Page 95 of Rude Boss 2

“Yeah, you were on something different at the party, I noticed.”

“What do you mean, Zee?” I ask, giving her my full attention now, feeling like I’ve been caught.

She explains, “First, you were dancing with Essex.”

“Y’all ran away. Essex grabbed me,” I tell her, but I know that’s not entirely true. It was me who Essex wanted to dance with all along.

“And then, I went down to the beach to play volleyball—you were nowhere to be found.”

“Well, I had to keep up with Ella. She drank like a fish and passed out on a bench.”

“Mmm hmm…” she says, narrowing her eyes. “Tell me what’s really going on, Tez.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought it was mighty strange that Mr. DePaul was off work all last week. The man hardly ever takes time off work, but the same week he’s off, you’re off.”

“And?”

“And,” she says, rolling her neck, “I know I was a lil’ tipsy at the party, but I saw you and Mr. DePaul come up out of that lil’ guest house.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did. Now dish.”

I look over at the coffee bar and Essex’s eyes connect with mine from across the room. He’s nodding, pretending to be listening to what Mr. Cruz is saying, but his eyes are on me.

Zahara follows my eyes to him, then looks at me. Her mouth drops open. “I knew it!”

“Zahara…”

“Nope, don’t try to make me think I’m crazy. Something is going on between you two. That’s why he keeps holding you back after dismissing everybody else when we be in them meetings. Ain’t no telling what y’all been doing on those conference room tables.”

“Okay, okay. All right. Listen—this stays between me and you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“So, we sort of got married.”

“What!” she screeches.

Suddenly, all eyes – at least those closest to us – are directed at our table.

“Zahara, keep it down.”

She covers her mouth with both hands as if fighting another eruption of disbelief. Once she’s able to control herself, she eases her hands away from her mouth and asks, “You’re married?”

“Yes. Last week, we spent our honeymoon in Fiji.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Like, how did this happen? He’s mean. Rude. You’ve only known him since February.”

“Turns out, I’ve known him for much longer than that. We went to high school together.”

“Stop lying.”

I glance over at Essex again watching him and Mr. Cruz exit the cafeteria. I say, “I’m not lying. We did.”

“Then why did you act like you didn’t know him when you first got hired?”

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