Page 55 of Pride & Precedents

"True, but aren't interoffice romances against the rules? Maybe not firm policy, but certainlyyourrules."

His face looks so pained. If each word from his lips weren't tearing into my heart, I might feel bad.

"You're right. Generally, I don't think relationships at work are a good idea."

"Generally?," I ask, my eyebrow lifted.

"Well, when I wrote the rules, I was talking more about, you know, full-fledgedrelationships. We might get there someday, but we're just having fun for now, right?"

Of course. Silly me. I don't know what I was thinking.

"And Camila, as soon as we tell them, they'll split us up. I'll have to get a new paralegal. We can't be together and work together." He pats my hand.

"We're such a great team. We should wait to announce anything until we're sure it'll be worth it."

I feel hollow; brittle and close to shattering. How could I have been so wrong? What I felt between us was electric, like something finally locking into place after years of tinkering. I thought we were ready to take the next step, and he's worried about someone else taking his dictation.

I keep my face neutral and stand with my back straight.

"I understand. You're probably right." Henry stands to meet me, uncertainty etched in his features.

"I was going to wait until later today to tell you, but I'll be taking a leave of absence to finish studying for the bar."

"Of course," he reassures me, though he doesn't smile.

"I had planned to give you three weeks' notice, but given what just happened, I think I should go now. Let the dust settle andthen see where things are with us." I start towards the door and he grabs my hand.

"Camila. I wasn't saying… I still want to be with you."

I gently pull my hand from his and open the door.

"No, you're right. We weren't anything serious. There's no sense making things more complicated when the Naomi situation is about to blow up. You've got a conference call in," I look at my watch, "ten minutes. I'll let you get prepped and get the soonest available meeting with Bannister and Banks."

I pull the door closed on his protests and almost run into Vanessa. She must have been standing right outside the door. From the grim look on her face, she heard more than she should have.

"Is that how you took my job? Yousleptwith him?"

I push past her to my desk.

"I don't know what you think you heard, but I worked for everything I got." She rolls her eyes.

"I always knew something was off. I'm gone for three weeks, come back and I'm out of a job?"

"Didn't you move to support Jonathan?"

"Don't remind me," she spits angrily. "You know I had to take a pay cut when I moved to him?"

"I didn't know that, actually."

"Well, I did. And now I find out you wormed your way into a spot with Sub Zero by sleeping with him?" She looks disgusted.

All these years, I never realized. I barely even thought about her. I guess when Jonathan started hating me, I should've assumed she would, too.

"You can think what you want, Vanessa. Henry asked me to stay on because you were doing shit work and I could tell when you were training me that I was going to take your job someday soon."

She steps back like I've slapped her, then a nasty smile stretches across her face.

"Oh really? Well, how did you even get Henry to sleep with you, huh? Everyone sees the kind of women he dates. Models. Executives. Why would he waste his time with a fat paralegal like you? Be serious."

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