“You’re going to break something.”
I jumped, caught by surprise. “Oh, hi Bria. I’m getting all this clean and organized. It felt so untidy and scattered.”
“Uh-huh, that’s what you’re gonna call it?” She leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed. “I recognize a rage cleaning when I see one. Is there something we need to discuss?”
I stopped mid-move with a handful of notebooks and stared at her. What would we need to discuss? It took me a minute longer than it should have.
“Oh, no we are good. Work is good. This”— I shrugged and twisted indicating my office cleaning frenzy— “has nothing to do with work.” I dropped the notebooks onto an empty shelf.
“Man trouble then?” she asked.
I turned to her with a sigh. “That obvious?”
She stepped into my office and closed the door behind her before having a seat. “I told you, I know a rage cleaning when I see one.”
Lowering myself into my chair, I felt defeated. Chase had won and I was the one left holding my heart in my hands.
“Can I ask you some advice on a personal issue?” I asked.
“Does this potentially involve anyone who might work here?”
I shook my head, “No one in the department.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.” She raised her eyebrows at me. “Anyone…”
This time I nodded.
“I have a better idea,” she said as she stood. “Instead of having a nice little chat in your office, let’s ditch this place and get a drink.” She looked at her watch. “It’s half past, so we’re only ducking out a little early.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” I cast my gaze around my office.
Bria laughed. “Now that you’ve started you want to finish cleaning this, don’t you?”
I nodded.
“Come find me when you’re ready to leave,” she said.
“I should be done in ten minutes, fifteen tops,” I said as she left.
Twenty minutes later we were walking out of the building discussing potential places to get a drink and find a quiet corner to talk.
“I’m not usually the Happy Hour type. I don’t have a clue,” I confessed.
Bria gave me a quick up and down look. “You’re what, ten years younger than me, and you don’t hit Happy Hour?”
I shook my head. “I don’t live the standard single and mingle lifestyle. That’s part of my problem.”
“There is a good place another block up. They have cheap drinks and good chicken wings.” Bria pointed in the direction we were headed.
I followed her into a building and up to the second floor. I never would have thought to have looked there for a neighborhood bar with food.
“The burgers here are also really good if you’d rather not snack.” Bria shrugged out of her coat as she slid into a booth.
“Snack is good,” I responded. “Can I get a white wine and a sparkling water?” I ordered.
“I’ll have a light beer,” she ordered. “And we’ll split a large order of wings.”
Once the waitress left our table Bria turned all her attention to me. “Is this about Chase Campbell?”
“Is it that obvious?” I asked with a roll of my eyes.
“Are you serious? That man has been in your office constantly since this project began. I’d have to be blind not to notice something. And I am not blind.”
I couldn’t tell if I was blushing from the embarrassment of being caught in the middle of something with Chase, or the embarrassment of my co-workers knowing when I was trying to be discreet.
“Pretend for a minute you don’t know who I’m talking about,” I said.
“Sure. I’ll pretend. So, you wanted to ask about this guy you’ve been seeing?”
I scrunched up my face, thinking. “It’s more about how we’re both handling some information. I should probably start with the fact that I have a kid at home.”
Bria’s eyes went wide at the news. I hadn’t been very open regarding my home life, and I hadn’t shared that I was a young, single mother with anyone at work.
“The problem is, I didn’t start with that information with this guy when I agreed to go out with him. We almost had a second date, and that’s when I told him.”
“And he overreacted?” she added.
I nodded. “I told him as soon as I saw a reason to. I mean, one dinner date if I never wanted to see him again, no harm no foul in not mentioning my daughter. Right?”
She stared at me. Her steady gaze was only interrupted by the waitress delivering our drinks.
Bria took a long drink of her beer. I sipped my wine.
“You have your reasons for keeping your family personal. But I don’t see anything wrong with a second date as a good time to tell someone about your kid.” She leaned forward, over the table. “You went on two dates with Chase Campbell?”
“What happened to pretending you don’t know who I’m talking about?”
She sat back with a laugh. “Be it Chase, or some rando named Tad, a second date seems like plenty of warning. And frankly, if a guy freaks over your kid, then he’s not worth your time. Besides, you really shouldn’t be dating—”
“There is no policy against dating within the ranks at CP Manhattan. I checked,” I said defensively.
“It’s not,” Bria said with a sigh. “It’s not dating at the office, so much as who we are pretending, we aren’t talking about. Chase seems to be a good guy, but…”
She trailed off and I waited for her to continue.
“But what? Is he a notorious womanizer?” I couldn’t wait any longer.
She shook her head. “Not Chase. You probably didn’t hear about everything that happened with the other owner, John Peters.”
I suppressed a grin and kept my ass firmly planted in my seat. Bria had rumors about my brother John. John, who always acted like he was Mr. Perfect. The anticipation was going to kill me.
“No, what happened?” I hoped I didn’t sound too enthusiastic.
“Peters was the corporate womanizer. That is until he went head-to-head with a gold digger from acquisitions.”
“How do you know she was a gold digger?” I asked. Her story had me on the edge of my seat.
“After they were engaged, they had a huge fight in the fifteenth-floor atrium about the size of her ring. Huge fight, so many of us were there and heard it.”
“You heard this, yourself?”
“Gem, when I say it was a huge blowout. They were both yelling. She threatened to call HR and start a sexual harassment suit if he didn’t cough up another three carats. He called her a gold digger.”
“Seriously? And they’re still engaged?”
“You’ve probably seen her.”
Bria had no idea. And I had seen the ring on her finger. I figured it was ostentatious because John was showing off.
“She sweeps into the office like she owns the place,” Bria continued.
“So, what happened?” I asked.
“She got at least three more carats, and a week later she was ‘retiring from her career.’ I don’t remember if her quitting work was part of the argument, but it was definitely part of the making up.”
I sat back in my chair. “I hope he gets a good prenup.”
Jennifer wouldn’t be able to touch any of my assets, or the properties I shared with John. But our father only bequeathed his CP Manhattan shares to John. All that money and the future of the company were at risk.
I smirked. It would serve John right. Jennifer had seemed reasonably nice when I met her at Christmas. She had seemed rather cowed by John and deferred to him. It was good to hear she had some backbone when it came to putting up with him. I hadn’t pegged her as a gold digger. My brother was such a snob, he was the type to have dating requirements. It wouldn’t surprise me if he needed to see family tax records going back three generations to establish a pedigree. He was a total elitist.
“I can’t imagine,” Bria said with a shake of her head.
“Right?” I shrugged. I could imagine. I had a rough prenup already drafted as part of the estate that was left to me. My father was more interested in taking care of the money and properties he left me than he was in making sure I was protected. But Bria didn’t need to know that.
Before I realized it, I had a pile of chicken bones on my plate and both my wine, and the sparkling water were gone.
“This was fun,” I said.
“It was. I’m glad we did this. And look, Gem, I won’t tell anyone in the department about who you are or aren’t dating.”
“Thanks, I didn’t think you would. Besides, from what you already said, I’m the last one to realize that everyone could already tell something was going on.”
“If he likes you, he’ll come around. And if he doesn’t—”
“I’m a professional, it won’t affect my work,” I said.
“No, I was going to say his loss.”
I thought about Bria’s words all the way home. “His loss.” She was right. She had to be. Chase had to be the one missing out on his daughter. If I faced the fact that I was the one missing out on Chase, I might not be able to go on.
“How was work? You’re home late,” Mom said when I got home.
“I went out for drinks with one of my co-workers.”
“Making friends? Oh, Gemma, that’s great.”
“Yeah, it is. She said something that got me thinking. That guy I was seeing, it’s his loss if he doesn’t want to meet Amelia. Not mine. On the same concept, by hiding Amelia, you lost out on knowing you had a granddaughter.”
“Gemma, we’ve gone over this. I understand. I really do. I know your brother more than he would like.”
Mom folded me into a hug.
“I am so sorry I did that. I was so scared. I don’t want to be scared about hiding her anymore.”
