months in advance. There could only be one reason, and she was standing next to my father, expressionless.

“I asked Kathy to put it in your calendar.” My father looked at Kathy.

“I did.” She nodded assuredly.

I rounded my desk and looked at my calendar. Sure enough, there was a five-day block starting tomorrow that wasn’t there this morning. She must have added it within the hour, but why didn’t she tell me? And why did she wait until the last minute?

I almost chewed her out for it, but I knew it would be pointless. My father would side with her and blame me for not being responsible enough. I plastered on a tight-lipped smile and nodded at the glare of my computer screen and the new blue block of my calendar.

“Ah, yes. Of course. It’s right here,” I said, tapping the screen.

“I trust you got the itinerary?” my father asked.

I was sure it was fresh in my inbox, courtesy of Kathy. I swore she pulled things like this just to get under my skin and make me look bad in front of my father. But I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of seeing me sweat with that slight sneer on her face.

“Yes, of course.”

“Good. So, Atlantic City. Five days of meetings and a little debauchery.” His voice lowered on the last words of his sentence before he chuckled.

Atlantic City. We had never taken the company there, or had such a long retreat before. Our company retreats were really just days of endless conferences, followed by nights out at the best restaurants and high-class strip clubs. I was sure that sounded like a good time to some, and it used to be for me. But now, I was dreading it.

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