Chapter 7
Erin
“While we’re gone next week, I’m going to rely on you to make sure everything goes well,” Demetri said. “Andy isn’t going with us this time.” Ever since my boss met his wife, she had traveled with us on most of our business trips, even though she ran her own travel agency locally. Andy and I got along well, and I started to dread the trips she didn’t go with us on. Who was going to drink with me at the hotel bar?
I nodded. “You know I’ve got it under control.” I always did, and he knew not to doubt me. I had never given him a reason to doubt me in the two decades I’d worked for him and his family. In that time, Demetri, his brother, and their wives had become close friends of mine. My only friends. “I’m looking forward to getting away for a few days.”
Demetri lifted a brow. “Why? We’re going to Minneapolis, not Hawaii.”
“Maybe we should go to Hawaii,” I joked, winking but stifling a laugh when he scowled at me. I coughed to clear my throat. “Liz has been a pain in the ass.”
He rolled his eyes, already familiar with the disasters she’d evoked in my life over the years. It wasn’t anything new to him, and he wasn’t surprised at all to hear it now. He definitely wasn’t patient with her. “What did she do this time?”
“She broke up with her boyfriend.” It sounded so silly. That wasn’t the whole problem though, and the last thing I was going to do was tell Demetri Carlisle that I fucked my sister’s ex-boyfriend the same day they broke up.
He rolled his eyes, confirming I had made the right choice not to tell him. “I don’t know why she makes that your problem.”
“I don’t know either.” Maybe I made it my own problem.
He stood up, straightening his jacket before he moved towards the door. “Whatever it is that’s going on there, don’t let it interfere with you. Stay out of it.”
I nodded. “I’m working on that.”
Demetri didn’t believe me. He narrowed his eyes like he could see the cinema repeating in my mind. He couldn’t, but my cheeks warmed, and he knew me well enough to know when I was lying. He leaned forward. “You know better than to get involved here, and you know better than most that I always find out secrets. Don’t start hiding things from me. Don’t get involved, Erin.” He emphasized each word.
I nodded, shrugging one shoulder. “There’s nothing to hide.”