Chapter 21

Brendon

You might think it would be impossible for two people who worked in such close proximity not to see each other regularly, but somehow Aurora and I had barely had any alone time all week. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was by her design, since she'd been acting strange since the dinner at my parents' place.

I had no idea what was wrong with her at first, and it drove me to near madness. I wanted to ask her about it, but it was never the right time. She was always busy with something at work, and she had excuses upon excuses not to see me afterward. By Thursday, I figured it out.

Aurora was upset that our relationship was still a secret at work. Why wouldn't she be? I'd introduced her to my parents, I'd gone on a trip with her and my little nephew, and I'd told her I loved her. It didn't make sense for us to stay hush hush at work just because we didn't want anyone to mistake our relationship for anything improper. We were adults, weren't we?

Friday morning, I sat and waited at my desk. I didn't know what kind of response I was going to get to the memo I'd just sent out, and I only hoped that it wouldn't be overwhelmingly negative. I kept my office blinds open so I could watch Aurora stroll up to her desk—and the giant bouquet of flowers waiting there for her.

She cast a glance in my direction, though she couldn't see me properly through the slats. I grinned nonetheless. I could practically see the gears whirring in her head as she tried to figure out what my game plan was. The note on the flowers told her to check her email, and I saw her sit at her desk, face out of view. I wished I could see her expression when she read the office-wide memo that informed everyone of our relationship. As it was, I'd just have to hope it was the good kind of surprised.

Aurora shot up from her desk a moment later and started walking briskly toward my office. I rose and closed the blinds just as she knocked on the door.

"Come in," I called, letting the last of the blinds fall closed. I didn't care that others might see what was going on and judge. I needed a moment alone with my woman, so we could finally put all this distance under the bridge and get back to the way things were.

The door cracked open and Aurora slipped inside, closing it behind her.

"Thank you for the flowers," she said, expression unreadable.

"Did you like them?"

"They're beautiful."

"But did you like them?" I strode to her and took her face in my hands, unable to resist the urge to touch her anymore. We were all good now, right? There shouldn't have been anything else between us. So why did she still look so troubled?

"I liked them. Thank you."

"You've already said thank you."

"Well I mean it." She smiled, but it was weak and layered with something else. "You didn't have to do all that, you know."

I leaned down and brushed my lips over hers. Just a taste for now.

"I wanted to."

She studied me, green eyes flicking over my face like she was looking for something. But what? A lie? Surely she knew me better than that. I never did anything without a purpose.

"Aurora, what's wrong?"

Her eyes widened just a fraction before she covered up her dismay.

"Nothing's wrong."

I continued cupping her face, holding her in place now so my eyes could bore into hers.

"Something's wrong. I can see it in your eyes. You've been avoiding me all week, Aurora."

She shook her head. "It's not you, I swear. I'm just a bit off-kilter at the moment, okay?" She stepped back, pulling out of my grip. "Can we not do this right now? I have a lot of work to do."

She didn't even wait for my answer. Aurora turned and marched right back out the door, closing it so gently behind her that it barely even made a whisper.

What the fuck?

I ran a hand through my hair and turned back to my desk, scowling at the polished wood. What just happened? What was that supposed to mean? Was her problem that I hadn't acknowledged our relationship or not?

My phone rang and I sighed. Back to reality, I supposed.

I ambled over to answer the phone, leaning against the desk as I did.

Peter was on the other end of the line, as enthusiastic as ever. "Hey there, Lock. How are things?"

The familiar tone and the recent nature of my interaction with Aurora made me a little more open than usual. Rather than giving some trite and meaningless response, I actually told him.

"I'm a bit stressed out right now, if I'm being honest. Aurora has been distant with me all week and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Everything was perfect up until it wasn't."

If Peter was thrown off by my candid reply he didn't show it.

"That's the bricks, man. The bricks. What kind of distant?"

I sighed and began to unload, desperately needing someone to lay all this out for me before I went crazy. I told him about the dinner with my parents, and about how she hadn't been making time for me outside of work. I told him that I'd officially "come out" about our relationship and everything, only to have her essentially close the door in my face. All the while, Peter listened better than I would have ever given him credit for. In fact, he was a model friend.

Until he put in his two cents, that is.

"You know, I've seen this before, actually," he said. "A buddy of mine was dating this chick, and everything seemed totally perfect. Then, bam, out of the blue she started ghosting him."

"Why?"

"Ah, turns out she was screwing a buddy of his on the side. I guess she felt bad for it."

I shouldn't have asked.

Peter picked up on my silence and hastily added, "But that's not gonna happen to you, man. Aurora's different."

I thanked Peter for his "advice" and got off the phone as soon as I could. I didn't feel like talking to anybody anymore, especially not my decidedly unhelpful best friend. I didn't want to think ill of Aurora. I didn't think I even had it in me to do so. So why was I tossing around this idea that she might be cheating on me?

She wasn't like that, was she?