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Amelia catches me watching her and rolls her eyes self-consciously.
“I must sound so whine-y.” She forces a laugh. “I can take all the snow days I want when I have my own company, right?”
“Right.”
But those future snow days won’t be with me.
I never mix business with pleasure. It’s one of my most important rules, right up there withnever gamble.
But before I know it I’m deleting the message I was going to send to Linda and typing out a new one.
Let everyone know there’s no work today. Tell everyone we lost power to the building. The servers are down too, so no need to work from home. Tell everyone to take the whole day off, and we’ll see them on Tuesday.
Linda’s response comes quickly. It’s just to me, not my dad.I just got to the office. We definitely have power.
I type back,Then you should probably go home before we DO lose power.
For a moment nothing happens. And then I get a winky faced emoji from Linda, along with the commentIt seems like falling in love has been good for you.
I’d call her out on that inappropriate comment, but since I just asked her to lie to the whole company about the power being out, I don’t really have a leg to stand on.
“I suppose I should probably go get dressed,” Amelia says as she looks up at the snow. She sounds mournful. “So we can go into work.”
“Probably for the best,” I agree. “We don’t do snow days at Ashford Marketing.”
She sighs wistfully and trudges out of the room.
Ten minutes later my phone dings with Linda’s email to the whole company letting them know we’re having a snow day. A few seconds later, I hear the thud of footsteps running down the stairs. And then Amelia bursts back into my bedroom and throws her arms around me. “You made a snow day for me.”
I fight back a smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. The power went out. If it hadn’t, we’d be heading out to the office right now.”
She leans back to better peer at my face. Trying to figure out if I’m serious. I try to force my face into a frown, but it’s hard. She’s so damn happy about the idea of a single day off.
And I like making Amelia happy. I like it a lot.
It’s just the sex,I tell myself.And the friendship. And working together so closely.
But the more things I list in my head, the closer I come to admitting that it’s justher.It’s just the magic of Amelia.
The realization is obvious and terrifying at the same time.
My phone buzzes with an incoming call, and I let go of Amelia to answer it, grateful for the distraction.
It’s my ex, Bridget.
“Is Kiera ok?” I ask when I answer, because that’s the only reason I can think of that she’d be calling so early.
“She’s fine,” Bridget says, and I immediately relax. “But can you watch her today? Her school just got canceled, and I can’t take her with me to work today. I’ll figure something out if you can’t, but you’d mentioned wanting to see Kiera more—”
“I can take her,” I assure Bridget. “Drop her off on your way to work?”
“Absolutely. I can drop her off at your office.”
I clear my throat. “Actually. We’re having a snow day. The office is closed.”
“Youcalled a snow day?” Bridget asks, incredulous. “Have you joined a cult? Been abducted by aliens?”
I tell Bridget to pack snow clothes for Kiera and hang up before she can interrogate me more.
