Page 112 of Melted by a Man

Mary studied the two of us, lifting her legs and wrapping her arms around her knees, “Does anyone else know?”

I shook my head.

“How long has this been going on?”

I sighed, lifting the covers to hide my face in them.

Leo adjusted a bit, pulling me closer to him, “It’s complicated.”

“Okay,” Mary rolled her eyes, “When was the first time you…” She inserted her index finger between a circle created with her other index finger and thumb.

I snorted, adrenaline still coursing through me. But my body was suddenly so exhausted from the attack I had just taken on, that I felt almost loopy.

Mary knew.

Leo was cuddling me in the middle of the office.

Nothing mattered anymore.

“Before he was interviewed.”

Mary’s eyes practically bulged out of their sockets, “Pardon?”

“We met the night before my interview with her and Signe,” Leo added, I felt him lean his cheek away from me, a thud indicating that he was now resting his head against the wall he was sitting against, “But then I got hired, and we kept things strictly professional.”

I rolled my eyes, “Until a few months ago when he bent me over—”Wait, no, I probably shouldn’t say that to Leo’s cousin. I cut myself off a moment too late, because Mary screeched, pulling her black sweater up over her head to hide from my words. It was comical, making me laugh as she pretended to gag underneath the collar of her sweater.

Leo was holding back his laughter again as his voice dropped near my ear, “She doesn’t need to know those kinds of details.”

I blushed, thoroughly embarrassed, “Sorry.”

I was ass at navigating basic social settings, I had no clue how to handle a conversation that included Leo’s cousin asking ussomedetails about our sex life, but not wanting to know others.

Randomly, I thought about Mariam’s reaction when I eventually updated her on this particular development in my life.

“Is it serious?” was Mary’s next question, muffled by her sweater as she revealed her eyes to us.

I shrugged, my brain unwilling to process more for that question. Leo cleared his throat before managing to get out, “Haven’t gotten that far.”

“Ah,” Mary nodded.

Something buzzed on the ground, and as Leo shifted to pull his phone out from his pocket, I made my way to sit up so that he could. Without speaking, he tightened his other arm around me, keeping me there.

“I have a meeting in thirty minutes,” Leo murmured.

“I should get up.”

“You don’t have to,” Mary was starting to stand up though, “Take a beat.” As she finally got to her feet, she hesitated. Mary tapped her fingers on her pant leg for a moment, debating on something.

Then she lifted her head to look at me, “I’m not upset. I was shocked at first, and I think a little hurt. I don’t like feeling left out of the loop…but I shouldn’t have asked you what was wrong with you. That was unfair, to let my feelings control my reaction like that.”

I finally pulled out of Leo’s arms, even though he initially tried to hold me down against him for half a second, standing and dropping the throw blanket at my feet. I stepped toward Mary, who was already opening her arms for a hug when I wrapped both of mine around her.

“I’m sorry, too,” I murmured against her shoulder, “I don’t like keeping secrets, either.”

“I understand why you did, though.”

I sniffled, pulling back and sighing. Mary was now the second woman in the office I had hugged while tears were still stained on my cheeks, which reminded me—

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