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Emily came in not long later and froze when she saw me, her eyes lighting up in delight. “Miss Summers! Are you back?”
I hummed, bobbing my head. “Mr Andrews convinced me to stay on. I hope you don’t mind.”
She shook her head quickly. “No way. That means you can deal with Mr Reid instead of me. He’s terrifying.”
My mouth fell open. “Bennett?” I would’ve expected her to say that about Grayson, who could be a little short-tempered when he was stressed. Not Bennett, though. He was the sweet one.
Emily regaled me about the previous morning, from Bennett ignoring her when she said he couldn’t go into Grayson’s office, to him barking at her more than once. I let out a heavy sigh, shaking my head slowly.
“I’m so sorry, Emily. He’s not normally like that. I’ll talk to him about it and make sure he apologizes.”
She waved her hands, grimacing. “No, no. It’s fine. I don’t mind. I–”
I leveled her with a look. “You should never be fine with someone treating you poorly. Believe me, I’ve got plenty of experience in that arena. This is a good job and I want it to stay that way for you. So if anyone ever upsets you like that, you can tell me. I’ll handle it.”
“That makes two of us,” Grayson added as he strode up to us. He’d changed into another suit, and he was freshly shaved and less disheveled. I loved the first thing in the morning look on him, but there was probably no version of him I wouldn’t find sexy. He noticed my scrutiny and winked at me before turning to Emily.
“She’s right. If me or anyone else in the office ever made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, you have every right to report it. I encourage you to do so. And I’d like to apologize for my part yesterday. I hope you understand it had nothing to do with you, and everything to do with personal matters, which is no excuse for our rough behavior.”
Emily’s face was bright red, and she tugged nervously on one of her honey blonde curls. “It’s really nothing, I swear. I didn’t take it personally. Is it… Do you mind me asking if the rumors are true then? Are you two dating?”
Grayson pressed his lips into a thin line and flicked his gaze to me. He was leaving it up to me to answer that, but I wasn’t willing to hide our relationship anymore. Everyone already knew, anyway.
“Yes, those rumors are true. As I’m sure are the others about who I might be dating. Our relationship differs from most people, but–”
Emily waved her hands again, smiling at me. “Oh, I know all about poly relationships. My cousin is in one with him, his girlfriend, and her boyfriend. It’s not weird or anything.”
It wasn’t the reaction I was expecting, and my eyebrows jumped up, but Emily didn’t look like she was being dishonest. Her nervous energy seemed more a reaction to Grayson than to my confession. She popped to her feet, hustling to grab Grayson’s morning coffee. He stepped closer to me, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“I’m proud of you.”
Leaning into it, I sighed. “I’m done hiding. I love what we have, and I’m not ashamed of it. I probably should’ve asked first though…”
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I don’t think any of us are going to have an issue with you claiming us publicly. I was just worried about you. There will be talk, and I know you’ve already had trouble with that before.”
I sighed. “You’re probably right, but I honestly don't care anymore. The only people whose opinions I care about are you, Luka, and Bennett. Everyone else can go screw themselves.” It was rougher than normal for me, but I was tired of letting other people get in my head. This was my relationship and it made me happy. I didn’t need anyone else’s approval but my own.
He chuckled, straightening. “A perfect sentiment. I’ll let you get to work. Do me a favor and set us up a meeting later to go over the notes you’ve got from the gala. I didn’t get a lot done after you left, but that’s my own fault. I’ll figure something out.”
Nodding, I waved him off. We both had regrets from that night, and dwelling on it wasn’t going to help anything. Hopefully, with my notes and putting our heads together, we could figure out what else we missed.
* * *
The rest of the morning was busy and went by surprisingly quickly. By the time lunch rolled around, I was almost caught up with my work and talked Emily through it as I rearranged Grayson’s schedule to add in the new meetings with the people he met with at the gala. I was about to head to the breakroom when I remembered thanks to our late morning, I forgot to grab lunch from home.
Grayson was downstairs in a meeting with HR, though he wouldn’t tell me what it was about, so I decided to text the guys and meet them in the cafeteria. It was about time I stopped hiding from the world.
I met them both in the lobby and having them with me made me feel better as we headed into the cafeteria. Luka was telling me about how things were looking thanks to the new investors when a familiar voice spoke behind me.
“Seriously? You’re back?”
Pursing my lips, I fought back a scowl as I turned around to face Alan. He looked incredulous, his arms crossed petulantly over his chest.
“Yes, Alan. I’m back. I work here. Do we have a problem?”
He sneered at me, opening his mouth to reply, but Luka and Bennett took the opportunity to each throw an arm around me and Alan looked like he swallowed his tongue.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
