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Val: You’re welcome. I had hoped for a quickie in the copy room.
Me: I would’ve happily obliged.
Val: Maybe another time.
Me: I’ll hold you to that.
My chest constricts because I know there won’t be any other time for us. If it doesn’t happen in the next couple of days, that’s it.
Val: Have a great day. Enjoy the Mac N Cheese.
Me: I’m leaving the office at three today.
Val: :( I won’t be home until late. Rehearsals.
Me: I’ll stay up.
Val: :)
I put my phone on the desk and stare at the meal she came all the way uptown to bring me. Yeah, come Sunday, there’s going to be some adjustment needed because I’ve done the one thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do again—I’m invested.
Any trader knows that you have to balance the risk with the reward, and Val proved last summer that she’s too much of a risk. So what the hell am I doing?
* * *
Since I knowVal won’t be home until late, I decide to stay at the office. It’s not like I don’t have a shit-ton of work to do. Ash was right, I’ve been leaving early lately—early for me being five or six o’clock.
At six-thirty, I close my computer and get my stuff together because I’ve pretty much succumbed to the fact that I’m a pussy now and want to be home when Val arrives.
I reach the elevator as Nell approaches from the opposite side of the office. She’s given me space since she found out about Val, but I still catch her walking by my office and peering in way more than necessary.
“Hey,” I say, waiting for the elevator to open.
“Good evening, Mr. Mancini.” She nods, but it’s so dramatic she might as well have bowed.
“Cut the shit.”
“You are technically higher up than me.”
“You don’t work for me, and I might have more years here, but we’re the same.”
“You could’ve told me you were getting married.” She pouts.
The elevator dings and the doors glide open. We both step in. “I was about to. It happened in Vegas.”
I could tell her the truth, but I’ll use my impromptu marriage as an excuse to get her off my dick.
“I’m not opposed to a more secretive arrangement.” She steps closer, and I freeze. I’ve never been put in this position, a woman coming on to me after knowing I’m already in a relationship.
“Nell.”
“What? I think there’s a reason you didn’t tell me.”
I step back and hit the elevator wall. “I assure you I just hadn’t had the opportunity.”
She’s so close, her tits are a millimeter from pressing against my chest. The elevator doors ding and open on the ground floor, and I turn my head, ready to make my escape.
There stands Val in her dance gear. Her bag slips off her shoulder and falls to the floor with a thud.
