Tasty

18. I Knew This Was Coming

I KNEW THIS WAS COMING

Rory.

“Y’all… don’t ever say I don’t do anything for you.”

I pushed the office door open with my sore hip, coffee in one hand, bag in the other, talking before I even stepped fully inside. Chewy ran in ahead of me, finding the bed Marlon bought for him under my desk.

Hartland looked up from my desk where he’d been half-working, half-slouching. “I saw you got out the boss’ car this morning.”

“Yeah, he gave me a ride.” I set my bag down and shrugged out of my jacket. “And I am also the boss.”

He gave me a look, “If you gotta say it…”

I stuck out my tongue at him.

Lavender’s head lifted immediately from her laptop. “Wait, why are you riding with Mr. Sinclair anyway? Did the car service I set up not up to standards?”

Here she goes.

“No, no, it was fine. I stayed the night at his house, but I had to stop home for clothes.” I pointed between the two of them. “By the way. Don’t tell anyone what I said yesterday about me and Marlon.”

Hartland blinked. “What did you say?”

I looked at Hartland. “Oh yeah, you left early.”

“What are you even talking about? What did you say?” he repeated.

“They are sleeping together,” Lavender said plainly.

Hartland cocked a brow, “Well, that’s kinda obvious.”

“Is it?” Lavender chewed her pen top. “I was taken by surprise.”

“Really?” Hart scoffed. “Only thing surprising here is that Sinclair is engaging in this. That man has a permanent stick up the ass and takes everything too seriously. Casual sex does not feel like something he’d do.”

“I disagree,” Lavender added. “I’ve been his assistant for a while. The only relationships he engages in is casual. I don’t even think he ever had a girlfriend.”

“Really?” Hartland and I exclaimed.

“Really,” Lavender looked at me. “You’re the first woman he’s been with for longer than a week.”

Wow.

“Well,” I cleared my throat. “All this about Marlon and me stays with us. Y’all are like the only people my age around here and I consider us friends, so like… chill.”

Hartland leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head. “Long as I get paid, I don’t care.”

“Exactly,” I said, pointing at him. “See? That’s why you my favorite.”

“And I would never do anything to get Mr. Marlon in trouble so… your secrets are safe,” Lavender explained.

I held my hands up, “Loyalty to Marlon is still loyalty so I’ll take it.”

I walked over to the desk, flipping open my bag and pulled out my iPad.

“So…” Hartland dragged out, turning in his chair to face me fully. “How was it?”

I didn’t look up. “How was what?”

“You know what,” he said.

I rolled my eyes, tapping at my screen. “It was good.”

“That’s it?”

“You sure you wanna know?” I finally glancing at him.

“On this dusty-ass country vineyard, this is my only source of entertainment,” he replied.

“Nah,” I went back to typing. “How ‘bout you find out why we losing more money than we earning like I asked? How’s looking through them records going? Hm? Why don’t you entertain that?”

He rolled his eyes. “I already told you why cost is so high.”

“We ain’t touching employee wages. Marlon’s not gonna go for it. Besides, we just launched a new wine and it only barely got us out the hole. Something is wrong here and we gotta figure it out.”

“Well, the shed is launching soon,” Lav offered. “That should bring in more revenue.”

I nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I’m using to gauge everything. If we’re still not seeing any growth with that then… I’ll have to talk to Marlon and my dad.”

Hartland cocked his head in confusion. “Wait… Does your dad know about you and Sinclair?”

I squirmed, “No.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. Which is why I need y’all to zip it.”

“Okay.” Hart raised his hands in defeat. “Got it.”

Lavender’s eyes flicked between us. “So, do you and Mr. Sinclair… do it a lot?”

I turned my head slowly. “Didn’t I say zip it about that?”

She shrugged. “So do you?”

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t expect this line of questioning from Lav. She was so quiet most of the time, so that got me thinking.

“Why? You fucked him or something?”

She didn’t even hesitate. “What? No.”

I raised a brow. “You wanna fuck him?”

“I prefer the company of women,” she explained calmly.

Oh.

Then her gaze shifted back to me.

Oh!

I blinked. “Is it me you wanna fuck?”

“Christ,” Hart turned completely to view the drama he’s been begging for.

A small smile tugged at my lips and I repeated. “You want me?”

Lav didn’t answer right away, just looked at me steadily. “…I think you’re really pretty, Aurora.”

Oh!

That caught me off guard for real. I straightened a little, brushing my hair back behind my ear. Marlon got rid of Wyatt not knowing the one he should be worried about was closer than he thought.

“I think you’re gorgeous too,” I added, meaning it. Then I shook my head lightly. “But I can’t. Marlon will get mad.”

Hartland sat up straighter at that. “Wow. You care what he thinks? I thought you said you two were casual. Or you exclusive?”

“We aren’t,” I said quickly. “I just… don’t wanna upset him.”

The room felt quieter for a second.

Lavender hummed softly. “Hm.”

“What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

“Do you love him?”

I paused.

“Love, huh?” I leaned back against the desk, crossing my arms loosely. “Hm… maybe I do.”

That sounded strange coming out of my mouth.

“Maybe?”

“I’ve never been in love before, so I don’t know what it feels like.”

“Seriously?” Hart asked.

“Seriously,” I said. “I dated before. But I never even had a real relationship before.”

Well, that part wasn’t a hundred percent true. I was in a relationship with Orim for a long time. I thought I loved her then, but she transitioned, ending us. My heart wasn’t broken then, the love I had was just reshaped.

My heart wasn’t even broken by Jason. I just accepted the new reality and moved on.

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced heartbreak and maybe that’s because I’ve never been in love. Was what I felt for Marlon that? Love?

Hartland let out a low whistle.

Lavender blinked at me. “Wow. And with a man who doesn’t do long term relationships. I must say, you picked a hell of a person for your first time experiencing love.”

I shrugged, trying to play it off even though my chest felt a little tight. “I thought the whole point was you can’t help who you love, Lavender.”

I gave her an extra pointed look because she of all people should know that.

She cleared her throat and rephrased it. “I meant, aren’t you scared he won’t feel the same?”

“Why?” I said. “If I love him… I’m sure he loves me. I can’t be in this emotion alone.”

Hartland didn’t say anything.

Neither did Lavender.

But they did look at each other for a long time.

I tried to ignore whatever it was, forcing myself to focus on my job, but the questions started piling up in my head.

After a while, the door opened without a knock and Marlon stepped in, eyes scanning once before landing on me. Hartland straightened in his chair immediately. Lavender sat up like she’d been caught doing something wrong even though she hadn’t.

“Let’s go,” he said simply.

I grabbed my iPad and stood, smoothing my skirt down like I wasn’t just having a whole internal crisis five minutes ago.

“Well friends, duty calls,” I muttered to them.

Hartland smirked and whispered. “You mean your man calls.”

I shot him a look. “Shut up.”

Lavender watched us a little too close as Marlon and I walked out.

I ignored it.

We walked side by side down the hall, his stride steady, mine a half-step behind before I matched it. I barely caught up before I felt his hand on my waist, pulling me into the copy room with him.

My sense of awareness was off as he scanned the room for employees. When he confirmed it was clear, he turned to me. I waited for him get closer, until he had me against the wall. Then, while looking me in the eyes, he lifted me by my thighs, wrapping them around his waist as he pulled my skirt up.

“I’m still thinking about last night.”

I heard his belt unbuckle.

“About how you rode me…”

He pushed into me and I hissed in a breath.

“…why don’t you do it again for me.”

“Marlon—” I started but he covered my mouth.

“Shh… nobody can hear us. Let’s be quick, aight? We can talk after.”

I nodded but he didn’t move his hand. He kept his other hand on my waist too, propping me up as I started moving. I’d be lying if I said I was focused. It felt good, don’t get me wrong, but my mind was else where, questioning everything.

But I worked my hips against him and he did the same, hammering me into the wall.

We came at the same time and I felt like that was a sign.

“Fuck, Bunny.” he moaned as he finished.

When he pulled out and put me down, he quickly fixed his pants back. I straightened myself, checking my hair in the printer screen but I didn’t say anything.

I didn’t tease or make a smart remark and that alone was enough to shift the air between us.

“You good?” he asked.

I blinked, turning my head to him.

“Yeah,” I said quickly. “Yeah. Just so busy with other shit I can’t focus on this.”

His eyebrow cocked. “This being…”

Shit. Wrong time to say that.

“These onsite tours and showcases. I just… have other things on my mind and I can’t get distracted with influencers right now.”

He studied me for a second longer than necessary, then nodded.

“Yeah,” he said, dragging it out slightly. “I was just thinking once this thing takes off, maybe it’s time we hire a marketing manager or something.”

“Maybe,” I replied, though my mind wasn’t even on that.

It was on something else.

“Still,” he shoved his hands in his pants. “It’s your responsibility so, see it through and try to be positive.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Will do.”

The showcase moved in slow motion.

People were walking through the space, talking, observing, asking questions. Some had notebooks, others had tablets and a few had cameras.

It’s official.

I was one step closer to turning this shed from a project to a reality. I should’ve been in it.

Instead, I stayed quiet.