Page 36 of The Complication
Byron’s smooth brow furrowed. “We’ve met?”
“Not quite. I was working as a temp at Courtland from the middle of May through the middle of August. In my opinion, you got a raw fucking deal.”
For a second, Byron stared at me, his eyes wide and his pale cheeks tinted pink. “Oh. I…”
“And if it helps, Declan and I have a sort of friends with benefits things going.” I stopped and scrubbed my hand through my messy hair. Why sugarcoat it? “Eh…actually, it wasn’t much of a friends thing. Mostly, he’d come over to my apartment and fuck my brains out every weekend. That agreement only got hotter when I started working under him because it gave me the chance to flirt with him during the day. Get him all hot and bothered. Seriously, I was an HR nightmare, but I was also just temp help and my contract is up now, so it doesn’t matter.”
Byron still hadn’t made any new noises, or even breathed. I waited. He was either going to roll with it or clasp his pearls and storm out.
But Byron did me one better.
The man released a loud rush of air and scooted to the edge of the couch cushion, leaning closer. “I’m so jealous! I was terrified the entire time we were dating at Courtland that we’d be discovered. Sebastian would try to flirt, but I always shut him down. I wish we could have had more fun.”
“Sebastian has one of those private bathrooms in his office, right? No secret quickie in the bathroom?”
Byron shook his head. “No.”
I shrugged. “I could never talk Declan into that, either. It was mostly flirty, dirty talk on my end and a lot of glaring from him. Of course, he had no idea that I’d been hired. One of his managers brought me on to cover for two people on maternity leave. I was there to lighten the load. There was never any plan for me to join the company long term.”
“Ahhh…that makes sense. Declan was always very adamant about Sebastian moving me to another department so I wouldn’t get in trouble. Declan must not have been worried about you since he knew you weren’t staying.”
“Yep.” I stacked some cheese on a cracker and shoved it into my mouth. My eyes fell shut as I savored the creamy, smoky flavor against the hint of rosemary on the cracker. Who knew rich-people cheese could taste so damn good?
“And for the record,” Byron said as he prepped a cracker with cheese, “I’m okay with Courtland letting me go. It sucked at the time, but I’ve moved on to a far better position at Stanton Holdings.”
“Yeah, but nothing happened to Sebastian? That’s not fair.”
Byron looked up at me with a crooked grin, and I got it. Life wasn’t fair. Only people who wore rose-colored glasses and tiny children expected life to be fair. “I lost a job, but Sebastian lost in several intangible ways. He lost some respect in the eyes of the Board of Directors, his father, and a lot of his employees. The company is going through a hard time right now. Sebastian is trying to shore up finances as well as regain the confidence of his people. Our scandal didn’t help that at all. He also has a new fear that he has set a terrible example for his many managers, and he worries employees may now suffer sexual harassment while fearing for the security of their jobs. I got fired and found a new, better job. My problems are over.”
“Okay. You’ve got a good point,” I murmured. I was also starting to like Byron, and I hadn’t set out wanting to. He was one of Declan’s nosy friends sent to check me out, but it was turning out that he was a pretty decent guy.
So decent, in fact, that we ended up talking for close to two hours about fucking life. He heard about me losing Molly, gaining a daughter, and losing an apartment. I learned about his alcoholic mother, his disabled brother, and more about America’s shitty healthcare system. It was only when Franks popped in to tell me that Joy was stirring from her afternoon nap that I even realized so much time had passed.
“Shit,” Byron swore as he pulled his phone from his pocket. “I didn’t mean to keep you so long. I lost track of time.”
“Me too.” I chuckled. “I’m sure Sebastian is eager to hear the dirt you got on me.”
Byron snorted. “He’s not hearing anything from me other than the fact that you’re a friend of Declan’s and you have an adorable daughter.” He delivered that in the haughtiest tonewhile I cackled beside him. “If he wants dirt, he’s going to need to talk to you himself.”
I walked Byron to the front door, where we swapped contact information. I promised to invite him over to see the mural as soon as I finished it.
After the door closed behind Byron, I stood there in the hallway, staring at it, my brain running in strange, frantic circles.I might have made a new friend.
13
DECLAN FOSTER
A few hours after dinner,Parker joined me in the lounge, the baby monitor in hand. This had become a pleasant routine over the past several days. Following our evening meal, Parker would take Joy upstairs for a bath and a story. A short time later, she would drift off to sleep and he would join me for a drink and conversation. Parker still did most of the talking, though, filling my ears with adorable stories of Joy. The best ones included pictures or videos.
Parker was convinced she was days away from saying her first word. Unless it started with “Ahhh,” I was sure her first word was a ways off, but I could be wrong. Every day they stayed in the house, I was reminded of how little I knew about babies.
Despite this new complication to my neatly organized life, I couldn’t deny that Parker fit here. He fit in my home and my life. Even Franks and Chef Donovan each seemed to have an extra spring in their step. Neither had breathed a word of complaint or concern about the added work.
“Sorry I didn’t get those mock-ups done for you today,” Parker apologized after finishing his story about Joy’s bath-time antics. Apparently, she wasn’t a fan of bathing withouther special yellow-duck washcloth. “I’m nearly finished with one idea, but another came to me this evening, and I want to play with that one to give you some options for what I was thinking for that front parlor.” He paused, a smile growing on his lips. He scrubbed a hand through his unruly hair. It was longer than he normally wore it. With everything that had happened in the past month, it was likely he’d forgotten all about scheduling a haircut.
It was tempting to schedule an appointment with my stylist for him, but I hesitated because I wanted to run my fingers through it. To twist my fist in his hair as I held him down for a long, thorough kiss. It had been so long since I’d last tasted him.
“Declan?”
