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Andrea looks up at me with utter mischief. “You’re just in time for the good part.”
“You’re interrupting it, actually,” Hannah informs me.
“Nothing wrong with a little delayed gratification,” Andrea remarks, then resumes a thread I unfortunately missed the beginning of. “So this guy is making eyes at me, right? I’ve had just enough tequila to make me brave.”
“Or stupid,” Hannah remarks, huffing a laugh.
“Or stupid,” Andrea agrees, laughing too. “I don’t know what comes over me. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t pick the guy out of a lineup today if I had to. I have no idea what he looked like. But it was the hottest sex I ever had. It was just two people sharing space together, giving in to their basest desires.”
“Please don’t tell us you fucked him right there and then on the dance floor,” Hannah says with a roll of her eyes.
“Give me a little bit of credit,” Andrea protests. “We did it in a bathroom stall.”
More than one of us has to clamp a hand over their mouths to stifle their laughter.
“Your hottest hookup ever cannot be in the restroom of a club, Andrea,” Mark protests. “It absolutely cannot. That’s disgusting!”
“I can promise you that neither of us was thinking about that restroom,” Andrea says. “We were only driven by one thing: pure lust. Everything else was just background noise.”
“And smells,” I offer, and even Andrea has to laugh at that one.
“Okay, Sophie,” she says, turning to me. “Top that. Hottest hookup. Go.”
I’m scandalized but tempted to contribute to the banter—although I’m also a bit nervous. Because, hands down, the hottest hookup I’ve ever had needs to remain a secret for obvious reasons. It was with our boss.
I hear Carol’s office door close and see the top of Declan’s head just over the edge of the cubicles, starting back down the hall to his office.
I’m suddenly hit with a wicked idea. A terrible idea, probably. But an irresistible one too.
It all falls within the theme of the day: taking back my power. Making my own decisions. Making sure Declan knows he doesn’t hold any power over me in a personal sense anymore.
So I raise my voice a little and begin.
“Let’s see. Hottest hookup ever…”
His footfalls stop, and I smile. I’ve hooked him. I wonder what he thinks he’s about to eavesdrop on. If he assumes I’m going to spill the beans about our night together.
“It was this guy,” I continue. “Really cute. Had known him for forever. Family friend, grew up together, that kind of thing. We went to separate colleges, but the first winter break our freshman year, we went back home and all these feelings sort of bubbled up.”
This story? It’s roughly modeled off the plot of a Lifetime movie I saw a few months ago. I might not be a very good liar, but this isn’t really a lie. I’m just telling a story. Any story. One that doesn’t necessarily belong to me.
I can’t see Declan, but I know he’s there. I can picture that tiny muscle in his cheek working, and I smile.
“Have you ever had sex with your best friend?” I continue. “Because that’s what it was like. We’d known each other for so long that we kind of did already know everything about each other. And those explorations brought us closer—and deeper—than ever before.”
“I love it,” Andrea croons. “It’s sweet and spicy. The perfect mixture.”
“Did you marry the guy?” Hannah asks, swept up in the romance. I’m glad she doesn’t look like she watches the Lifetime channel very often. “Please tell me you’re at least still dating him. You can’t have that kind of origin story and actually break up.”
“I don’t pay you all to sit around and gossip.”
All of us—myself included—jump out of our collective skins at Declan’s sudden appearance. A laugh almost bubbles up in my throat as I realize that he’s snuck up on us.
Declan. Sneaking. In his own office.
“If you value your jobs, you’ll do them,” he says coldly, his eyes frozen and almost murderous.
We all jump away from one another, returning to our desks, pouring over mundane things just until he turns on his heel and strides off.
