Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
“What do you think you’re doing here?” Cynthia’s terse voice made Roma jump and nearly spill the coffee she had been making.
“Excuse me?” Roma asked, suddenly worried that she had actually been fired for messing up a client’s first date, even though she was one hundred percent sure Cynthia wouldn’t do that to her.
“I told you to take a few days!” Cynthia exclaimed.
Before she really understood what was happening, her boss walked over and gave her a hug. It was a slightly stiff, awkward hug, but it was a hug nonetheless, and Roma appreciated the gesture.
“I know, but I?—”
“Seriously?” Nate’s voice interrupted. “You’re at work?”
“Geez! Yes!” she replied, pulling away from Cynthia and fixing him with a glare. “I’m fine!”
The dirty look he gave her made her want to say something unprofessional, but they were at work now, so she held back. Besides, she wasn’t sure where they actually stood with each other.
Luckily, Cynthia spoke up and distracted her. “I won’t stop you from being here, but I still think that you should take a few days off.”
Roma shifted nervously from foot to foot.
She really didn’t want to have this talk with Nate nearby, but seeing her boss’s determined expression, she knew she had no choice.
“Cynthia, I don’t really have proper PTO.
I’m a contractor; even if I did have it, in the normal sense, I haven’t been here long enough to accumulate much. ”
Cynthia’s eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips. “Young lady, first of all, you do have proper paid time off; it just looks a little different in your contract. And second of all, you obviously didn’t read the compassionate-leave clause. It’s unlimited and entirely up to my discretion.”
She knew she looked like an idiot as she stared at Cynthia, but she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. Roma had, of course, read the compassionate-leave clause in her contract, but she had never expected the company to follow it.
“Isn’t that normally for a parent dying or something?” Roma asked, trying hard not to think about the idea of either her parents dying.
“Do you seriously think that getting kidnapped and then rescued by a SWAT-style team in the middle of the night doesn’t count as something I would care about?”
“It’s not that I don’t think that you have compassion!” Roma exclaimed. “It just… It hasn’t exactly been my experience that my boss actually cares about anything going on in my life. I promise I’m not trying to guilt-trip you!”
Cynthia shook her head and sighed. “Nate? Take this foolish girl—this fully paid and well-compensated foolish girl—home and make sure somebody checks on her.”
The urge to argue was strong, but was curtailed by what Nate said next.
“Oh, I’m sure we don’t have to worry about her getting checked on.”
“Excuse me?” she retorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The man didn’t even show the good grace to look ashamed. Not that she was exactly sure what he should be ashamed of, but Roma knew he hadn’t meant anything kind with his words.
“Exactly what I said—that I’m sure you’ve got somebody checking on you.”
There was something off about the tone of his voice, like he was trying to make an innuendo but couldn’t quite get past sounding sincere. This is the guy who wanted to keep their relationship professional while on the clock?
Nate had been giving mixed signals ever since they met.
Well, maybe not exactly the day they met, considering they had met over a contested coffee shop table, and he had been clearly annoyed at her in that situation.
Since then, though, she realized she’d never truly understood how he felt about her outside the moments they shared.
When they were confrontational, it seemed like he didn’t like her very much. However, whenever they were alone, she could swear they connected on a level she hadn’t felt before. And when they were making out, she felt like they were meant for each other.
Right now, however, she felt like he was saying something she couldn’t quite understand, like he was speaking pig Latin, and while she could decode a few words, she couldn’t quite grasp the entire sentence.
She noticed Cynthia glance between the two of them and realized they were arguing in a way they probably didn’t want their boss to see. Roma forced a smile and gave a half-hearted laugh, hoping Nate would catch on.
“Yes, I’ve got plenty of people checking on me,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve been happy to see a police car outside of my house.”
Nate looked a little sheepish, as though her sudden change in tone had made him realize how he had been acting.
“Exactly. And while I don’t doubt that it’s the right thing to do, and you should absolutely have a patrol car with you right now, it’s not exactly a good look to have a cruiser just sitting outside the office on the curb.
I think we need to consider how this appears to the clients. ”
Despite knowing that he was absolutely covering up whatever he’d meant before, Roma couldn’t say that she disagreed.
“Maybe I should go home,” she said, glancing nervously at Cynthia.
“I think so too, though that’s not why I think you should.” Cynthia reached out and squeezed Roma’s shoulder as she spoke.
“Okay, fine,” she said. “Take me home then.”
Detective Isaac had told her she could have officers drive her to and from work if she wanted, but she didn’t. She wanted Nate to drive her. They hadn’t been alone together since those few moments on the beach after the police pulled her out of the shack. He hadn’t even texted her.
Clapping her hands together with a big, triumphant smile, Cynthia said, “Good, make sure she gets something to eat on the way there as well?”
With that, she turned on her heel and exited the kitchen with a flourish, leaving Roma holding a now stone-cold, half-made cup of coffee and standing silently face to face with Nate.
He shook his head, turned around, and fished his keys out of his pocket. Jangling them at her, he said, “Well, come on then.”