Page 70 of Pure Abandon

“But I—” She tries to plead her case.

“Enough!” I turn on my heel and head down to Malory’s office. She’s sitting at her desk in head-to-toe red. She looks exquisite, her jet-black hair smooth, silky, and falling just below her chin. The phone is to her ear, but when she sees me enter, she puts it down.

Her office looks like mine but bigger and professionally decorated. Okay, it looks nothing like mine except for the view.

I close the door behind me and take a seat on the black-and-white loveseat in the corner.

“I need to talk to you,” I plead. If anyone knows how to win a man over in bed it’s Malory. She’s eluded many times over to her sexual prowess in the bedroom. As often as I thought she was brash and tried to shy away from the conversation, I always felt myself keeping little mental notes.

“And I need to talk to you. What’s going on with you and Asher?” She swivels her chair to face me, seeming eager to talk.

My mouth falls to the floor. Asher? She can’t possibly think something is happening between the two of us. It is a purely professional relationship. She knows that. Doesn’t she?

“Why do you ask?”

“Kat, I’ve been watching the two of you since you started. He has paid more attention to you than he has anyone in the three years I’ve been here. Yesterday, he was in the conference room with the maintenance crew hanging up that ridiculous poster.” She is looking me square in the eye. Her words are direct, yet I can hear the approval in her voice. Malory has mastered the art of swaying a conversation. I’ve seen her do it a thousand times and, right now, it feels like she’s swinging me toward Asher.

I press my lips together, trying to keep my bottom lip from quivering. “I actually came here to talk to you about Gabriel. Yesterday, when he was here… I thought everything was good, but then last night I tried… and he…” Words fail me.

“So what does this mean? Are you leaving him?”

Leaving Gabriel? “No.”

Malory leans back in her seat and crosses her arms. Her eyes squint in observation, looking at me, as if I’m a criminal under the heated light of an interrogation office.

“Why wouldn’t you?” She asks. “If he’s having an affair, why would you stay with him?”

“You think he’s having an affair?” My head falls into my hands.

“Don’t you?” Her words are curt.

“I haven’t even spoken to him about it. I mean…” Leave my husband? I haven’t ever thought of that.

“I think you have to ask your husband about the woman in the park. If you think something is going on, then it probably is.”

“You mean follow my heart?” Is that what Asher’s advice really was?

Malory stands and makes her way toward the door.

“Your heart, your brain, your gut, your vagina… whatever. You can’t play the ‘poor me and my marriage’ card every day. It’s getting old.”

I raise my head and look at her in utter confusion. “I don’t complain about my marriage.”

Using a mocking tone, she recites my words. “He works a lot. We have sex, but it’s not the same. He used to take me sailing. He used to play games with me. He used to this and he used to that.” Her words cut at me like a knife.

I don’t even know how to respond. I stare at her in bewilderment as I watch her get up from her desk. “Shit or get off the pot, Kat. It should be easy since you have a golden god kissing your goddamned feet.” With that, she leaves the office.

I walk back toward my office in disgust. How dare she? My sounding board. My best friend. Of all the…

First, it was don’t say anything to Gabriel; now, it’s confront him. And that Asher nonsense?

I bet she’s jealous of my friendship with Asher. I saw her moves on him at the bar. She thinks I’m after her man, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. Heather wasn’t the one I had to watch out for. It was Malory. And if she has the hots for Asher, why doesn’t she just go for him? She’s stunning and totally his type.

I feel like I’m lost in a head-trip. Poor me? Getting old? Leave your husband. What the hell is going on with my life?

Breathe, Kat. Just breathe.

I head back to my office intent on getting back to work. I power up my computer, grab the phone, and start placing calls I’ve been neglecting. Three weeks left and this event has to be perfect.