Chapter 18

Kelcey

Veronica watched me from where she lay in bed as I adjusted my outfit, absolutely glowing in the mirror, picking out my earrings carefully, and I made eye contact with her in the mirror.

“What do you think?” I said. “Ready for modern capitalism?”

“You look sharp,” she said, a lazy smile on her face, tossing back a loose strand of hair. “Very professional… I like the soft contouring look.”

“Office chic?”

“Office chic,” she laughed. “Ah. I don’t know what I’ll do with my days now that you’re going to be at the office working a regular nine-to-five again. Do I have to get a life now?”

I snorted, tossing Georg the stuffed reindeer at her. “You rest, for god’s sake, woman. You’ve been working overtime the past few days getting this project done just to get me in everyone’s good favor again. Go take a nap or something. You love sleep.”

“I do,” she laughed, propping herself up on her elbow and taking Georg and hugging him close to her chest, looking so unbearably cute like that, lying rumpled in my bed in the morning holding a goofy little reindeer. I was tempted to quit my job right after getting it back just so I could stay here and cuddle her. “Well,” she said, “maybe I’ll see about getting to my own work and find out if there’s a way to make Danielson less mad at me for the whole stunt. Or maybe I’ll pick up something new. Could do with a career change.”

“My little nomad,” I laughed, and I walked across the room to give her a quick kiss before I straightened again, adjusting my blazer. “Veronica?”

She flushed, just a little, a tiny peek of color at the edges of her cheeks, in that way she did whenever I said her name, which was literally the cutest thing ever. “Yeah?”

“Thank you. For your help. It means a lot. Well—” I took a long breath, puffing my chest out. “I’m off to the office. Want me to pick up anything while I’m out?”

She smiled into the corners of her eyes. “Nah… I’ll take care of it. I’ll make sure you have a cake waiting for you here when you get back to celebrate. Preferences on what kind?”

I put my hands on my hips. “Veronica! You don’t need to buy me a cake.”

“Preferences on what kind?”

I hunched my shoulders. “Chocolate.”

“Chocolate it is. Good luck at work today, beautiful. You’ll crush it.”

If Veronica Preston thought I could, then I would. I wasn’t about to go letting down Veronica Preston, was I? Absolutely not.

The drive to the office was slow as it always had been, but I kind of liked it—a chance to put on some music and sing along, getting my mind out of home mode and into work mode. Pulling into the parking garage by the warm light of early morning, it was more nostalgic than it should have been for something only a week and a half ago.

Gloria at reception beamed at me when I got into the department. “Oh, Kelcey. Long time no see.”

“I know, right? I missed seeing you work your way through your big fuzzy sweaters for the week. How’s the cat?”

“Oh, Pearl is doing wonderfully, thank you. I’ll tell her Kelcey said hi. Anna and Lucy are in their office, they asked me to send you their way once you got in.”

“I mean, of course they’re in their office. They’ve probably been there since six in the morning.” I headed out across the office, pausing to greet everyone on the way, gush about how things had been, and it took me a minute to get all the way to where I knocked on the door of the executive office, and Lucy’s voice called out from inside.

“Kelce, come in.”

I pushed open the door, poking my head in. “How’d you know it was me?” I said, and Lucy looked back from where she was pinning up an ornament on a little Christmas tree on Anna’s desk that was new since the last time I’d been in. Knowing them, Lucy had probably snuck it onto her desk while Anna wasn’t looking, and Anna complained but secretly loved it.

Anna was the one who answered the question, not looking up from her computer. “Nobody knocks as cheerfully as you do,” she said lightly.

“Jeez. I didn’t realize the office instituted, like, happiness laws while I was out. That joy and merriment were contraband substances now.”

Anna hung her head, a smile slipping onto her features, while Lucy finished putting up the ornament and turned back to me. “If they were, you’d be the one breaking the law to bring joy to the world, Kelce. The videos are good work. We’re impressed, to put it lightly.”

“Ah, well, um.” I shrugged, looking away. “I had good help at ECR.”

Anna gave me a hmm and a dry smile. “Probably my first time hearing someone describe Veronica as a good help. ”

“Hey.” I put my hands on my hips. “Veronica is amazing. Don’t pigeonhole her.”

She laughed. “Trust me, I’ve noticed how she’s turned a new leaf for you. I’ve been talking to her and not even recognizing her with the way she talks about you. It’s cute. And I’m happy for you… happy to have you back, too. At least, hoping it all goes well.”

I nodded, chewing my cheek. “Berg is kinda scary…”

“I’m sure it’ll go fine. Just don’t say anything about how it was your girlfriend at ECR helping you out…”

“Oh, um—she’s not really—I mean, we haven’t—er—” I put my hands up, fumbling awkwardly. “It’s still… um…”

Lucy smiled widely at me, folding her arms. “Whatever you two are calling it right now… don’t tell Berg about it. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. The rest of the office doesn’t know either, so… just talk about how you’re very sorry for the incident and that you did the best you could with the project remotely to show how much you’ve grown and learned from this and how much you’re committed to it. And Veronica’s name doesn’t leave your mouth.”

“Or my mind.” I clasped my hands at my waist. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

But I managed to keep it to myself, once I went with Anna and Lucy to take the elevator up to the floor I’d only been to on my first day here, and into a classical, warm-toned office with an ornate mahogany desk and maps on the walls, Michael Berg’s classical design sense making it look like some kind of Victorian parlor. I sat down across from where Berg sat at his desk giving me a look that was more impatient than anything else—a good sign, I figured, that he just wanted to wrap this up as quickly and cleanly as possible.

“Huntington, make yourself comfortable,” he said. “I hear you’ve gone and made a point.”

I nodded. “I know my mistake at the holiday party caused problems for everyone involved, so I’ve committed to demonstrating my work ethic with this project.”

He looked me over. “Preston and Masters stood up for you, said it wasn’t your fault. What do you have to say?”

“That… I appreciate their vouching for me, but at this point it isn’t about fault, it’s about responsibility. No matter whose fault it is, it’s my responsibility to show my commitment to the work.”

It worked—he nodded slowly, thinking it over, before he went back to his tablet, tapping something down. “We’ll have to consider carefully your attendance at… high-stakes events.”

“Of course,” I said, not giving him anything more than that. Veronica had helped me practice this thing—told me not to rise to his prodding and just let him get bored. And he got bored, setting his tablet down.

“Well, good work on your project,” he said. “I trust Preston and Masters. Conditional on future review, we’re happy to return you to your regular workload.”

“Thank you, Boss. Sir. Boss Sir.” It was getting away from me a little. I smiled politely and waited out the arched-eyebrow look he gave me, and after a second, he waved me off.

“You’re… very welcome. Anything else while we’re here?”

“No, sir.”

We’d barely gotten back to the elevator before Lucy snorted, leaning back against the wall as the doors shut. “Guy was disappointed,” she said, and I looked horrified at her.

“What—really? Do you think he’s going to kick me out again?”

“Nah, I don’t think he’s going to bother,” she said. “Only disappointed because he was obviously just bringing you in because he wanted to see you kneel and beg and feel powerful.”

“Oh.” I scrunched up my face. “Should I have knelt and begged?”

Anna answered without looking up from her phone. “Absolutely not. The world needs that guy taken down a peg.”

Lucy smiled flawlessly at her. “Think we should bring in your mother?”

“I’m not keen on getting fired when he takes it out on me,” Anna laughed, but she turned back to me. “You did good work, Kelcey.”

“Tell me about it.” I flicked my hair back. “Now, what are we up to next? What’s my first order of business?”

“Client reports. They’ve been stacking up and we could use your help parsing them.”

I slumped. “Ugh, I hate client reports. Fine…”

But I did them—grabbed a cup of coffee from the breakroom and settled back in at my desk, adjusted my jacket, adjusted my hair, touched up my hairclip, checked myself in my phone camera and made sure my makeup still looked nice, used a breath mint spray, checked my manicure to make sure the polish was still staying nicely, and I took a sip of my coffee, spitting it back into the cup. Coffee after a breath mint spray was always gross. I never learned. But I did focus, and I spent the day making steady progress, working through the forms and parsing the information, compiling it into a big report, filling details into spreadsheets, and I got to send flirty little texts to Veronica on my lunch break. I was slow to get back to my desk after, kind of wishing I could just sit there texting her all day, but I got back to work, bumping into Miranda on the way back and making the mistake of saying hi.

“Oh, Kelcey…” She gave me a helpless look that, if I didn’t know her well, I would think was a sign something was desperately wrong and the company wouldn’t last past the weekend. As it was, she’d probably just had to stop for gas on her way into work this morning. “Did they call you back in for something today?”

I stood up taller. “Uh, yeah, actually. To do my job. I’m back in the office normally now.”

Miranda pulled a face. “Why?”

“What?” I scowled. “Oh my god, I’m not that bad.”

“I thought they said you were gone until the new year.”

“Yeah, well.” I gestured back to my desk. “I got a whole project done! I did great! So they brought me back in!”

She pursed her lips. “Why did you want to come back earlier?”

Oh, she wasn’t complaining about me, she was complaining about the job. It was hard to tell sometimes. “Well, duh. It’s because of all my friends here.”

She sighed heavily, turning back in the direction of her desk. “Whatever you say. Just rethink going to Christmas parties. Or buying the supplies for them.”

Oh, okay, she was complaining about me too. That checked out.

I got back to my desk, pounded out the rest of the work for today, and I slipped into the executive office at the end of the workday with my laptop close to my chest, knocking and pushing into where Anna was sitting behind Lucy’s desk, close enough to Lucy that I was pretty sure she’d been closer before I knocked.

“Hi, you two,” I said. “I can totally, like, uh, give you some more space.”

Anna cleared her throat. “We’re just working a little late tonight, Kelcey. Anything we can do for you?”

That little smile on Lucy’s face and the slightly embarrassed expression on Anna’s told me plenty about what kind of work they were doing. I had no idea how I had such a knack for catching them being cute together, but I wasn’t complaining. “Just wanted to let you know I finished with the reports. Should I drop the completed file in your inbox, or is there something more I should do with it before I, uh, give you your privacy?”

Anna closed her eyes with a sigh. Lucy smiled wider. “CC it to Janet in HR and to Daniel, and make sure to make the subject header client reports with the date and not hi Boss Wives. ”

I puffed out my cheek. “I stand by that subject header. But will do! See you tomorrow, Boss Wives.”

I spun on my heel, and they said, in unison, “Kelcey—your laptop—”

Ugh, that thing again! When did I even put it down? I swear it was like a greased pig. I spun on my heel again, picked it up, and spun back around, pirouetting like I was back in ballet, and I headed on out, chatting my way across the office on my way out and getting back to my car, where I was bouncing with excitement the whole time I drove back to my apartment, and I felt like I’d burst by the time I got back to where I could smell food cooking even before I got through the door. Veronica spoiled me.

“Veronica?” I called inside as I pushed in through the door into the sweet smell of caramelized onions. “Oh my god, were you cooking for me?”

“Maybe trying to prove something to Miss Charlotte,” I heard her call from the kitchen, and she stepped through the doorway into the hall, dressed in a cute little pussybow blouse and high-waisted trousers, hair up and makeup done, and she caught me at the door with a quick kiss on the cheek. “How was—”

A kiss on the cheek was too chaste. I turned and caught her on the lips, backing her up against the wall and slipping my hands up to the sides of her head, pouring all the day’s excited energy into a passionate kiss, and I was rewarded with her looking a little dazed when I pulled away. “Work was good, thank you,” I said. She blinked.

“Were we talking about work?”

“I think so… I don’t really remember a lot from before five seconds ago.”

She laughed. “Maybe we can talk about it over food. I tapped into my fancy side and made a stewed vegetable tart. But if you just want to kiss me like that again, then we can get to the food in a minute.”

Well, I did like food. But I still stopped for one more kiss against the wall, tangling myself in Veronica and savoring every touch, before my stomach made a low groaning noise that prompted me to focus on other things, pulling away from the kiss with both of us laughing.

She did spoil me, with a whole candlelit dinner setup, the table runner dug up out of my closet and laid down with my scented candles burning, the lights kept low and romantic in the glow of the candles and the light strings, and we ate an amazing dinner while she listened intently about being back at work, trivial office stories and gossip she ate up like it was the most fascinating thing.

“Danielson is still mad at me,” she laughed once I’d pivoted to her day. “And now he’s giving me extra work. But I don’t really care. I’ve been shopping around for a new employer…”

“What, already? I was gone for eight hours. Did you take any time to just rest? Working, job-searching, making me dinner…”

She beamed. “I just said Danielson gave me extra work, not that I’m doing extra work.”

“Ohhhh.” I tapped my temple thoughtfully. “I got you. So have you found anything promising?”

She gave me an excited, almost shy, little smile. “Actually, yeah. It’s still kind of up in the air, but I got in touch with an old contact, and I might have a way back into my old position with fashion branding.”

“Really?” I nearly fell out of my seat, leaning in towards her. “Oh my god, Vee, that’s so exciting. You loved doing that.”

“Yeah, until I didn’t. But it’d be fun to get back into it,” she laughed. “My old contact is just doing some, uh, sniffing around. She likes me plenty, but her business partner had issues with how suddenly I took off before, so he’s digging around trying to see if there’s anything he can ding me for. But obviously, my behavior is above reproach. I’m an angelic sweetheart.”

“You are an angelic sweetheart. I mean, you even stole a nutcracker for me. Maybe I should tell them that? I can be your reference and talk about your daring nutcracker heist.”

“I think they might not like that, but now I definitely want you to tell me how exactly the nutcracker heist went in your mind, because it sounds a lot more exciting than how it went in real life.”

We went into the night talking about happy little nothings, and I found myself dreaming, wondering if things could always be this blissful. At this point it felt foreign, the thought that Veronica could ever turn away and hurt me like she did before—like I wasn’t sure why I was still being cautious, still keeping it secret and playing it safe—but I’d learned plenty about not throwing my caution to the wind and charging in. It got me hurt on Veronica, and it got Veronica hurt on, well, uh, a Christmas tree topper.

But for now, all of that was so far away, just the two of us as she cuddled on the couch with me for trashy TV together, more readings, and then slow kisses that turned into deep kisses, Veronica letting me lead this time as I pushed her onto her back on the couch beneath me, and I savored every noise she made as we made love into the night, curling up tangled in her arms once we’d finished and cleaned ourselves up and gotten ready for bed, and when Veronica fell asleep first with her lips parted and eyes peacefully fluttered shut, I lay there in the small hours of the night watching her move with the small rhythm of each breath, and as sleep crept in on the edges of my consciousness, I thought that maybe it was nice to be in love. Maybe it was the clever, careful decision, after all—to fall in love and open my heart to someone. A strategic risk seeking out the most beautiful, brilliant thing in life.

And she had informed me I was a clever strategist. And, what, like Veronica Preston was going to be wrong? Get real.

It was a happy blur of days just like that one—Veronica and I spent every night together, whether at her place or mine, as I settled back into the flow of the office, and it didn’t even rattle me this time that everyone’s eyes were warily on me. I had something to prove, and I couldn’t prove it if people weren’t watching for it.

It was after a blissful few days—well, blissful was a generous word with how much the department was slammed this close to Christmas, but I for one loved the magical spirit of collaboration and the joys of Christmastime—when I got called into the executive office, and Boss Lucy sat back in her chair, cradling a coffee and a muffin she was eating at her desk.

“Hey, Boss,” I said brightly, stepping inside and easing the door shut behind me, looking down at her coffee and muffin. “What a winning combination. Where’s your girlfriend?”

She smiled wider, holding the coffee in both hands. “You did tell me it’s good to cry into, and the pre-Christmas runup is always a good time to cry. Anna’s in a meeting with some important talking heads.”

“Oh my god, that sounds creepy.”

“Not literal talking heads, just rich old white men in suits.”

I put my hands on my hips. “That’s creepier.”

“It really is. Including one Matthew Gould, around whom Anna is trying to keep her cool even knowing he’s sleeping with her mother.”

I shrugged, dropping into the seat across from her. “Hey, if they have enough love for all four of them.”

“Nothing but love in your world. She’ll be fine once she’s out of there and has had a chance to vent her frustrations to me and I’ve had a chance to give her the white-chocolate snickerdoodles I bought to surprise her knowing she had a meeting with Matthew Gould.”

I squished my hands into my cheeks. “Oh my god, that’s so cute. You two are my favorite couple ever.”

She smiled slyly. “Feel like that should be yourself and, uh, Nic.”

I hunched my shoulders, all the momentum suddenly against me, as I felt my face prickle. “Oh! That. Her. Ah… I mean… well…”

“Still haven’t talked about the details with her, huh?” she said, setting her coffee down gently, rolling her chair into her desk to face me directly. I looked away.

“Um… is this the most relevant topic right now?”

“Actually, yes, more or less.”

“Oh. Jeez. Um.” I fussed with my hair, adjusting my hairclip. “I mean, I know I’m in love with her… and she acts so much like she’s in love with me, too, that I want to believe it. But it’s hard to trust when you’ve been burned so many times.”

She nodded, slowly, before she said, “You don’t need to rush. If it is as real as it seems, it will stay that way for a while yet. I mean, Veronica’s fully suckered in… she’s not rushing anywhere.”

I shrugged. “I guess I’m just… scared.”

“Of getting hurt again. That’s natural.”

“Of that, but also…” I folded my hands in my lap. “I dunno. Of letting myself get fooled again. Just because I… well. I don’t want to be an idiot.”

She studied me for a while. I fixed my gaze on the cute little Christmas tree with its little white lights, which were the prettiest kinds.

“I know I kind of am a lot of the time, but I just… wish I weren’t. And I’ve been trying to make a point, prove that I’m not some hapless girl who’s easily taken advantage of, so… it’s silly, but I’m just as worried about looking stupid as I am about getting my heart broken.”

She watched me a while longer before she said, quietly, “That’s not stupid, Kelcey. I think a lot of people feel that way all the time. On the contrary… it’s a sign of self-awareness that you notice it and know how it’s affecting your decisions.”

I chewed my cheek, kicking lightly at the floor. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. For what it’s worth—if you choose to love somebody and get the rug pulled out from under you, it reflects on them, not on you. But I get why it feels like that.”

“Thanks…” I took a long breath, forcing myself to perk back up, pushing the heavy haze of thoughts away. “So—um—how is that relevant to why you’ve called me in here? Are we doing a bring-your-girlfriend-to-work-day event? Because that’s every day for you.”

“It really is,” she said with the dreamiest smile, looking at the picture of herself and Anna she had on the desk, which was so adorable I wanted to scream, especially given how often Anna was in here with her and she still needed a picture of Anna to get her through those slim times where she wasn’t in. “I’m lucky like that. Whereas for you, bring-your-girlfriend-to-work day is a one-time event.”

I paused. “Wait, that is what’s happening?”

“The event coming up, the one Comms has been on—well, mostly while you were out of office. It’s to personally thank and value our suppliers, partners, contractors, investors, and everyone else who makes our work possible. Some of the outside teams we’ve been working with are sending their reps, and we’re spoiling them a bit. Standard stuff. HR loves the videos enough they want to invite ERC’s reps and make sure we keep them in our pocket… Liam Danielson said yes. And since ERC insisted you be their contact, well—we can’t exactly not have you at the event, even though Berg about had a prolapse when I mentioned it to him.”

“Ah.” I scratched my head.

“Assuming you’re not planning on throwing anybody into a Christmas tree,” she said cheerfully, “it’s a good opportunity for you. You get to attend and put on a good performance and reassure everybody that the last event was just one little fluke. So long as… you’re okay with attending an event with Veronica Preston, since she’s ERC’s outreach coordinator and it’s going to be Liam Danielson and her.”

“Of course,” I said, perking up. “I’ll be, uh… maintaining… a reasonable distance from her and barely acknowledging her, actually.”

She gave me a wry look. “That’s exactly it. You probably don’t want it getting around that you and Veronica have anything going on. Luckily we have a nice solid contract with ERC in general now and it’s not going to jeopardize that, but… well, I don’t think you want to deal with the personal fallout if people find out the one who was going to bat for your case is your girlfriend. Or whatever you’re calling her,” she said, putting a hand up. “Not after you worked so hard to get back into the office.”

I folded my hands in my lap, nodding. “Right… will do. Thanks, Boss Lucy. I, uh, I appreciate you and Anna sticking up for me.” I paused. “And how cute you two are. I hope she absolutely loves her cookies.”

She smiled. “She will.”

I gestured to her desk. “And—I hope you have a good cathartic time crying into your muffin!”

She closed her eyes, still smiling. “I will. Thanks, Kelce.”

I puffed out my chest a little on my way out of the office. One more event before Christmas. One last major event before Christmas, with something to prove to Berg, and a girl I had a maybe-relationship with that I was keeping secret—did that remind me of something I couldn’t put my finger on?

Probably not. It was going to be fine.