Page 12 of Not Safe For Work

“Oh yeah. You’re both always speaking Spanish together at the office. I assumed you were just being secretive, but is there another reason?”

“Secretive? No, we’re just used to speaking both languages. We were born in Argentina, and our mom always spoke to us in Spanish when we were little.”

I’m really not trying to air my family history, so before she can respond, I walk her through a basic tutorial of how to handle a hedgehog. She seems eager to cuddle with him, which isn’t always the case. Most people assume he can’t be held without hurting them. Gabby always tells me that my love language is physical touch, and now I’m wondering if it’s possible that Liv’s is the same.

I grab the sling Kadesha made and let Liv use it. Once she’s settled with Churro in her lap and smiling again, I run out to grab the food.

Dinner goes by easily with a bit of small talk, but as we finish and I sense her getting ready to jet, I can’t stop myself from asking, “Will you tell me what happened?”

She looks back at me like I’m holding a loaded gun, like if she stares into my eyes long enough, she’ll be able to know if she can trust me not to shoot.

“You can trust me,” I say.

Her gaze turns thoughtful. Then she hands me her phone. “Read it.”

I quickly parse through the email to see it’s from the CMO at Surf and Stream. And then I— “He asked you out? What a creep.”

Her arms fly up over her head. “Thank you! That’s whatIthought.”

“I don’t get it. Did he do something to you? Why are you so upset over this?” I don’t mean to diminish her feelings, and if this guy fucking touched her, I’ll kill him. I just don’t think Liv is the kind of girl to freak out over a request for a date. A polite request at that.

“Mitch doesn’t want me to say no. In fact, he sort of insinuated that if I reject him, and we lose this deal, I’ll never get promoted.”

“Are you fucking with me?” That is complete bullshit. And also… “Wait. Are you sure he wasn’t joking? Ian would flip if he found out. There’s no way he’d go along with you dating someone else just to help our bottom line.”

Liv’s gaze drops down to the sofa and she starts to chew on the inside of her cheek. She still has Churro in her lap but he’s fast asleep. “Ian wouldn’t care. We’re not together anymore. He…he dumped me.”

I clench every muscle I have trying to school my features.Hedumpedher?

“I haven’t really told anyone,” she continues. “Only Andie knows. Well, and HR. So Mitch found out right away.”

“How long?” I ask, trying and failing to keep any emotion out of my voice.

“Huh?”

“How long have you been broken up for?”

“Oh. A few months now.”

What the hell? Mitch knew about this formonthsand didn’t tell me? He’s the only one besides Gabby who knows how I felt about Liv. So much for thinking we were friends.

“I’m really sorry,” I say, only because I’m sure she’s expecting me to saysomethingand not jump up and down on the couch screaming “fuck yes!”

“I’m not. I can’t believe I was with him for so long. He wasn’t—sorry, never mind.”

I would kill to know what she was about to say, but before I can find my words her phone chimes. She flinches when she reads the text.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing. Just Mitch again.”

I check my watch and see it’s almost nine o’clock. “Does he normally text you at night?”

“All the time. It’s so annoying,” she whines.

“Really? Like about work or…”

“Rarely. He usually just wants to know if I’m caught up on the latest episode ofDragon Warsor he’ll ask for advice on what to do with his ex-wife. I really,reallywish I didn’t know so much about his love life.” She makes a “blech” noise.

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