2.
Emily
T his isn’t the kind of thing I want to admit out loud, mostly because it’s totally embarrassing and completely humiliating. Why the hell would I want to tell anyone about this situation?
Abigail and I were supposed to be something special. Yes, she’s the queen bee at her firm, but neither one of us was going to let that get in our way. At least, that was the deal.
Only, I was the other woman in her life, and I was too stupid to know. She didn’t tell me she had someone else. She didn’t tell me I was her side piece.
I fell hard.
Fast.
Stupid.
Fuck, I fell so damn stupid.
I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t.
Right now, I wish I could take the words I just spoke back.
Again, I can’t.
“You dated your boss?” Hillary asks. She’s looking at me like she’s trying to decide what to do. I get that. Really, I do. She can either throw me out and choose to hire someone whose morals more closely align with her own, or she can ask me for more details.
Honestly, I’m still kind of surprised I decided to play the honesty card.
I’m proud of me, but I’m not sure that I’m making the right call.
Like, am I fired?
“Yeah,” I say.
“As in, you...”
“Slept together,” I say. “Went on dates. Fell in love. Well, I fell in love. I don’t know if I can say the same thing about her.”
“Which of the bosses did you date?” Hillary asks. She leans forward, elbows on her desk, and I realize that she’s not judging me or mad.
She’s curious.
No, shit, she’s nosy.
She’s into this business gossip, and I may have unintentionally found myself an ally in her. Um, okay. I can work with this.
“Oh,” I say. “Abigail.”
“Abigail Key?”
“Yes.”
“You dated Abigail Key?”
“Yeah.”
“You dated and slept with the legendary attorney Abigail Key?”
I look around, as though I’m not sure whether Hillary is actually talking to me, and I finally nod.
“Yes, I dated Abigail Key.”
“Holy shit,” she says.
“I, um, well, it wasn’t planned.”
Not that having a surprise romance makes it any better.
“Tell me everything,” she says.
“What? Why?” I blurt out. Surely, this is some sort of HR violation. I don’t think I’m supposed to be telling my boss about my love life, but honestly, it feels almost freeing to think that I can.
I rarely talk about my relationship with Abigail or how much she hurt me. My best friend, Margaret, thinks I made a huge mistake in dating Abigail. Margaret was against the relationship from the very first kiss. Still, I ignored her, and I just sort of went for it.
“Because I want to know.”
“But you’re my boss,” I say.
“You dated your last boss,” Hillary says. “Surely, talking about your dating life with your new one isn’t as bad as all that.”
My jaw drops.
She really went there.
“Um...”
I have to make a choice, I realize. Before I can say anything, though, Hillary waves her hand.
“You know what? Forget it. I’m sorry. Totally none of my business. It’s just that Abigail Key and I go way back.”
“What? You do?”
“We went to college together,” she says. “She was the first girl I ever kissed.” Hillary lowers her voice conspiratorially, as though she’s sharing a secret with me that she knows she’s not supposed to. “Does she still do that thing with her tongue?”
“Yes,” I whisper before I can stop myself.
How the hell have we kissed the same girl?
How the hell do I know exactly what she means?
“Nice,” she says. Then Hillary sits back up, straightens her shoulders, and turns to her laptop. “Moving on,” she says, “let’s go over what you can expect for this week. Since it’s your first week, your schedule might be a little weird.”
“How weird?” I ask.
“As weird as we want it to be.”
“I don’t really know what that means.”
“It just means you’re going to have a lot of meetings with a lot of different people,” she says. Then her eyes lock on mine. “And you’re going to have a lot of meetings with me.”
Somehow, when Hillary says this, it doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all.
Instead, it sounds like a promise.
One I’m ready for.
“Okay,” I say.
“Okay,” she says.
Fuck.
I’m in over my head.