Page 97 of Twist of Fate
I shrug. “Kind of,” I answer honestly, noticing the hurt in her eyes before I add, “Well, not you! But everyone else, maybe. Nothing beyond our six-month contract is guaranteed, and I didn’t want people thinking I was getting special treatment if I was offered an extension.”
She scoffs. “Everyone knows Finn wouldn’t do that. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to O’Connell. Well, I mean now.”
“What do you mean now?” My eyes widen as I realize I hadn’t connected the dots before. “You were here before Finn left to become a tour guide, weren’t you?”
She nods. “Briefly, but yeah. He was wild, let me tell ya.”
I think about that for a minute. “I can’t imagine him like that. I mean, I know it’s true; he’s told me as much, but I just can’t picture him as he is now and see how it fits with an out-of-control fuckboy.”
She bursts into laughter. “Well, thank God for whatever miraculous change happened to the man, because this place needed it.”
That piques my interest. “Was his dad horrible or something?”
She shakes her head. “No. Just—” She pauses as if searching for the right word. Pursing her lips, she finally continues. “He was the typical wealthy businessman. He never spoke directly to any employees and never even came down to the main floor. He was essentially a ghost to all of us. He managed things the same way year after year. No changes, no improvements. When Finn took over, he not only gave it a makeover and brought it into the present century—he gave it life.”
I smile, yet I feel a twinge of sadness because I wish it didn’t come at the cost of his own happiness.
Or mine.
“Wait,” I said, backpedaling. “How did you know?—”
“That you were fucking the CEO?”
I roll my eyes. “Oh my god! Stop saying that! Someone is going to hear?—”
“That you’re riding the bossman?” Niall says, waltzing into the conference room. He gives me a wink before taking a seat across from us.
I raise my hands in frustration. “Does everyone know?”
“Yep.” That’s Damien; he takes the seat next to Niall.
“You don’t even know what we’re talking about. You just walked in.
“That you and Finn are?—”
I toss a pen at his perfect face.
Everyone laughs.
“Seriously. How do you all know? We’ve tried really hard to be discreet.”
“You’re doing a shite job of it,” Shea says. “For future reference, keep the eye-fucking to a minimum when in meetings.”
Oops. At least they don’t know about the very explicit text messages he was sending that led to the eye-fucking.
“And when you come back from a ‘meeting,’” Niall says, using air quotes for the last word. Maybe do a better job fixing your, uh—” He points to my blouse. I look down and nearly squeak in mortification because I didn’t even realize it was unbuttoned. My lace bra is practically hanging out.
How did Finn not notice that?
“Oh my god!”
“Never took you for the office hookup kind of girl,” Shea says. “Have to say, I’m kind of impressed.”
“Can you give recommendations on the best spots?” Niall chimes in with a wicked grin. “There’s this girl in the call center I’ve been flirting with, and I’d love to start scoping out locations.”
I shake my head at their absurd antics. “You know what? You can all just fuck right off.”
They all burst into laughter.
