Page 45 of Sincerely, Up Yours


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“Childish emojis that I couldn’t interpret.”

I rolled my eyes. “Liar. But I wasn’t trying to work on the interview this time,” I admitted. “I honestly wanted to figure out what happened. One minute I thought we were on the same page on that rooftop and then it seemed like you’d changed your mind.”The same page.That was a good way to phrase it without making things too weird. I didn’t want to use words like relationship or feelings.

Dominic sat on the coffee table across from me, face serious. “I learned my father plans to start playing a role in the work we do atThe Squawker. He’s going to arrive on Monday and get personally involved, but I don’t know to what extent. If you and I were…” He paused, eyebrows drawing together. “Involved,” he said slowly. “I think he’d figure it out.”

My eyebrows slid upwards. His father was coming to our little magazine? The same father who reached his grubby little hands into my life and tried to snuff me out because I’d caused him a minor inconvenience? I suddenly wondered how much it cost to hire an assassin. Or was that not the term they preferred? Hitman? Fixer? Either way, I wondered if having someone murdered was a viable reason to take out a loan in the eyes of a bank.

“I know,” Dominic said, exhaling. He must’ve read the look on my face.

“So you’re ignoring me because you don’t want your dad to know we’re involved? Didn’t he get involved with co-workers several times?”

“He would care for different reasons. We argued about this assignment. His ego makes him want to deny he’s ever going to retire or pass on any of the company to me. He saw me wanting to spearhead the operation as a sort of power grab. But I didn’t relent and he eventually let up. He warned me if anything went poorly, he’d step in and take over.”

“Issomething going poorly?”

“No,” he snapped. He spread his hands, head tilting. “Sort of. The sales have taken a slight dip these last two weeks. A local critic in the city is bashing the new direction we’re taking, and I think some of the former readers are stepping away from the magazine. But I’m confident we’ll bring in new eyes soon.”

I chewed my lip, hesitating. “Maybe it would help if we brought back one or two of the weekly pieces you cut?”

“I can’t fold on my vision forThe Squawkerjust because sales slump in the short term. Change takes time.”

I considered pushing more, but I sensed Dominic was only a few words away from putting those big walls of his up again. I decided to save that argument for another day. After all, if weweregoing to pursue anything between us, I needed to learn to separate personal time and work. “So what power does your dad have over the company?”

“As much as he wants, unfortunately. Strictly speaking, I’m basically a hired CEO working to manage a business he purchased.”

“So he could fire you?”

“He wouldn’t do something quite so obviously bad for the family image. He’d be more likely to quietly move me to another project and take over managingThe Squawkerhimself.”

“So yourdadcould be my boss?” I asked. My throat was suddenly dry at the thought. I’d forgiven Dominic for whatever role I thought he had in my expulsion from Columbia. His dad, though? He was still the devil incarnate, and I didn’t want to work for him. I wouldn’t work for him. It was either assasination or quit, and I wasn’t much of a quitter. I wasn’t exactly assassin material, either.

“Only if I fuck up. Like giving him reason to think I’m not taking this job seriously because I’m fucking an employee.”

My cheeks went red. “Well,” I said. “Thankfully we haven’t slept together then. Right?”

He got up and started to pace the room. He looked so impossibly good–like he was built to chop logs or hunt wild animals with his bare hands. “There’s no use in pretending, Darcy. I’ve been treating you differently because of what you are to me.”

My stomach did a little swirl at his words. “What am I to you? You told Marcus what we did was nothing. You called it a mistake.”

He paused his pacing, running both hands through his hair. “Because I wanted to believe that. But it’s bullshit.”

I swallowed. “So you didn’t mean what you said?”

“I wish I did. But no. I can’t stop thinking about you. I have every reason in the fucking world to put you out of my mind and keep moving forward, but I can’t. Every time I try to focus on what I thought was important to me, you are right there in my mind.”

I didn’t answer right away. Dominic looked like he wasn’t even expecting a response. He turned his back and started making himself some kind of drink from a bar against the wall.

“What if I feel the same way?” I asked. “I’m not saying I do, either. I honestly don’t know how I feel. All I know is I thought I wanted to prove I have what it takes to be an amazing writer and make a difference. I thought nothing mattered more, but I keep making decisions like I don’t believe that–like maybe exploring whatever is between us might matter just as much, if not more.”

He turned, leaving his drink behind. “We can’t explore anything, Darcy. He’ll find out. My father is a lot of things, but he’s not stupid.”

“Neither are we. All we have to do is avoid each other at work, right? We’ve already proven we can do that. I mean, yeah, Elizabeth and Farhad were kind of prying for information about us yesterday. But that’s because they saw us at the party together, not because of something at work. Besides, I think us having feelings and pretending we don’t will be just as suspicious as if we were actually acting on our feelings. Maybe more so, because we both have all this pent up…yeah.I’m just saying we could do this.If you wanted to,” I added in a more quiet voice.

Dominic was breathing hard and staring at me. I couldn’t read his expression. But then I didn’t have to, because he was closing the distance between us in a few long strides. He climbed on top of me, careful not to bump my ankle as he planted his hands on either side of me. “In a few seconds, it’ll be too late to change our minds on this. Are you sure?”

My heart was pounding at a million miles per minute. My stomach felt like it was auditioning for the circus and I could barely think straight. Still, I nodded quickly. “I’m sure.”

Then he kissed me, and all my doubts and fears were blasted away in that warm contact. Kissing him felt familiar. It felt like I’d been kissing him my whole life, and his touch on me was comfortable and reassuring.

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