Page 84 of Playing With Secrets
He’s in the chair behind his desk as I enter. “Dori, thanks for taking the time to go over the updated requirements we’ll need in place.”
“No problem. Tell me what you need from me.”
“With the last phase of the launch coming up, I need you to be on top of everything. This time, there’s no room for missed deadlines.”
My cheeks heat and my chest tightens. Guilt and shame slam into me, stopping me from taking another step.
“Jonah, let me first start by reiterating how bad I feel about the times I’ve let the team down. There was so much going on during that time. I won’t make the same mistakes. You have my word.”
He nods, but worry hangs in his expression. “I hope we can count on that. I vouched for you last time and won’t be able to if it happens again. This job has a lot of requirements and we need someone who can handle it. We believe that’s you, so don’t prove us wrong.”
“I won’t. There’s nothing to distract me this time. This job and the app are the most important things for me right now.”
“That’s reassuring to hear.”
I sit in the chair in front of his desk. “I’m sorry. You’ve known me for years and I’ve always been reliable. Trust me. I’m not going to let you down.”
He scans over me like he needs to say something but doesn’t want to. He takes a breath and nods.
“Dori, it’s none of my business, but you’ll need to work closely with Jamison for this next phase. Is that going to be a problem?” Jonah’s face turns pink, indicating he’s referring to the rumor about Jamison and me.
I want to crawl into a hole but decide it’s better to just get this over with and have an honest discussion with Jonah.
“I’m aware of the rumors about me and Jamison. If you have questions, please ask me. But you need to know those rumors were lies.”
“Understood.”
“If I ever find out who started them, I’ll go straight to them and make them announce to everyone that they made it up for the sake of gossip.”
“Thanks for the explanation. It seemed out of character, but there were times you were acting strange when I saw you together.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard you arguing more than once. If there’s something you need to tell me, let’s get it out in the open now. I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m dealing with.” Jonah gently smiles, giving me an opening to come clean.
“There’s nothing true about those rumors. We never even hugged in my office. I can assure you there will be zero chance of anything getting back to you that would raise concerns.” My stomach aches having this conversation.
I stand, needing to move some of my energy out of my body. Jonah stands as well and walks toward the door.
“I need to grab some marketing documents from downstairs. Wait here and I’ll be right back.” He leaves and I’m pretty sure he did it so I could regain some of my dignity.
As I wait for Jonah to return, a woman’s hoity-toity voice demanding to see Hunter catches my attention. I walk over to Jonah’s office door to find out more.
Once Hailey welcomes her, she lets it be known she’s Ava Aldridge and Hunter’s expecting her.
My adrenaline jumps because as far as I know, she’s never been to the office. I peek around the corner to see if I can get an idea of what she wants with him.
Hailey knocks on Hunter’s door and announces Ava’s presence. She pushes by Hailey without any concern for what he’s doing in his office.
Right as Ava enters, another woman’s voice comes floating down the hall. I freeze and eavesdrop on their exchange.
“Ava, what a pleasure to see you again.” The other woman’s voice comes in louder as if she’s walking toward his open office door. “Hunter and I were just finishing up.”
“There’s no pleasure in seeing you, Isabella. Now that I know what you are to Hunter, you can drop the act. We don’t like each other and never will.” Ava quickly puts Isabella in her place.
“You were so much kinder when I met you at dinner with Jamison the other night. Like I told you that evening when he introduced us, he was mistaken when he thought Hunter and I were dating. We aren’t, so you can relax.”
Jamison was with them at a restaurant?
