Page 58 of Brooklynaire
“Because you know her. I’m not agossip.”
“You are totally a gossip. But also weirdly discreet. Now this will drive me insane, yourealize.”
“Not myproblem.”
“Fucker. I’m almost tempted to think you finally baggedRebecca.”
I just look back at him blandly. People tell me that I have a really impassiveface.
“No fuckingway,” hewhispers.
People also tell me that when it comes to Rebecca, the impassive face thing is kind ofbroken.
“Seriously? When did thishappen?”
“Remember ten seconds ago when I told you we weren’t discussingit?”
Stew rubs his chin. “Is this an ongoingthing?”
I justsigh.
“I’d feel a whole lot better right now if you tell me you’ve been secretly dating allyear.”
“Not as much as I would,” Imutter.
Stew groans. “So… this happened once, and now she’s freezing you out? Was itrecently?”
“Bal Harbour. Just a few days ago. Then she went back to New York, and I’m here. I don’t know what’s in herhead.”
“Did you call her? Please tell me you calledher.”
“OfcourseI did. No pickup, though. I sent a fewtexts.”
Stew’s eyes widen. “Then you have aproblem.”
“Gosh, youthink?”
“No, abigproblem. She’s your employee, and now you’re pursuing her. You have tostop.”
“Obviously she and I need to have aconversation.”
Stew adjusts the collar of his shirt, and that’s his tell for when he’s feeling uncomfortable. “No. I think you fuckedup.”
“And you know this how?” I look around, hoping to see Lauren approaching. I need this conversation toend.
“You two got it on, and now she’s not returning your calls? That’s some badjuju.”
“Maybe she just needs time to process.” I know Ido.
“How did this go down anyway? Please tell me she startedit.”
She didn’t start it. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t come around to my way of seeing things in a hurry. “She definitely escalatedit.”
“You kissedher.”
“I did,” I admit. But I skip right over the part about breaking into her hotel room and waking her up. I can’t even imagine what my HR officers would say about that. It’s probably near the top ten list of Things Never to Do with Colleagues on a BusinessTrip.
“You planted one on her,” Stew prods. “Then whathappened?”
