I help myself to some pants with a drawstring, then glance over at him. “Can you get dressed already? Move it along.”
“Hangry Kate’s a little scary.” He finally rolls out of bed.
“Guess I’m going to have to wear heels with this ensemble.” I slip them on and look in the mirror. “This is quite a getup.”
I force him to carry my dress and purse across the street so I’m not the only one who looks ridiculous. Of course it just makes him seem chivalrous.
Once we’ve made ourselves eggs, toast, and coffee and are lounging comfortably on my couch, we compare notes on the week we spent apart. I fill him in on the misplaced Kate file and we laugh about the shocked expressions on our friends’ faces after our exhibitionist dance floor display.
“Speaking of which, now that it’s out there we should probably talk about how we’ll address this at work,” I say, already steeling myself for being the subject of the office gossip mill for the foreseeable future. “I guess the first thing to do is disclose the relationship to our bosses.”
“Yeah, I already did that,” he says around a bite of toast.
“You didwhat?”
He finishes chewing and swallows. “I disclosed the relationship to Bill.”
I sit up. “Bill your boss? As in the one I met last night?”
“The very same.”
“But you acted like you didn’t want him to know about us!”
He looks at me strangely. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, youdid. You gave me a very pointed look when you introduced us.”
“That look was foryoursake. I was trying to clue you in that he was my boss and if you didn’t want him to know anything, not to let on. That was before you mauled me on the dance floor, of course.” He smirks.
I’m not following. “So wait, what does ‘disclose the relationship’ mean? Does he know about us or not?”
“Ah, sorry. Yes, I told him, but I didn’t mention your name.”
“When did you do this? Last night?”
“No, it was... a while back.” He’s being evasive.
I narrow my eyes at him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He hesitates. “I sat down with him the morning after you made me dinner.”
I scroll through my mental timeline. “The morning after... but that was before—”
“Before anything happened between us, I know. It was preemptive.” His mouth twitches. “I was... optimistic.”
“Presumptuous.”
“I prefer glass half-full. I wanted to get my ducks in a row, make sure I wouldn’t be jeopardizing our jobs. The good news is, since we don’t work together directly, we’re mostly fine. We’re supposed to avoid one-on-one collaboration and we can’t discuss any confidential information.”
“Why wouldn’t youtellme this?”
“I wasn’t about to share that I told mybossabout us after you flipped out and demanded we keep it a secret from everyone at work.”
I snap my fingers. “That reminds me. Do you know anything about a secret meeting between Warner and Hammond? For a second I was worried it might be about us.”
“I can see you’re going to be good at the ‘not sharing confidential information’ part,” he notes dryly, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Youdoknow what it’s about! Of course you do. If there’s a secret out there, you’re keeping it.”
