Chapter 36 Tired Of Pretending
TIRED OF PRETENDING
“Do you need something?” Nora asked almost three weeks later, glancing up from her computer.
“Just wanted to see you this morning,” Ethan said.
He continued to ask her to stay the night during the week. And as much as she wanted to, it still didn’t feel right. Not yet. The fear of walking in together, yeah, too many people around.
The dust had settled over her connection to Norris.
The whispers lasted less than a week, the stares in the hallway, the hushed speculation when they thought she couldn’t hear.
Then it was old news. Carolyn and Heather were the only ones bold enough to mention it to her face, and even that hadn’t ruffled her as much as she thought, looking back.
She’d heard some rumors that Heather had been spoken to about confronting her. Since her father was part of it, she believed something might have happened. Nora hadn’t asked for details, and didn’t want them. The less said, the better.
But Ethan… he was another story.
Now that one secret was out, he seemed ready for the next one.
Like she’d just walk down the hall holding his hand. Plan their next date in the conference room. Maybe sneak a kiss by the elevators.
Yeah, no. Not happening. Not yet.
Still, there was a part of her that was growing tired of pretending they were nothing more than coworkers.
“You’re seeing me,” she said, glancing at the clock. It was only seven thirty. The building was quiet with most people drifting in closer to eight.
Ethan stepped inside and shut the door behind him, his grin deliberately slow. “Let me see your dress.”
She laughed, shaking her head at the way he wiggled his brows. “Why?”
“Because I’m pretty sure that’s the same one you wore when we got frisky in my bathroom,” he said, his voice low, teasing and sending shivers over her arms. “God, I miss that.”
“Oh, stop,” she said, waving a hand at him. But she couldn’t fight the smile tugging at her lips.
He was right. It was the same dress. And she remembered every damn second of that morning. His damp skin, his laughter, the way the air between them had sparked like the fireworks on the Fourth of July.
It had been early in the morning then too.
Just like today. He’d come in from his run, hot and sweaty, disappearing into his office to shower and change. Now here he was again, fresh, charming, trouble wrapped in a suit and leaning against her closed door like temptation itself.
“Twirl for me,” he said.
She rolled her eyes but stood anyway, giving him a quick spin. “Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” he said, his grin spreading wider.
Everything about him was fun, easy, and full of laughter.
The way he made her feel not just about their relationship but about herself.
The person who she worked so hard to become and then told herself it was in her all along and only needed the right person to bring it out.
That someone was the man she’d lost her heart to.
And the one holding his hand out to her as he stepped closer.
She went into his arms for a hug. There was no resistance and no reason for it.
Just a hug, then a tiny kiss as he bent down to put one on her lips.
But it was that moment her door opened and her father was standing there.
She supposed it could have been worse.
“Nora,” her father snapped, storming in and slamming the door hard enough to rattle the frame. The sharp click of the lock made her stomach tighten. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She lifted her chin. “Kissing my boyfriend.”
She wasn’t a teenager sneaking out past curfew. Not that he’d ever been around for her to do that.
She wasn’t going to shrink under his voice again.
She wasn’t going to allow him to make her feel like shit.
“Your boyfriend?” Her father’s tone rose, disbelief turning to fury. “You came here for a job, and you’re throwing it all away by screwing your boss? Ethan, I’m not surprised, but you”— he jabbed a finger at her—“I raised you better than this. You’re an embarrassment to me. To yourself to do this.”
“Whoa,” Ethan cut in, his voice dangerously low. “You don’t talk to Nora like that.”
“I’ll talk to my daughter however I damn well please.
Stay out of it.” Her father glared between them, disgust twisting his features.
She’d never seen him like this before. Never this angry.
Not even when he’d fought with her mother when she’d been a child.
“I should have known this would happen. You always get caught up in something messy. I’m guessing this isn’t the first time your actions could or have gotten you fired from a job. How many were there?”
Her pulse pounded in her ears. How could he ever think this? For years she’d been an embarrassment to him for not fitting in, not looking the part he thought she should, now that he approved of the changes she’d made, he was laying this on her?!
“None. And for the record, Ethan and I love each other. You don’t get to stand here and tear that apart because you don’t approve.”
“I don’t need to approve,” her father snapped. “What I see is someone throwing away every ounce of self-respect. Maybe this ‘new lifestyle’ of yours gave you permission to behave like this.”
“Norris.” Ethan’s tone turned lethal. “You’re about to cross a line you won’t come back from.”
Her father snorted. “Oh, please.”
“This is my building,” Ethan said, stepping closer, his voice steady and unyielding.
“My company. The only person above me is my father. It’s sure as hell not you.
Not even a lick of power over your daughter here.
If I wanted to fire your ass right now for talking to Nora that way, I could. And trust me, my father would back me.”
“He’d never support this circus,” her father spat, waving a dismissive hand. “You’re delusional.”
Ethan’s eyes hardened. “Actually, he’s known about us for months. Both of my parents have. And they support it.” He pointed toward the door. “Now get the hell out of this office, and don’t you ever speak to Nora like that again.”
Her father unlocked the door, flung it open, and stormed out without another word.
She exhaled shakily, the air thick with leftover anger. She turned and closed the door again. “Ethan,” she said, her voice unsteady. “You shouldn’t have said that to him.”
“What?” He blinked at her, disbelief etched across his face. “You’re joking, right? You think I’m just going to stand here and let him talk to you like that? Talk about us like that? No, Nora. Never. Don’t even think that. Be grateful I wasn’t raising my voice like him.”
But the sharp edge in his tone made her flinch.
This was a side of him she’d never seen before. A controlled fury, protective to a fault, every inch the powerful man people whispered about in the halls.
And suddenly, it scared her. Scared her like it had when her father had held so much power over her as a child.
The power to make her shrink back. To feel tiny and insecure. Not worthy of him or his love.
She hated she had that flashback of the control she lacked.
She took a step back. “Don’t talk to me like that. I mean it. You’re no better than my father if you think I’m going to stand here and let another man tell me what I can or can’t handle. I’m done with that. I’ve had enough.”
“It’s not nearly the same thing,” he said, pushing his hands through his hair. “Don’t get it twisted in your head. I’m not standing around letting anyone talk to the woman I love that way. End of story.”
“No, the end of story is this conversation. Out. I need to talk to my father.”
“No, you’re not going alone to do it.”
She growled at him. A noise that was unfamiliar to her ears, but she wasn’t backing down either. She couldn’t.
She didn’t need anyone to protect her.
Maybe she would have welcomed it years ago, but now, she was strong enough on her own and everyone was going to damn well see it.
“Try and stop me,” she said, brushing past him. He grabbed her arm, not hard, not enough to keep her there, just enough to get her attention. “What? Are you going to threaten to fire me too? I’m willing to bet your mother would side with me.”
She shook her arm loose and marched down the hall to her father’s office. Liz wasn’t in and she didn’t care if her father’s assistant was.
She closed his door with a loud click. “I’m not ready to talk to you.”
“Too damn bad. You’re going to do it,” she said. “Right now. Right here.”
“Nora, don’t push me,” her father growled. “This is what you caused and my job could be on the line now.”
Again, what he was worried about. All about him.
“You’ve pushed me my whole life. Every button I had, you popped it and didn’t even know.
Didn’t see what I wanted from you and never could.
That’s on you. But this, what I’ve got with Ethan.
You don’t get to touch it. You don’t get to judge it or even comment on it.
It’s nothing like what you think. Nothing like what you said. You know why?”
Her father leaned back and crossed his arms. “Looks like you’re going to tell me.”
“That’s right, I am. Because you don’t know me.
Not at all. You’ve never tried. Not once.
But months ago when you called and said you wanted to reconnect, I thought, maybe now it was time.
And I wanted to give it a chance. Not just for me or you, but for us.
But here I am, wanting and waiting for you to care just a little. To give me something.”
“You don’t understand,” her father said, his words slower, as if he had to force them out. Or think of them more carefully.
“No, you don’t. You never will. I don’t know why I even tried. The only good thing that came out of me moving here was meeting Ethan. And if you want to look at it as something dirty, scandalous, or what was your word—a circus? Then that is on you. But it’s none of those things.”
The more she went on the louder her voice was getting.
She expected her father to snap at her to cut it out and not embarrass him again, but his face got flush, his lips tight, and his fist clenched at his chest where his arms were crossed.
“Nora,” he breathed out.
“Dad?” She rushed closer to him, but his eyes shut and his head went on the desk. She opened the door and shouted, “Call nine-one-one.” She’d left her phone on her desk when she stormed out. “Call nine-one-one!”
People came running. Ethan being one of them, rushed into her father’s office and tossed his phone to her to take care of it while he put Norris on the floor, on his back, and started CPR, and didn’t stop until the ambulance came.