Page 122 of Never With You
I wanted it to be Nate so badly.
I tapmy pen against the conference table, waiting for the meeting to start. I’m half dreading and half looking forward to the big reveal, but mostly, I just want to get it over with.
“Welcome back!” Taryn sits down beside me. “How was Thailand?”
“It was amazing.”
“Really?” She frowns. “Even working with Nate?”
Especiallyworking with Nate. But I’m not going to broach that topic just yet.
“You know”—I glance down, already feeling the sting of a blush—“I was wrong about him. He’s actually not that bad to work with.”
“Oh my gosh!” she gasps.
“What?” Shelly asks as she walks into the room. “What happened?”
Taryn turns to her with a knowing smile. “Carly likes Nate.”
Shelly’s mouth falls to the floor. “What?”
“You guys.” I shake my head, trying to play it cool, but my smile gives me away. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“What’s not a big deal?” Rodney asks as he enters the conference room.
Shelly begins singing, “Carly and Nate sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
His brows crumple as he puzzles it out, then they skyrocket up to his hairline. “You and Nate?”
“I mean?—”
“How did it happen?” he interrupts me.
“How did what happen?” Lyle breezes through the door, holding his morning coffee and his laptop.
Rodney points to me. “She’s got it bad for Nate, if you know what I mean.”
My head falls into my hands. This is not how I thought the announcement would go. I was thinking something a lot more private and discreet, like a soft launch. But there’s nothing soft about this.
“Got it bad?” Lyle questions. “Like she hates him even more?”
“No, like they…” Taryn goes silent, prompting me to look up to see what she’s doing. To my mortification, she’s formed a heart with her fingers to explain to Lyle our relationship status.
“What?” Lyle turns to me with wide eyes. “You and Nate?”
“Okay, can we all just calm down?” I glance around the room. “This has gotten way out of control.”
“Are you two together?” Shelly asks.
But just as I open my mouth to speak, I hear the familiar chant that used to drive me crazy.
“Nate is great! Nate is great! He brings us donuts late!”
Everyone turns to see Nate holding a brown donut box.
Despite how annoyed I am at this level of attention over a simple inner-office romance, my stomach flips at the sight of him entering the conference room.
He heads straight for me. And just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, Nate bends down and plants a passionate kiss on my lips.
