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“Know what?” Cherish stared at Haylee, trying to work out what on earth Haylee was thinking about. But the pounding migraine and lack of working medication in her system wasn’t helping anything at the moment. She just wished she could think clearly for one full day.
“That um…well…” Haylee smiled, discomfort filled her eyes and color blossomed on her cheeks.
Intrigued, Cherish leaned forward, not wanting to miss anything Haylee said. She’d never seen Haylee quite so demure before. Now this was enchanting.
“Does she know how you feel about her?”
A burst of heat rushed upward inside of Cherish’s body. Embarrassment hit her full force. What the hell had she done to let the world know? She’d hidden the damn crush for years. Her tone was biting when she answered, “Excuse me?”
“Oh.” Haylee's eyes widened, and her mouth formed a round circle. “I—I’m sorry. Of course, I won’t tell anyone. I thought it was sort of obvious with how you talk to her and well…” Haylee’s face crumbled as she searched for words that seemed to have been lost. “Oh God. I’m so sorry, Cherish.”
“Obvious?” The word caught in Cherish’s throat. She barely managed to get through all the syllables. Cold rushed through her now, turning her palms into a clammy, sweaty mess. It hadn’t been this bad since she’d walked in on Febe and her brother—no, she couldn’t think about that right now.
“Well, yeah. I mean, I can totally understand having a crush on her. She’s hot. If she didn’t scare the shit out of me, I could definitely see the attraction.” Haylee’s lower lip quivered nervously. Was Haylee just as scared of Cherish?
Cherish opened her mouth to reprimand Haylee but quickly snapped it closed again. No one had ever picked up on her feelings for Febe. Not once in all the years they’d really known each other. No one except her brother, Stuart.
Not when they were younger and Febe was dating Stuart, not when Febe asked her if she would like a job and Cherish packed up her entire life and left the country for the city. No one had ever known or noticed. Not Febe. No one.
“I’m really sorry.” Haylee looked as though she were on the verge of tears.
Emotions swirled and tangled inside of Cherish’s chest, barbed wire curling around her heart and squeezing until large red drops threatened to plummet down into her stomach. She took in another raspy breath and focused on what she could control in this very moment.
“Ms. Aarts will not be returning today and has tasked us both to cull the search for Precious’s replacement. While she will interview the short list of candidates and have the last say, we are responsible for the hire.”
Haylee froze, her eyes widening. Cherish was sure it was because of the stark turn in conversation from the personal to the professional, but Cherish had never been someone to talk about the personal. Never. Only with Stuart.
Haylee bit her lip so hard it turned white before she popped it out and dropped her gaze to the desktop. “Oh, okay. When do we need to have the short list ready?”
“By Monday.”
“What?” Haylee sneered, as though a foul odor had wafted through the office.
“If you would prefer to leave on time and do whatever your weekend plans are, then go. If you’ve come up with a reasonable list of résumés, it shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish, now should it?” Cherish glared at Haylee, putting every ounce of discomfort she had into it.
Haylee puttered around on her keyboard before stopping and staring at Cherish again, her eyes wide and all-seeing. How had Haylee been able to see the crush? Cherish hated it. No one should be able to call her out like that. It was so damn uncomfortable. And she’d been such an ass already in reaction to it.
“Cherish?”
She didn’t want to answer. She wanted to bury herself in work and forget this conversation ever happened. She snapped out, “What?”
“What about our save-the-gala meeting?” Haylee’s lower lip quivered.
“It’ll have to wait until next week.” Cherish wanted to look away. She wanted to stop staring at Haylee, to train herself not to care, but she couldn’t despite Haylee being more observant than she should be about her crush. Cherish couldn’t stop looking at her beautiful eyes, her unwavering search for more.
“I’ll stay.” Haylee pushed back her shoulders, smiled, and gave Cherish a decisive nod.
“Thank you.” Cherish looked Haylee over, an apology on the tip of her tongue that she could force over the threshold of her lips. She forced her gaze away from where Haylee still looked, feigning interest in the notes she had taken for Febe as though she didn’t remember each and every word she had written.
Why was she such an awful person sometimes?
The office had emptied out, and Cherish watched as Haylee shut down her computer and reset her desk, ready for Monday morning. She couldn’t hide the smile from her lips. Haylee had only started doing this in the last few weeks.
Cherish had to stop doing that. Haylee wasn’t Febe. She would never be Febe. Cherish had known Febe for years, and by now, they had a shorthand to be able to talk to each other, they understood each other. Cherish wasn’t willing to give that up, and she wasn’t willing to fall in love. That only led to heartbreak. Febe was a perfect example of that, and Cherish had to protect Febe and herself from something like that ever happening again.
It was late when they sat down in the conference room they had been using for their plans for the gala—except they’d be using it for an entirely different purpose tonight. Cherish had all her notes ready to go, wanting to get the plans underway, though she would have to contact Ms. Ilic again to go through the details with her. But Febe needed Precious’s replacement sorted and what Febe wanted would always take precedence.
“Cherish?” Haylee whispered.
