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I shrug. “Wanted to keep everyone on their toes?”
“Well, mission accomplished. I’m guessing I just failed spectacularly calling my boss a bitch in front of the entire staff…”
I grin at her. “Technically speaking, you’re an equity partner, not to mention an acting co-managing partner for another…what, eleven days?”
“I mean, twelve, but who’s counting.”
I laugh. “So, I’m not really your boss right now.”
“Phew.” She mimes wiping her brow.
Upstairs on the executive floor that rings the first level of our offices, Alistair is already waiting for me in my office, shaking his head.
“You know, the Taylor I remember wasn’t a fan of dramatic entrances.”
“Dude, I literally just walked in.”
“Yeah…a day early,” he smirks.
“That’s what I said too!” Fumi laughs behind me.
I roll my eyes. “You know, I think the thing it might be nice if you were both focusing on is that I’m home?”
Fumi sighs. “The thing is, I really thought you were coming back tomorrow, so I have a cleaning team scheduled to hit your place tonight to make it look extra tidied up. I think they only quoted two hours, though. So if you want, maybe we can go out and grab dinner while they do their thing?”
I bite my lip, my cheeks flushing. I’ve been debating how to broach this subject the whole way back to New York, and I still can’t think of what’s best. So, seems like I’m going to go with the band-aid approach.
As in, rip it right off.
“Dinner sounds great,” I smile nervously. “But, I…” I clear my throat. “I won’t be staying at my apartment.”
Fumi frowns.
“Where will you be staying?” Alistair asks.
I laugh quietly. “Wanna take an early lunch?”
“I mean, shit, girl…”
It turns out that none of us could, in fact, take that early lunch. So I kept going band-aid style and just let it rip that I was maybe-sort-of-kind-of-actually-for-real in a relationship with Drazen.
A relationship. I didn’t mention the marriage years ago, because that opens a whole can of worms I’m still not completely sure about: my past. The fact that I’m Annika Brancovich. The fact that I might not be. Meeting Fumi’s brother in a freaking rowboat in the middle of the night like a Mission Impossible movie plot.
Basically, a litany of things I still need to figure out myself before springing on my friends before ten o’clock in the morning, at the office, without the benefit of cocktails.
Fumi freaked when I told them about Drazen. Alistair laughed and crowed that Gabriel now owed him five grand for a bet they’d made.
Thanks, pricks.
But now, hours later after work, Fumi and I are getting drinks, and I’m giving her a few more details about the last few months.
Well, some of the details.
Okay, broad strokes, if I’m being honest.
“It’s…complicated, to say the least,” I giggle, rolling my eyes.
“No shit.” Fumi smirks at me over the rim of her margarita. “But…I get it.”
