Hard Rules

She gives an exaggerated sigh. “Alas, it seems I must end our lunch early. I’ve been ordered home. My husband’s not feeling well after all, and needs me. And to think he was going to try to hide his new rounds of chemo from me.” She tucks her phone back into her purse and hooks it over her shoulder. “Let’s head back and finish talking on the way. They’ll put the bill on my tab.”

“Of course.” Eager to end this encounter, I too grab my purse and we quickly make our way to the exit, stepping outside to gusting winds and droplets of rain that effectively save me by ending the conversation.

Once we’ve dashed back into the building, she faces me to softly say, “No one is to know about his cancer. Understood?”

“I would never tell something so private without permission.”

“Excellent. You’re a good girl, Emily. Let’s keep you that way.” She reaches up and drags my hair through her fingers, frowning as she does. “Emily, honey. You need to cover those blond roots. I’ll text you my hairdresser’s number. In the meantime, mascara on the roots. It works.” She turns and walks away, oblivious of the bombshell she’s just landed, leaving me stunned, my knees wobbling with the impact of yet another secret exposed.

My lies are everywhere, sucking me into a hole I fear I’ll never escape, and my biggest fear is that they might be exposed and used not just against me, but against Shane. Mentally shaking myself, I hurry toward the public bathroom, dash to the back stall that has a sink and mirror inside and inspect my hair, cringing at the blond that seems to have appeared at my hairline overnight. Quickly taking Maggie’s advice, I dig out my mascara, and manage with limited success to hide the lighter shade of my natural hair, resorting to a ton of hairspray to hide the rest.

Task complete, I exit the bathroom with my promise to call Shane weighing on my mind, and head to the coffee shop, where I hope to find privacy. With my phone already in my hand, I place an order, claim my drink, and sit down at a corner table, the sexy, funny memory of meeting Shane here playing in my mind. I’d been seduced from the moment I met him, and now … now I know I’m headed toward love with this man. I, of all people, know the death of love is lies.

My phone rings and sure enough, it’s Shane. Drawing in a calming breath, I punch the answer button. “I was about to call you. Your father wasn’t feeling well so she cut the lunch short, which suited me just fine.”

“How did you even end up at lunch with her?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. “Never mind. I know the answer. She bulldozed you.”

“Much like her son, she doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer if she doesn’t want ‘no’ for an answer.”

“Unlike her son, she always has an agenda. What was she after?”

“She seemed to want me to stay away from you and Derek, and align myself with her.”

“Me,” he says flatly. “You’re sure?”

“She never confronted me about seeing you, but she did say quite clearly that you and Derek would target me. Specifically, by seducing me or paying me for information that might help with the goal of taking over the company. And while it could be coincidence, she took me to lunch at Jeffrey’s to deliver that warning.”

“It wasn’t a coincidence,” he says tightly.

“That was what I thought too, I just didn’t want to assume the worst of your mother.” I hesitate. “She claims to be concerned about your and Derek’s divide, but she seemed to really want me to think the worst of you.”

“And did it work?”

“Not for a minute.”

“My light in the storm of betrayal,” he says softly. “We’ll talk more about my mother tonight, but I’m going to be off-site when you finish work. One of the partners from my old firm is in town and wants me to meet him for drinks, but I should be done by seven. I’ll send a car to get you at six forty-five.”

“I need to run a few errands after work,” I say, thinking about dyeing my hair, and replacing the phone I threw away this morning. “Can the car pick me up at my apartment at eight?”

“I’ll set it up,” he confirms. “And I’m leaving an elevator card for you at the front desk and a key to the apartment just in case I run late.”

A card and key feel like the trust that I so want to deserve. We say our good-byes and my mind lands on the moment at lunch when Maggie cornered me about my parents dying in a plane crash and I decide that lie is the one that is going to make me crash and burn. Shane’s words replay in my head. The light in my storm of betrayal. The idea that the lies forced on me by another could make him believe I’m a part of that storm, twists me in knots. I have to tell Shane that I lied to Human Resources and his mother before she says something and he finds out from her. If only I could safely tell him everything.

I leave work at five o’clock, a luxury I am certain I wouldn’t have if Shane’s father wasn’t out today, and make my way to the pharmacy, where I buy a phone and hair color. As soon as I get home, I text Kevin with my new number, but of course get no reply. By seven, I’ve colored my hair and I’m drying it, chasing my lies, and looking for solutions. By seven forty-five, I’ve dressed in my only pair of jeans, a slim-cut dark denim, and a light blue V-neck tee, wearing tennis shoes, because I have nothing else but heels. Come eight o’clock, I’m pacing my small apartment waiting on the car Shane’s sending for me, and I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t want to have. I want to tell Shane the truth, I do, but it’s selfish and wrong. Once he knows, that’s it, and that comes with a burden he doesn’t deserve or need, not with all the hell he has going on. If he stays close to me, he will find out, and that leaves only one option. We can’t see each other anymore.