Page 51 of Unexpected You
“See you tomorrow.” Cadence was walking out of my office before it hit me what she’d done.
She…she kissed me. On the cheek, but still. What was that?
I sat in my chair for ages, trying to figure out if I’d imagined the whole thing and touching my cheek where her lips had been.
Chapter Fifteen
Cadence
What the actual fuck had I done? I started hyperventilating when I got to my car, but I had to drive away from the house. From the scene of the crime.
Unless you were European or something, kissing your boss on the cheek was absolutely a no no.
What had possessed me? No idea, except I’d been staring at her all day and especially at her lips and when we’d laughed together it had taken every single ounce of self-control I’d ever cultivated not to pull her close and kiss the hell out of her.
The crush I’d barely attempted to put a lid on had boiled over and she was going to fire me. I was absolutely and totally getting fired.
Somehow, I made it home in one piece and up to my apartment. My phone was silent, but I was waiting. It was coming. The email terminating my contract. You couldn’t just kiss your boss and get away with it.
“Fuck!” I screamed into the couch pillows. I was spiraling and it was going to be bad. First I ran around the apartment a bunch of times and then ordered a bunch of food that I probably wasn’t going to eat and then sent panicky messages to my friends and then thought about calling my parents even though that would have only made things worse.
Eventually I started crashing from my energy spike and that was when Hunter and Reid arrived.
“You didn’t have to come over,” I said, when they walked in and found me lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling while surrounded by takeout.
“Yeah, we did. We had to come help you with this,” Reid said, folding gracefully to the floor. Hunter joined us a moment later.
“I kissed my boss,” I repeated.
“On the cheek, Cade. On the cheek. It’s not even that bad,” Hunter said. “Have you heard from her?”
I checked my phone. Nothing.
“Nope.”
“Then maybe she doesn’t care. Or it’s not a big deal to her. It was only a little peck, right?” Reid said, digging into one of the bags and pulling out an eggroll.
“It was a peck, I promise,” I said.
“It’s going to be okay, Cade,” Hunter said, stroking my hair.
“I really like this job. I really, really do. And I like…her.” I could barely say it out loud. Hunter and Reid shared a look.
“We know,” Reid said. “We know you like her.”
“Shit,” I breathed out. “I thought I was hiding it so well.”
Hunter snorted. “You’re a lot of things, babe, but subtle is not one of them. Your eyes light up every time you talk about her, and I saw your face in that job interview. You were gone from day one.”
“Fuck,” I said, my voice dull.
“Are you gonna eat this?” Reid asked, pulling out a burrito.
“Go for it,” I said. “I want the pizza. And an eggroll. And some rice. And at least one taco.”
Hunter made me a plate and the three of us camped on the floor and demolished the food I’d ordered and I started feeling better.
“Why is it that I’m always having some kind of disaster? Can’t either of you have a major meltdown to even things out?” I said, once I was so full that I could barely move. Still no message from Eloise.