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At this point, both men had put their forks down and were hanging onto every detail.
“So, we give her the time off because I’m not about making employees prove their grief,” I continued.
El cut in on that. “We do the same. Fuck that micromanaging bullshit.”
“So, did the mom die?” Riven asked.
Zath let out a chuckle and I answered. “No. She happened to be in town and stopped in to see her at work. She was this sweet, older woman and proudly said she was Candy’s mom. I could have just played it off, like oh no, she’s on vacation.”
“But you didn’t,” El accused playfully.
“No, she gave her condolences on dying to this woman,” Zath answered. He lost it already, barely getting the words out.
“She was appalled, then angry, and called her right on the spot,” I finished out. “Candy even quit before she was scheduled to come back. I guess she didn’t want to face us.”
“Oh, man. Why not just tell the truth?” El said.
“That’s what we said. We’d have still given her later Friday hours and vacation time,” Zath said, shaking his head.
“That—” Riven’s words were cut off by my phone buzzing loudly against the table, then his following at the same time. We glanced at each other before picking them up. I read the message quickly and felt my face pale.
“What is it?” Zath prompted.
“‘Due to recent information, I ask that both Nyla Stone and Riven Greene come in before the competition to discuss conduct. While talking to your competitors is not forbidden, we do ask for a certain level of decorum from our teams. Please make time to speak with me before festivities start tomorrow morning. Best regards, Stanley’,” I read out.
“Wait, they can’t disqualify us for this, can they?” Zath asked. My stomach churned as I shrugged at him. We weren’t even doing anything wrong.
“No,” Riven said. “I read the rules extensively. There’s nothing in there about this.”
“In fact, there’s no rules against fucking each other if we wanted to,” El added. “I’m particular about reading rules before I break them. Oh, and just for the record, I actually do want to fuck you… when you’re ready, of course.”
“El!” Riven growled as he ran a hand over his face in exasperation. “You don’t just say that shit to people. Get a filter, please.”
“It’s good information to know,” I said. “Trust me, I’m not offended. And they can’t just kick us out. Not only would it be bad exposure, but it would be asking for a lawsuit and I promise that the board does not want one of those.”
“You do know a big-time lawyer,” Zath reminded me playfully. I wasn’t even surprised by his level of humor but both of my mates looked a bit shocked.
“Look, if we can’t laugh at our own expense, then we’re going to spend life miserable,” I said. “I’m not going to worry about this meeting. The worst they’re going to do is try to kick us out and I have a feeling that El would fight them for us all.”
“She knows me so well already,” he said, giving me a wink before refilling everyone’s champagne glasses. “Come on, let’s not worry about that shit tonight. This dinner is to get to know each other and leaving the rest of the bullshit behind.”
“I’ll toast to that,” I said, holding up my now full glass.
He was right. I’d let tomorrow’s problems be tomorrow’s problems. For tonight, I was going to pretend there was no competition, no exes, no past; it was just us enjoying a meal and drinks. At the end of the day, they were my mates, and that idea no longer scared me.
ChapterTen
Nyla
Stanley, apparently, didn’t want to wait until right before the competition to chat. I was woken up at six in the morning by a competition alert, saying that we had a meeting at seven-thirty. He wanted Riven and I to come alone, which meant I had to leave Zath behind and actually be alone with this man. Things were getting way too complicated. I was more than ready to get out of the city and back home so we could figure things out away from this insanity.
Even though I was dead tired after being up far too late last night, I forced myself to keep up appearances. The competition would come right after the meeting and I didn’t have time to come back and change. I’d much rather go find some espresso instead of coming back here, anyway.
At seven-fifteen a sharp knock on my door had me rushing forward. Despite how quickly I answered, Zath groaned from his bed. He was not a very nice person in the morning, something we had in common, so I was going to respect him enough to not be loud.
Riven was standing outside when I cracked open the door. I held up one finger before closing it back in his face. At that point, I was dressed and ready, so I gathered my keycard, phone, and purse and hurried out as quietly as possible.
Riven looked amused as I tiptoed out and closed the door quietly.
