Chapter 26 #2
I told them everything, including that it wasn’t an office fling. Leo and I were deeply in love.
‘Darling, you don’t know what love is,’ Shay bit back, her hackles rising.
‘No,’ I retorted, which was uncharacteristic enough to get them listening properly. ‘ You don’t. Either of you. Neither of your failed attempts at relationships have even come close, so you’ve no right to preach at me.’
Now wasn’t the time to add that if they had the first clue about love, they’d be married by now.
‘You think skulking about the office having clandestine smooches in the stationery cupboard is any better?’ She tossed her hair in disgust. ‘That’s not love, it’s lust combined with the thrill of doing something forbidden. At least I’m under no illusions about the men I date.’
‘If it was anyone else—’ Kieran hadn’t been able to look at me since he’d arrived ‘—we could figure something out.’
‘No, we couldn’t,’ Shay snapped. ‘No dating someone of a higher or lower position. It’s plain and simple and we aren’t making an exception for a director. Or a relative.’
‘What about Lucy and Steven?’ I threw back.
‘That’s not the same.’ Kieran shook his head vigorously. ‘They’re married.’
‘So, if you’re married, it’s fine?’
‘You’re the damn HR expert here. You know the protocols,’ Kieran said. ‘But you’ve known each other, what, two months? Marriage is hardly relevant to this situation.’
‘Even if we didn’t employ him,’ Shay sneered. I was used to seeing her livid, shouting and swearing, throwing things – although never at me. This bitter contempt was withering. ‘Why Leo, Mary? Knowing what Kieran went through? It’s so wrong.’
‘I don’t know what Kieran went through!’ I exclaimed, in full defensive mode. I’d finally found a good man, who was crazy enough about me to risk his dream job, and they couldn’t even try to be happy for me. ‘I wasn’t part of the inner duo, so I didn’t get to know that information.’
‘You know he couldn’t talk about it!’ Shay finally lost her temper. ‘You saw how he was whenever he came back from London. Are you so stupid, you couldn’t figure out for yourself how this would hurt him? Or so spoiled and selfish, you don’t care?’
‘What?’ All my bravado disintegrated, exposing the guilt-ridden mess cowering behind it.
‘It’s basic enough! You don’t date your best friend’s brother. Let alone this barely a brother. Who also happens to work for us. Honestly, Mary, could you have picked someone worse? If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were trying to cause trouble.’
‘So, what now?’ Kieran sounded numb. ‘How do we fix this without it becoming a legal nightmare?’
Shay whipped her head around to look at him. ‘Do you think that’s why he did it? So he can sue us down the line? Screw you over?’
If you’d asked me up until this meeting, I’d have sworn that Leo and I were two people in love who happened to have the misfortune of working for the same company. Leo not making a big deal out of it had meant I’d really not taken Kieran being his brother seriously enough.
Were they right, though? Was this all a scam to hurt Kieran? Was I the monumental fool who’d been so easily reeled in?
Even if it wasn’t, I had no idea what to do about it.
Would I resign, if it meant Leo could keep his job, and I could keep Leo?
I’d known him for just over two months.
I couldn’t breathe. My heart felt like a boulder sinking to the bottom of my chest.
‘I’ll sort it,’ I said, voice strangled.
‘How?’ Shay demanded.
‘I’m the HR expert. I’ll come up with something.’
* * *
After three agonising days and sleepless nights, wracking my brains, scouring the company policies I’d helped write, I’d come up with nothing better than my first solution: to leave ShayKi.
It took me another day of avoiding Leo’s panicked messages before I plucked up the courage to fill him in.
I was worried he’d insist on being the one to go.
I was equally worried he wouldn’t, because, although I was the person officially in the wrong, if he’d meant it about how much he loved me, he’d surely at least offer as a gesture.
His reaction floored me.
‘So, we get married, then. Easy.’
I took a long moment before being able to reply.
‘What?’ It was all I could come up with.
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m sort of offended you didn’t suggest it already. Although I get you might have wanted me to be the one doing the asking. And I will, properly. I promise. If I’m honest, I’ve already started planning it.’
‘What?’
‘Mary Whittington, will you marry me?’ Leo had dropped to one knee. He wiggled off the platinum ring he wore on his little finger and held it out to me. ‘Come on. Don’t make me sweat, here.’
‘That’s insane.’
Leo looked hurt. ‘You think the idea of marrying me is insane? I thought it was inevitable. Sweet pea, the only insanity is how madly I’m in love with you.’ He hesitated, dropping the ring slightly. ‘I thought you felt the same.’
‘I do! I do feel the same. You know I love you. But we’ve not been together that long. We haven’t even met each other’s parents.’
I hadn’t even told my parents I was seeing anyone, and I suspected he hadn’t either.
He shook that off. ‘Do we really care what our parents think? It could take forever for us to get to the US with your work schedule. And from what you’ve said, they disapprove of everything else you do.’
‘Well, yes…’
‘It’s you and me, Mary. We know how we feel. The only reason we risked all this is because we knew it was real. It’s worth it because it’s forever. You’re my person. Why should either of us give up our jobs when we would have got married before long, anyway?’
He went on, reminding me how much he loved me, how he’d do anything to make me happy, how we should elope, the two of us, get away from all the haters and show them how serious we were about each other.
I’d spent my whole life desperate to belong, to come first. Now, the man I loved was asking me to do just that.
I had promised Shay and Kieran I’d fix it.
On Christmas Eve, I kept that promise.
I’d already spent the past few days hiding at Leo’s house, avoiding the traditional Christmas activities with Shay and Kieran.
Instead of helping Shay host the annual Christmas Eve bonfire party in our apartment block garden, I was getting married in the Sheffield Register Office, the only witnesses two strangers we’d found off the street, which Leo thought was romantic and I found cringy and awkward.
Determined to do the whole thing differently, to play down the magnitude of the moment, we bought each other the tackiest Christmas jumpers we could find, and wore those.
Afterwards we went to a cosy pub we’d never visited before, and got drunk enough to sing ‘Fairytale of New York’ in the karaoke competition.
When Leo announced we’d just got married, we were bought so many drinks I could barely stagger home.
After sleeping our hangovers off for most of Christmas Day, we caught the first Boxing Day flight with free seats at Sherwood Forest airport, to a tiny island off the Welsh coast called Siskin.
A true Leo honeymoon ensued. All last-minute plans and spontaneous adventures.
Or, he proudly told me, a true Leo-and-Mary honeymoon.
He kept stopping to tell me how much he loved his wild-hearted wife.
His wife didn’t tell him how much she wanted to get back to her job and a familiar routine.
Or how much she missed the friends she’d left behind there.