The suspense was killing me and I could swear my heart was beating loud enough for it to echo through the entire building. Lucah put his finger up for me to wait. So I waited some more.
Then he nodded and went to unlock the door. Was he insane?
“It’s okay, I heard the elevator,” he said at normal volume and I nearly leaped across the room and tackled him. He unlocked the door and the sound was so loud it was like a gunshot.
“I’ll go first. If I don’t make it, know that I love you and I hope you pine for me for the rest of your life. But first, one last kiss.” He kissed me and then strolled right out into the hallway and turned around, holding his arms out.
“See?”
And then my heart felt like it had been replaced with a bomb that was then detonated in my chest.
“Mr. Blaine, I thought you would be at the board meeting.” Mrs. Andrews came out of my father’s office with his jacket. Dad was always forgetting his jacket. Then she saw me and I had never wished for a mysterious sinkhole to open under me and swallow me up as I had in that moment when I saw her putting two and two together.
“We were just—“ I started to say.
“We—“ Lucah tried to say.
She started laughing. Like, throw-your-head-back, eyes-watering, beg-for-mercy-from-Jesus kind of laughing.
Lucah looked at me and I just gaped at Mrs. Andrews as she gasped for breath and then wiped her eyes. She walked forward and patted my cheek like I was an amusing child.
“Oh, my dear. I wasn’t born yesterday. Your secrets are safe with me.” She winked at Lucah and then walked to the elevator, humming a tune I didn’t recognize.
“What the—“
“I have no idea,” Lucah said, shaking his head as the elevator doors closed.
So much for being stealthy.
26
“She’s not going to tell anyone, right? I mean, the woman has known me since I was in diapers. She’s not going to expose us. Right?” Now I was the one pacing. Lucah and I had gone right to his place after work, mostly because I was freaking out and I needed to be alone. Well, alone with him.
Lucah just watched me pace. I was still in my work clothes and I thought he liked watching me walk in heels. He had kind of a glazed look, as if he was picturing me naked and pacing in heels. I wish he would freak out more about this with me. It was uncomfortable to be freaking when your significant other was not freaking. It made me feel like I was freaking too much, which only made me freak out about freaking out.
My life was exhausting sometimes.
“Would pacing naked help? I know it would help me.” Yup, I called it. I whirled around and glared at him.
He tried to look innocent. “What? I really think it would help give me some insight on the situation.”
“And by ‘situation’ you mean my ladyparts.”
He pretended to be shocked.
“I am offended that you immediately jump to the conclusion that I only want you to pace naked for my benefit. That’s not giving me much credit.” He was trying to distract me and it was working.
“You don’t deserve credit, Mr. Blaine,” I said, leaning over the back of the couch and wrinkling my nose at him.
“She’s not going to betray us, Sunshine. From the way she talked, it seems as if she’s known for a while and hasn’t said anything. Stop worrying.” He pressed the spot between my eyebrows that I knew was all wrinkled up from stressing.
“Well you don’t worry, so I have to worry for both of us.” He reached out, grabbed my arms and pulled me over the back of the couch and into his lap. I screamed and he started tickling me until I breathlessly begged him to stop.
“She’s not going to tell. Trust me,” he said again. He must have thought that if he said it enough times I’d eventually believe it. “Now can we talk some more about the naked pacing? I don’t think we really discussed that fully.”
Despite Lucah’s assurances that Mrs. Andrews wouldn’t narc on me to anyone, I was a WRECK when I went to Sunday dinner that weekend. Sweaty palms, racing heart, the whole nine yards. Whatever that meant. What the hell did that mean?
“You’re going to be fine,” Lucah said, kissing the top of my head as I did my makeup in the mirror, interrupting my wondering about yards.
“I swear if you say that one more time, I’m stabbing you with my mascara brush.”
He just laughed and pinched my ass.
“Be careful or you’re not getting any tonight.” I was full of shit and we both knew that. He just laughed and walked back into the kitchen where he was making dinner for one. It pretty much sucked that he couldn’t come to the dinner with me, but that completely defeated the purpose of hiding our relationship. We’d jokingly thought of scenarios where he could just happen to drop by and could join us, but there was no way to do it without making it completely obvious.
He texted me when I was in the cab with a picture of himself sticking his pierced tongue out and it made me smile, but didn’t help with the nerves. I messaged him back and then it was time to face my parents.
“You look pale,” was the first thing my mother said to me. Yeah, hiding my nervousness was going really well.
“Oh, I’m just tired. I’ve been having trouble sleeping.” Because of all the sex I’ve been having with my assistant.
“What about chamomile tea? That always used to work when you were younger,” Mom said as we sat down at the table. Somehow I didn’t think tea was going to help in this situation.
“I’ll try that,” I said anyway. Mom swore by tea as the cure-all for everything. Upset stomach? Ginger. Can’t sleep? Chamomile. Need a jolt? Black.
Luckily, Mom was full of details about the Black and White Ball, so I didn’t have to talk much. Dad seemed quiet, but he was probably just exhausted by Mom talking about the ball.
“Has Sloane started your dress yet?” The second I’d mentioned the thing, Sloane had run to her drafting table and started sketching. She’d made at least five potential sketches and I’d picked one and she’d started working on it in her spare time. First she was going to make a dummy dress out of muslin to fit it to me and then we were going together to pick out the fabric. Maybe this year she’d actually take my input.
“Yes, and it’s going to be black. We thought a white dress was way too wedding.”
“Well, you should decide who you’re taking and see what color he wants so you can match exactly. I’d love to see both of you in white,” she said and I dropped my fork on the floor. Of course I’d taken Royce to the last Ball, which had been a Garden of Eden theme. I’d worn red and he’d worn a green suit. The apple and the snake. Yes, I knew it should have been obvious that the snake was inside the suit, but I was blind.