He hid his shame in another bite of donut. ‘We should have bought some tea to go with these. They’re so sweet.’
‘Can we stay on topic, please?’
He threw his sister a look like a man who knew he was beaten. ‘Okay, okay! We were together for a while and things were great. Better than great. But he didn’t want anyone in the office to know about us, and I respected that, you know? Workplace romances aren’t good for his reputation.’
‘He wanted to keep you a secret?’ she said, trying to keep the dryness from her voice.
‘Secret, and casual. Except we weren’t casual any time we were alone together. It felt serious enough then! We even stayed with his sister in Lucerne for a week. I babysat her kids, for Pete’s sake! Anyways, Andreas would leave the apartment half an hour before I left in the mornings; he’d take his car and I’d cycle to work, and he didn’t acknowledge me once I got there, acted like he barely knew me, when the night before he’d have been promising me the stars.’
‘I get it.’ She knew great big red flag behaviour when she heard about it these days, now that she was wiser.
She wasn’t, however, used to counselling her sophisticated, cool-hearted brother about these things. How had this role reversal happened?
‘So you couldn’t help catching feelings for the boss man?’ she asked.
‘You’ve seen Andreas, right?’
Ally had to admit he was beyond handsome. She couldn’t blame Murray for falling headlong into a messy situation with the guy.
‘He promised he’d make it official once my probationary period was up, like it might ruin my chances with the charity if it got out beforehand. But that time came and went, and still nothing. Things carried on the same, and I’d sneak into his building round the back, and the next day he’d ignore me in the coffee line but then grab my arse at the back of a packed elevator, straight-faced and bold as brass.’
Ally could see how that might be kind of exciting for a while, but the sugar glaze on Murray’s face told a different story.
‘He was running hot and cold on you,’ she said.
A solemn nod from her brother. ‘After a while that kind of thing gets to you. When I was last in Zurich, he had to attend a fancy evening event for work, a big do for all our corporate and philanthropic donors, and I happened to be invited too, and… there he was, with David on his arm.’
‘Who’s David?’
‘Some old billionaire tax-dodging hunk with, like, three yachts and fingers in multiple aerospace programmes. He’s one of the charity’s biggest private benefactors – big as in there’s a whole wing of our building named after him. Everyone loves him. He’s always hosting parties and he flies colleagues out to his homes all over the place for holidays, you know, as perks?’
‘Sounds like a good person to be friendly with! And he and Andreas were…’ Ally didn’t know how to put it. ‘Involved?’
‘Yep. And they were out together in broad daylight, in their tuxes, adjusting each other’s ties, and all our colleagues were smarming over them like they were the cutest thing they’d ever seen. Ugh! And I knew I shouldn’t say anything…’
‘Oh no!’ This couldn’t be good. ‘What did you do?’
‘I couldn’t stop myself. I marched right over there and asked Andreas what the hell he was playing at. He tried to laugh me off and be all charming and blond and smiley. He even tried introducing David to me, like I didn’t already know who he was.’
‘Ugh!’
‘Exactly! And I told him to cut it out. That’s when Andreas excused us both and walked me outside. Man, he was furious! He said I was making a scene, which I barely was, honestly! He reminded me we were only ever a casual thing, whereas he and David went way back and he thought I, of all people, should understand that.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘As his side piece, is what he meant.’
‘What a creep.’
‘Yeah.’ Murray’s enthusiasm for telling the story waned. ‘When I went back to his apartment my key card had been de-activated and my bags were waiting for me by the dumpster.’
Ally held a hand to his arm as Murray dropped his half eaten donut into the box and shut the lid, sick of himself.
‘What did you do after that?’
He shrugged. ‘I went back to the bro pad for a while, watched them high-fiving each other over bench presses and mixing their kale and protein powder smoothies, but I couldn’t show my face at work. I had to get away. So now I’m here.’
‘So, you didn’t quit?’
