Page 36 of The Boss

“You tell me.” Mom put her hands on display, showing off her nails. “They wanted to do these great big claw-like things, but I told them I couldn’t scare small children.”

Mom glanced at me when she said it, and I glared at her. Her desire for grandchildren was an ongoing joke between the two of us. Some days it was funnier than others.

Tiffany’s eyes lit up. “Are you–?”

“No,” I cut her off, holding up a hand. “I’m not.”

As Tiffany headed off to get our drinks, I pointed at Mom. “I thought we talked about this.”

Mom put her hands together and rested her chin on them. “We did, but since you’re not giving me grandchildren, you could at least give me humor.”

I rolled my eyes. “You do realize that I’m still two years younger than you were when you had me, right? And most people now consider mid-twenties to be on the young side for having kids.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not your usual comeback.”

Shit.

“What?” I tried for an expression of innocence.

“Usually, when I harass you about grandchildren, you first say that you need a man. And then I say that there are ways around that. Then you tell me that you don’t want to have a baby before you have–”

“I know what I say,” I interrupted.

Tiffany appeared just then, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She set down our drinks and then took food orders. All of it was a nice distraction from a topic that I still wasn’t sure how to bring up without it being completely awkward.

“How was the party?”

I blinked, confused. “What?”

“The party you told me you were helping plan.”

I flushed. “There were a few hiccups, but it went well.”

I’d already gone online to see what the media had to say, and there didn’t appear to be anything negative. A few were just blurbs that seemed almost bored with the whole affair, but more praised the diversity of Manhattan Records’ artists and complimented how eco-friendly the entire party was.

Fortunately, none of them mentioned Nate or me. I’d hadn’t realized it at the time, but looking back, I could see how he’d steered us out of the path of most of the reporters. I wasn’t so sure aboutwhyhe’d done it, but I was glad he had. The last thing I needed was for pictures of Nate and me to be on the internet.

“I know that look.” Mom put her hand over mine. “What’s going on, Ash?”

I sighed. “I didn’t just plan the party this time. I went. With a…guy. And then, I went home with him.”

Her eyebrows shot up, and the surprise in her blue-green eyes was clear, but she simply squeezed my hand and waited for me to continue.

“We had sex.”

A few seconds of silence followed my announcement, and then Mom spoke, “Do you want to talk about it? It’s okay if you don’t.”

“I do,” I said. “It’s just…complicated.”

She smiled, a slightly sad smile. “When it comes to matters of the heart, it’s rarely simple.”

I opened my mouth to tell her there was no heart involved but found that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t plan on telling her all the details, but I didn’t want to flat-out lie. Therein was the problem. I didn’t know if I’d be lying or not if I brought feelings into it.

Better to stick to the non-feeling facts.

“Well, it’s more about who the guy is than about my heart. You see, he’s kinda my boss…”

Twenty-Two

---