Chapter 7
“Are you still on for our little bet?” Cherish straightened in her chair, eyeing Haylee across her desk. She wasn’t sure why her voice sounded the way it did, like she was teasing.
Haylee jerked her head up, making eye contact. Tingles rushed through Cherish at that piercing gaze. Haylee reached up and curled her hair behind her ear before raising her eyebrows at Cherish in return.
“You haven’t mentioned it lately, that’s all.” Cherish pursed her lips, trying to draw back to where she’d been before, where she was safe and protected from the wild card in front of her.
“Our little bet?” Haylee’s tone dropped off at the end in disbelief. “I think it’s more than a little bet, Cherish. I mean, we bet that we could outsmart the smartest woman in the room.”
“Ah.” Cherish had to hide her grin on this one. “While I applaud you for recognizing Ms. Aarts’s brilliance. While she might be smart here—” Cherish touched her temple “—she’s not so smart he—”
“Cherish.” Febe’s voice ricocheted around the room.
Cherish’s stomach was in her throat.
When had she come into the office?
Febe pinned her with a cold look, her lips in a thin line, her cheeks pulled tight. In all Cherish’s days of protecting Febe, she had taken this one step too far and crossed a line.
Cherish couldn’t even look at Haylee. Her gaze was riveted to Febe. She had just messed up all of this, hadn’t she? The careful balance they had maintained for years. Febe crossed her arms, her eyebrows raising as she waited for some kind of response. Surely, she wanted Cherish to apologize.
“Go home, Cherish,” Febe said, her voice tender. “You deserve a weekend. Both of you.”
“I…” Cherish trailed off. Febe did this a couple times a year, but it had been at least nine months since the last time. Cherish didn’t know what to do without Febe centering her.
“Monday will be busy.” Without another word, Febe stalked back to her office in her five-inch stilettos.
Cherish collapsed into her chair. Shame filled her in an instant. She should have known better than to share anything about Febe that was considered insider knowledge. They’d known each other too long, and she understood that Febe wanted to maintain professional boundaries with everyone.
“We can go get dinner if you’d like.” Haylee’s voice was so tentative.
Cherish understood why. She hadn’t exactly been open with Haylee, but in the last week or so, they’d made strides toward that. Cherish fiddled with the papers on her desk and organized them, preparing them for Monday morning. She’d never been sent home quite like this before, and the unease about the entire situation settled into her chest.
“Cherish?” Haylee tried again. “Did you want to grab dinner?”
“I don’t know,” Cherish muttered, her tone far too telling. She bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t upset with Haylee. She was upset with herself, and she should probably make that clear. Haylee was a worrier, and she understood far too much about what was rolling through Cherish’s mind half the time. “I—”
“You’re a bit lost leaving early, aren’t you?”
Thank God for Haylee. She could so easily read a room but had such an inability to read herself within that room. The contradiction was amusing. Cherish clenched her jaw and dropped her shoulders with a sigh. “Yes, let’s get dinner.”
“I’m picking the place.” Haylee winked as she immediately stood up and started cleaning up her workspace.
Cherish was a little less than enthusiastic, but she mimicked Haylee’s motions. Within five minutes, they were headed out the door together and waiting on the elevator. They were silent until they got to the lobby, and Cherish started toward the front doors.
“Um…” Haylee said, stopping short. Cherish turned around to look at her, confusion fluttering all over Haylee’s face. “Can I catch a ride with you?”
“Yeah.” Cherish clenched her keys in her hand. “Did you leave your car at home today?”
Haylee’s cheeks reddened, and she wouldn’t meet Cherish’s gaze. Canting her head to the side, Cherish waited her out. This shouldn’t be that hard an answer, now should it? And yet, Haylee was balking.
“Haylee?”
“I sold my car.”
“Oh.” Cherish pressed her lips together harder. There was more to Haylee’s statement, she was sure, but something had stopped Haylee from continuing. Fear? Shame? Guilt? Cherish didn’t know what it was yet. “Were you getting a new one?”
“No.” Haylee shuffled her foot against the tiled floor.
Shame.
So much was left unsaid. Cherish dragged in a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other. “Well, come on. You promised me dinner, and I’m making good on that.”
“Right.” Haylee jogged slightly to catch up.
The car ride was mostly silent, especially when Haylee told her where they were going. It was a more upscale place than Cherish expected, especially after the sheepish look that Haylee had given about the car, but she went anyway. Haylee insisted. When they were seated, Cherish ordered a glass of wine and tried to relax the tension in her shoulders.
“We really need to talk about the gala.”
“I thought Ms. Aarts told you to leave work early.”
Cherish twitched. She wasn’t very good at leaving work at work. Haylee couldn’t be blind to that. The number of times Cherish had to call Haylee late for something she needed should have made it obvious, right?
Haylee’s lips pulled up to the side. “You look like you’re about to walk into your annual appointment. Relax, Cherish, we can talk about work if you want. Not quite sure what else we’d talk about anyway.”
Narrowing her gaze, Cherish shook her head. Haylee was right. They didn’t exactly know much about each other. In the time they’d worked together, Cherish had kept everything strictly professional. She barely even asked Haylee how her weekends were because she didn’t want to delve into stories of Haylee’s escapades.
“You’re right.” Cherish blinked and frowned. “We don’t really know each other, do we?”
“Not at all. I mean. I know you like Zena Donuts.”
Should Cherish break the spell and tell Haylee those were for Febe? She opted to keep her mouth shut on that one. It would do her well to let Haylee think she had one up on Cherish at least.
“I know that you’re slightly OCD.”
“What?” Cherish frowned, nodding at the waiter as her wine was set in front of her. “What do you mean?”
“You literally have a spot for everything on your desk, and if it’s out of order, it takes you all of two point three seconds to notice and put it back.”
Cherish furrowed her brow. “Are you the one that keeps moving my sticky notes?”
Haylee’s bright red cheeks were a dead giveaway.
Laughing, Cherish shook her head. “My mother always taught me that a clean space made for a good work environment.”
“Did you always have your room cleaned to perfection, too?”
Cherish gave a one shoulder shrug in response. Haylee didn’t need words to confirm that one. “I grew up in a very strict household. It wouldn’t surprise me if you grew up in the opposite.”
“Dead opposite. My brother, Jackson, and I ran amok around our house.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.” Cherish sipped her wine. It was such a good flavor and helped ease a bit more of the tension in her shoulders. “Do you only have one brother?”
Haylee nodded. “Yeah. Jackon’s three years older than me.”
Cherish hummed. “My brother is four years older than me. We have a sister in between us, but I don’t talk to her much. My brother was my hero growing up.”
“Mine too.” Haylee raised her own wine glass toward Cherish in a toast. “Seems we do have more in common than we thought.”
“Yes, it does.” Giving into impulse, Cherish leaned forward and chinked their glasses together. “But about the gala…”
Haylee groaned. “Should have known better than to try and get you off your one-track mind.” She giggled, her cheeks having a pleasant flush to them. “So what about the gala?”
“Ms. Ilic implied that Ms. Aarts can present whenever she wants, but there is the matter that they’re giving her an award this year.”
“An award?” Haylee looked doubtful.
Cherish hummed. “She’s their founder, and while she has very little to do with the day-to-day operations, her donation last year allowed them to flourish since the last gala.”
“I suppose,” Haylee mumbled. “Does she have to give a speech when she gets the award?”
“Most likely.” Cherish set her wine glass down. “Ms. Aarts doesn’t like public speaking.”
“Most people don’t.” Haylee bit her lip. “It can be short, though, can’t it?”
“Yes. But we will need to tag team her up onto the stage and off it. She isn’t to be unsupervised at any point.” Cherish played with her fork and spoon, the metal cool against her fingers. Why was she talking about this now? They’d come out for a dinner together, not to carry on with more work when they’d expressly been given the time off.
“Right. So we are the extremely overpaid babysitters.”
Cherish chuckled but managed to get the sound under control rather quickly. “In my hometown, we’d call them chaperones.”
“Chaperones?” Haylee pulled a face, a mix of disgust, curiosity, and disbelief. “Aren’t those people to watch for sinful behavior on dates?”
“Spot on.” Cherish sipped her wine again. “I grew up in a very small, conservative town. Very Christian. Dating unsupervised wasn’t welcome.”
“Do you come from an extremely religious family?”
Cherish swallowed the lump in her throat. That had always been a problem she’d gritted her teeth through. Stuart supported her and other gay people no matter what. Hell, he’d dated Febe in high school to protect her from all the homophobia in town. He was a true ally. And when Febe had offered Cherish the job, she’d jumped at it, hoping to find the same freedom.
“My family is religious, yes. Some more than others.”
“Would they…” Haylee paused, considering her words carefully. “I’m not sure there’s a delicate way to ask this.”
“There isn’t.” Cherish decided to give Haylee a break. “My immediate family is supportive. The rest don’t know.”
“They don’t know?” Haylee’s eyes were saucers.
“They don’t need to know.” Cherish shut down the conversation. “I assume your family is supportive?”
“In every way.”
Cherish envied that. She’d always wanted to live completely out, but it would be impossible in her hometown to do that. It had been the main reason why she’d wanted to escape. Febe had been the second reason on that list. “Why veterans? You’re not military.”
“Excuse me?” Haylee froze. It was a natural reaction to the sharp change in conversation. Cherish should have eased her into it a little more.
“Why are you so concerned about veterans and their families?” Cherish finished her first glass of wine just as their food was set in front of them. She ordered a second.
“Oh, um…I grew up in the nineties and early two-thousands. I was in middle school when the Iraq War started. I remember there being so much concern over drafts. It was a trying time. And our military deserves our best. They’re risking their lives for us.”
“So are a lot of people.” Cherish pushed slightly, but she could tell that Haylee was avoiding.
“Yes, they also deserve the best.”
Cherish hummed, recognizing a roadblock when she found one. For Febe to approve a focus and effort from Haylee on that, she was going to need to see that passion shine through. Cherish was only getting a hint of it now, and it wouldn’t be enough.
“So the gala, when we escort Ms. Aarts, what do we do when she’s busy?”
“Pay attention to every nuance of hers,” Cherish answered immediately. “We’re her protection against everything she doesn’t like that night.”
“I think you do that every day.”
“Perhaps.” Cherish finally started eating. Her stomach rumbled, and she realized she’d skipped lunch that day. She needed to pay better attention to that.
Haylee cocked her head to the side, her gaze dropping from Cherish’s eyes to her lips, down to her breasts. Cherish stayed still, allowing the appraisal of her body. It had been so long since someone had looked at her like that. As much as she’d always hoped Febe would, she never had. The crush Haylee had so astutely noticed was entirely one-sided. Haylee flicked her gaze back up to Cherish’s lips, lingering there.
“See something you like?” Cherish’s voice was huskier than she’d intended. Perhaps she was more affected than she’d initially thought.
Haylee’s cheeks were on fire. The kiss of red was adorable. Amused, Cherish held her gaze, a heat warming in her belly and moving farther down her body, settling between her legs. It was a nice warm arousal, one that wasn’t overwhelming but pleasant. It had been far too long since she’d allowed herself to feel that.
Tonight could be interesting. It was definitely more than a couple of coworkers sharing a meal, but Cherish wasn’t sure what other words she would use to describe it. Date? No, not at all. But they were getting to know each other better.
“Are you still sure you want to be my ally in this gala plan?” Cherish gave Haylee an out, not bringing up her observation again.
“Damn sure. We made a bet.” Haylee rested her forearms on the table and leaned in. “I never pull out of a bet.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” Cherish went back to her meal. Monday would be interesting for sure. But if Haylee kept looking at her like that, then Cherish would take it. It felt amazing to be appreciated by someone other than Febe, and especially in that way.
“Do we need to plan more for the gala?” Haylee asked.
“Yes.” Cherish sighed. “We’ll need a detailed plan once we get a schedule of events.”
“That’ll help,” Haylee murmured.
“Until then, let’s try to make Ms. Aarts as happy as possible. That way we’ll go into the gala with her in a good mood.”
Haylee frowned. “With how you’ve described last year, I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“We can always try.” Cherish tilted her glass toward Haylee. “Ally?”
“Ally.” Haylee grinned broadly, her smile warming Cherish with that simple look. It was something she wanted to see again and again. This was the perfect way to do that.