Chapter 45 - Just Friends #4
Ben looked at me.
Daniel had abandoned any pretense of working.
And Emma-
Emma hadn't said another word.
She was just staring at the necklace.
"Yes."
Silence.
One beautiful second of silence.
Then the whole fiasco began.
"WHAT?"
That was Nicole.
"Yesterday?" Maya demanded.
"No."
"This morning?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Don't ask."
Ben's eyebrows went up.
"Oh my God."
"What?"
"He really gave you a diamond! Yesterday you told him-"
"Don't."
Maya's mouth fell open.
"No."
Nicole looked between us.
"What?"
Ben pointed at me.
"She asked him for a diamond yesterday."
"I did not ask him for a diamond."
"You literally did."
"I was joking!"
Daniel leaned back in his chair.
"You joked that Adrian should give you a diamond."
"I said he would have to bribe me."
"With a diamond," Ben added helpfully.
"Yes, thank you, court stenographer."
"And then today he gave you one."
"Three," Nicole corrected.
I looked at her.
"Whose side are you on?"
"The diamonds'."
Maya was staring at me like I'd personally disrupted the natural order of the universe.
"He actually bought you diamonds because you joked about wanting one?"
"I don't know."
Ben frowned.
"You don't know?"
"I don't know why that man's brain does anything it does."
"Did you ask him?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"He said he wanted to."
That shut them up.
Not for long.
But long enough for me to regret saying it.
Nicole's expression changed first.
"Oh."
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
Ben made a strangled noise.
I pointed at him.
"Don't."
He raised both hands.
"I didn't say anything either."
"None of you are allowed to have faces anymore."
Daniel nodded solemnly.
"Reasonable workplace policy."
Maya reached toward the pendant.
I slapped her hand away.
"Aww."
"Stop touching Adrian's personality disorder."
There was a beat.
Nicole blinked.
"His what?"
"Nothing."
Ben looked delighted.
"No, go back."
"We're not going back."
"Why is the diamond necklace a personality disorder?"
"Because it is."
Maya stared at the pendant again.
"It's beautiful."
Unfortunately, it was.
Nicole nodded.
"Very."
I looked down despite myself.
Three diamonds caught the office lights.
Beautiful.
Delicate.
Completely insane.
I covered them with my hand again.
"Can everybody please go back to work?"
Nobody moved.
Of course they didn't.
Then Emma spoke.
Quietly.
"It's so unfair."
The office settled.
I looked at her.
I knew what she meant.
After everything she'd said this morning, I knew exactly what this looked like.
Adrian was the founder of Vale Architecture.
My boss.
Yesterday I'd jokingly demanded a diamond while refusing work.
Today I'd walked out of his office wearing one.
I didn't want her thinking Adrian was giving me special compensation through the company because of whatever existed between us.
"Emma, I refused it continuously. Trust me."
She looked at me.
"I told him I couldn't take it. I told him it was unfair."
Emma's eyes dropped to the necklace.
"Then why did he give it to you?"
"He said it's not from the company."
She looked back at me.
"Then where is it from?"
"From him."
Silence.
I should've stopped.
I did not.
"It's a gift."
Emma went completely silent.
And because apparently I had learned absolutely nothing today, I kept talking.
"I still didn't want to take that expensive a gift from him. I argued with him about it forever."
Nobody interrupted.
"He wouldn't take it back."
Still nobody interrupted.
I was beginning to dislike this silence.
"But then he put it on me, so I had to take it."
Emma stared at me.
Completely silent.
Maya's face changed.
Nicole slowly lowered the hand she'd apparently been about to put over her mouth again.
Ben looked at the ceiling.
Daniel suddenly found his monitor fascinating.
Oh.
No.
Emma spoke very carefully.
"He put it on you?"
My brain finally arrived at the conversation.
Too late.
Much, much too late.
I replayed what I'd just said.
It's not from the company.
Good.
That was supposed to make things better.
It's from him.
Less good.
It's a gift.
Definitely worse.
Then he put it on me.
Catastrophic.
I had been trying to explain that Adrian wasn't practicing some insane form of corporate favoritism.
Instead, I had successfully clarified that the founder and CEO of Vale Architecture had personally bought me a diamond necklace because he wanted to, given it to me as a private gift, and then stood behind my chair and put it around my neck himself.
Excellent work, Angelica.
Absolutely flawless damage control.
"Yes," I said.
Emma didn't blink.
Maya made a tiny sound beside me.
I turned toward her.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"Don't think either."
"I can't control that."
"Try."
Emma was still looking at me.
Not angry.
That somehow made it worse.
Just stunned.
"He actually put it on you?"
Why did we need to establish this twice?
"Yes."
"With his hands?"
I stared at her.
"How else would he put it on me, Emma? Telekinesis?"
Ben coughed.
Suspiciously.
I looked at him.
He immediately turned away.
Emma's eyes dropped to the necklace again.
Then back to my face.
And I had nowhere left to hide.
Not behind Vale Architecture.
Not behind work.
Not behind the stupid argument yesterday.