AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You must visit again soon,” Dylan’s mom hugged me tightly as we stood outside the steps of her house. “Dylan, do you hear me? I want to see the both of you again.”
“Alright mother,” Dylan laughed, shaking his head. “You’ve just spent an entire weekend with her. Don’t scare her off already.”
His mother swatted him on the shoulder playfully. “Behave,” she narrowed her eyes at him and then turned to me once again. “Kathy, keep in touch, okay?”
I nodded and made a string of fake promises to her that I’ll see her soon… that I hope we continue to spend time together like this. When I was finally inside the car, I could not help but breathe out a sigh of relief.
“How was that for a performance?” I said, looking over at Dylan.
I expected him to make a joke in return but instead, he didn’t move an inch from his seat and his expression was blank.
“Thank you for doing this, Kathy,” his tone was suddenly professional, and he didn’t meet my gaze even once.
The warm, sociable, and friendly Dylan had been immediately replaced by a cold and distant variant of him. It was like a switch had flipped the moment the car door closed, and he’d gone back to the person he was at the office—my boss.
“Hey, don’t even mention it,” I replied flatly.
By the time we were on the plane back to New York, Dylan was in full work mode. He barely exchanged a word with me and was furiously typing away on his laptop. When he noticed me staring at him from my seat, he closed the laptop for a moment and crossed his legs.
“By the way, I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention any of this happening to your colleagues,” he said in a careful voice. “It was an unusual ask of me, but don’t worry, it doesn’t impact how I see you professionally in any way.”
My heart lurched at his words and suddenly, I felt stupid. “Oh, right. Of course.”
I’d gotten so caught up in the act that I had somehow expected him to behave the same way with me even after the show was over. Or rather I had hoped… but it did not make a difference.
“As far as I’m concerned, I still very much see you as my employee,” he continued, sounding like that was the most important thing to me in that moment.
“You’ve given no reason for me to believe otherwise,” I replied, ignoring the knot that had formed in the pit of my stomach.
Of course he still sees me as an employee. This past weekend was all just a pretend, remember?
When we finally landed back in New York, he arranged a car for me to get home. As I was just about to get in, I heard him call my name.
“Kathy?”
As pathetic as it sounds,I felt my heart skip a beat in excitement. “Yeah?”
“Just one more thing before you go,” he said and I braced myself.
Say anything. Ask me out again! Tell me you felt something too.
“Your performance on the Johnson project was stellar. We’ll have a brand new project lined up for you at the office tomorrow morning, so I just wanted to give you a heads-up.”
His tone was so detached and impersonal that it felt like it had been an entirely different person who had me squirming underneath him in a moment of passion less than 24 hours ago.
“Of course,” I replied, hiding my disappointment.
∞∞∞
“How was your weekend?” Caitlyn asked me at work the next day. She sat in front of me, lazily sipping on her coffee and occasionally admiring her nails.
“Nothing special,” I replied, maintaining a poker face. “I mostly just stayed home.”
“Honestly, same here,” she nodded. “It was a rare weekend where Dylan wasn’t constantly pestering us with emails and it felt so peaceful. I wonder what kept him busy.”
“Maybe it was awhorather than a what,” I replied with a sly smile.
“Well,whoeverit was, I hope they keep him busy on all weekends like this. It was a relief not to think about work,” she sighed.
