Sex, Lies and Dirty Secrets

by Jamie Sobrato

  He looked from one man to the other, and they put him out of his misery. “We’d like to offer you the creative director position,” Gordon said.

  Before Griffin could respond, Louis cut in. “We’ve considered all the applicants carefully, and based on your seniority, level of experience and impressive performance, we all agree that you’re the man for the job.”

  “Thank you,” Griffin said, trying not to beam too much. “I’m honored to take the position, and I’ll do my best to exceed your expectations.”

  God, he sounded like such a brownnoser, but he couldn’t help it. He really was grateful for the chance to take the job. He’d been grooming himself for it since the day he’d started at the agency, and this promotion marked the culmination of his greatest career goal. It marked the chance for him to feel like he finally had the freedom to make decisions, to spearhead creative efforts, to go with his own vision instead of following someone else’s.

  He’d been aching for that kind of challenge for years.

  “You’ll assume the new position on Monday, if that works for you.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “And we’ll be interviewing for your replacement. Once he or she is hired, you’ll be responsible for overseeing their training. Do you have any questions?”

  Griffin definitely had questions about the compensation package, but he figured that could wait. “Will an announcement about this be made to the office, or should I gather up the creative department and let them know myself?”

  “We’ll make a formal announcement first thing Monday, but if you’d like to give your department a heads-up now, feel free.”

  Griffin stood up, nodding. He shook each senior partner’s hand and thanked them for the opportunity.

  And as soon as he was out the door, he wondered how the hell to tell Macy. He wanted to be the one to break the news to her. It only seemed fair, after everything they’d been through together.

  But how would she react? And how would the news affect their relationship?

  She was a fair, mature woman, so while he could imagine she’d be disappointed, he had to believe she’d also be happy for him. And maybe she’d want to help him celebrate the accomplishment once she’d had time to let the news sink in.

  When he left the admin office area, he spotted Macy heading toward her desk, and he quickened his pace to catch up with her. A low whistle caught her attention. She turned and spotted him, then stopped and smiled tentatively.

  She knew something was up.

  “Hey, do you have a few minutes?” he asked.

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  He nodded toward an empty conference room, and she followed him into it. Once they were alone with the door closed, he motioned toward a chair, then took one himself.

  “What’s up is, I just talked to Bronson and Wade—”

  “You got the promotion,” she said, smiling. “Congratulations.”

  Griffin studied her expression, trying to read any tension that might have been behind it. “You’re not upset?”

  Her smile was wide and genuine. “You earned it. I had a feeling you’d be the one chosen, so it’s not exactly a surprise.”

  “You had just as much chance of getting the job as I did. In the end, I think it came down to seniority. The partners have always been big on company loyalty, and with everything else being equal, I’m guessing they chose me simply because I’ve been here a few years longer than you have.”

  Macy’s smiled waned a bit. “Don’t sell yourself short, okay? And you don’t have to couch the news in compliments.”

  “I wasn’t trying to.”

  “I’m a big girl. I can take it.”

  Griffin could see a bit of brittleness behind her smile now. Maybe she just needed time to process the news, come to terms with it, and then they’d be cool.

  “Are we okay? I mean, us, outside of work?”

  A crease formed between her eyebrows. “Griffin, you’re my boss now. I just don’t think it would be smart for us to continue, you know?”

  This is what he’d been most afraid of. This whole you’re-my-boss problem.

  He winced. “Look, I’m not officially your boss until Monday. Can we at least go out for dinner tonight and talk about this a little more?”

  She shook her head and tried to stand, but he caught her wrist gently in his hand and flashed his most hangdog expression.

  “Please? I’d really like to have at least this one last night with you, if nothing else just to smooth out our relationship so we can get a fresh start next week.”

  But that was a lie, he knew. He wanted the time with her just to have her.

  “What exactly needs smoothing out?”

  “You know, stuff. Just give me one more night with you, okay?”

  One more night and one more day and one more night after that and…

  “Let me think about it. I’ve got a kickboxing class right after work, and I’ll call your cell if I decide we can meet up later.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be here for a while, so if you don’t reach my cell, try my work number.”

  “And if you don’t hear from me by seven, you’d better just eat on your own.”

  Ouch. He suddenly feared he’d be eating lots of meals alone, if he couldn’t find a way to keep Macy in his life outside of work.

  “If I don’t hear from you by seven, I’m calling you,” he said, grinning. But he meant it. He wasn’t going to let her weasel out of the tough conversation.

  She glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to go.”

  They said goodbye, and Griffin watched as she walked out the door, hoping like hell this wasn’t the death blow to his chances with Macy.

  THANK GOD for kickboxing. Macy delivered a side kick to the punching bag, then another and another. She’d been warming up for fifteen minutes, and slowly but surely the tension was draining from her body.

  She’d dropped out of the running for the creative director job, so there was no reason she should have been upset over the news that Griffin had gotten the job.

  Except she was upset. Maybe because she’d shot herself in the foot with that stunt in Las Vegas. Maybe because she’d compromised herself and her chances of getting the promotion.

  Or maybe just because she didn’t want Griffin to be her boss, since she still wanted him.

  Stupid adolescent fantasies.

  Lauren, to whom Macy hadn’t talked all week and wasn’t really keen on talking to now, was watching her kick the hell out of her punching bag from a few feet away. They might have had an argument, but there wasn’t really any getting around the fact that they attended the same kickboxing class.

  Lauren had stopped her own kicks and moved over to hold Macy’s bag. “You look like you want to kill someone,” she said.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Ohhh. It’s the promotion, isn’t it? Let me guess—Griffin got it?”

  “I said…” She paused as she delivered a kick that jarred her all the way to her teeth. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You gave it your best shot. Maybe it’s time to ask for a raise, even let them know you’ll be looking at other companies if they can’t give you some incentive to stick around.” Lauren started working through the warm-up again, but only half-heartedly.

  “I’m not going to strategize my next career move with you, of all people.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means, your last piece of advice was dubious at best.”

  “So you’re pissed about your plan to dumb him down with sex failing?”

  “No, I’ve just learned not to listen to you.”

  Lauren rolled her eyes and started to say something else, but then she stopped and shook her head. All of a sudden she was paying attention to the instructor and acting like she was into the whole kickboxing thing, which generally was not the case. She usually showed up mainly to watch the guys, not to work out.

  Whatever, Macy
thought. Let her be pissed off. Because Macy was still good and pissed off at her.

  And it was easier to be mad at Lauren right now than to examine her own motives and what the hell it was that she really wanted out of life.

  Forty-five minutes later, Macy was drenched in sweat, and every major muscle group ached as if she’d just endured a heavyweight fight.

  She went to the women’s locker room without talking to Lauren, then showered while trying to decide whether or not she should have dinner with Griffin. On the one hand, this was her last chance to be with him before he was officially her boss.

  On the other hand, if being with him meant feeling even crappier than she did now, she wasn’t sure she could handle it.

  By the time she was toweling off, she decided she had to give him tonight, maybe even come clean about what she’d done if she was feeling brave, and then they were through. Whatever attraction there was between them—they’d just have to get over it. Which probably wouldn’t be hard for Griffin if she could summon the nerve to confess to him.

  She dressed, then found her cell phone in her locker and called Griffin.

  “Hey, you ready for dinner?” he answered without bothering with greetings.

  “Where do you want to meet?”

  “Do you know that Indian place with the red walls on Market?”

  “Sure. What time?”

  “Seven-thirty?”

  Macy looked at the clock on the wall overhead. That gave her fifteen minutes to dry her hair and put on makeup. Doable.

  “I’ll see you there,” she said as an impending sense of doom settled in her belly.

  She disconnected the call and put the phone in her purse. She had to tell him the truth.

  Or did she? Could she live with herself knowing she’d tried to play such a dirty trick on her competition? Would he even believe her if she told him what she’d done?

  No, without Lauren’s study being public knowledge yet, there was just no freaking way he’d be able to accept that she’d robbed him of some of his IQ points.

  More important than the fact that he wouldn’t believe her, though, was the fact that she could not bear to face his disillusionment with her. She might have started out having truly crappy motives, but ultimately she’d realized that she wanted to sleep with Griffin because she was attracted to him…but would he buy that? No way. He’d only focus on the bad part, and he’d never respect her again.

  She needed his respect not only because of her own ego, but also because he was going to be her boss.

  It was definitely best if she just kept quiet about that whole dumb-him-down-with-sex part.

  Macy dried her hair quickly, going with messy waves as her style simply because it was the only thing her hair could do without a curling iron and an extra half hour. She applied a little concealer, mascara, blush and lipstick, and then she grabbed her gym bag and headed for the door.

  Twenty minutes later, she’d accomplished the nearly impossible, landing a prime parking spot right in front of the restaurant. She’d worked herself into a bundle of tensed-up muscles, undoing any good that the workout might have done for her stress level. When she passed the restaurant’s front window, she saw that Griffin already had a table for them.

  When she entered, he smiled and waved.

  “I hope you don’t mind, I ordered a chai for you,” he said when she sat.

  “No, that’s perfect. It’s getting cold outside. I could use something to take the chill off.”

  Stupid small talk was the last thing she wanted to engage in right now. If he pursued the weather topic any longer, she’d know he shared her sense of doom.

  “I’m glad you came,” Griffin said.

  Okay, so maybe she was the only doomsayer.

  “I’m buying tonight, by the way,” she said. “It’s my way of saying congratulations on your promotion.”

  “Thank you,” he said, smiling again. “I was really worried that this might come between us—that’s actually what I want to talk to you about tonight.”

  Macy took a sip of the chai, which had just barely cooled enough to drink, and she was treated to the spicy-sweet flavor of India.

  “Maybe we should eat first,” she said.

  “Except I’ve already brought it up, and if we wait, it’s going to hang in the air between us and we’ll expend all our energy trying to ignore it.”

  “I just don’t want us to argue or get upset, that’s all. Not before I’ve eaten,” she added as a joke, but it fell flat. Maybe this wasn’t exactly the time to do her stand- up routine.

  “That must mean you’re preparing to drop the relationship ax.”

  Macy winced at his directness. “No, but whatever happened to ‘this is just a weekend thing,’ and ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’?”

  “I guess we proved that saying wrong.”

  “I think it’s meant more as a guiding principle, and we’re forgetting to follow it.” She turned her attention back to her chai, which was much easier to deal with than this conversation.

  A waiter conveniently arrived at that moment, and Macy didn’t need to look at the menu to know she wanted chicken curry. Once they’d placed their orders and the waiter had left, Griffin pinned her with one of his too-direct stares.

  “I don’t really care how this relationship started out. All I know now is that I like spending time with you outside of the office, and I want us to figure out if there’s a way we can make that happen without it negatively affecting our work life.”

  He reached for her hand, and she was powerless to pull it away. She stared at his large, capable hand covering hers, and she cursed herself for being such an idiot. Even if he wasn’t her boss as of Monday, he would still be the guy she’d been unforgivably dishonest with.

  “You know that’s not possible.”

  “Why isn’t it?”

  “What happens if the relationship ends, then we’re stuck working together. It’s inevitably going to be awkward if there are feelings involved. And if the relationship doesn’t end, you’re still my boss, and there’s always going to be that perception of impropriety by everyone else in the office. I think it’s a road we need to exit right now, before we get too lost.”

  Griffin didn’t attempt to hide his disappointment. “That’s not what I was hoping you’d say.” He smiled then, but it was filled with melancholy.

  And that’s when Macy knew she was doing the right thing not to string him along any further. When a relationship was based on lies, the best thing was to end it before it got any more complicated.

  “I’m sorry. I want us to continue working together, and I don’t regret our having gotten to know each other better outside of work. At least we can work together now without being at each other’s throats all the time.”

  “True. I guess when you look at it like that, this was a good thing while it lasted, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I really do think you deserved the promotion at least as much as I did, maybe more,” Griffin said.

  “Ditto. But really, the senior partners know what they’re doing.”

  “They sure as hell think they do.”

  “I bet you’ll find them a lot easier to deal with, now that you’re management.”

  “We’ll see. Have you ever thought of going elsewhere—someplace you’d have a chance of moving up faster?”

  Macy shrugged. She wasn’t sure it would be smart to discuss career strategies with her new boss.

  “I’m asking you this as a friend, not as a colleague. I think your talents will go to waste if you’re not being challenged and recognized.”

  “I’m sure you’ll see to it that I’m challenged and recognized for my accomplishments.”

  Griffin shook himself. “That just sounds crazy. I guess I was so busy working toward the promotion, I kind of overlooked the fact that it also means becoming the entire creative department’s boss.”

  “Yep, you’re the man now,” Macy said, smi
ling.

  “Does that mean no one’s going to want to be friends with me now?”

  “I think it means you have to play golf on Saturday mornings with all your important business associates, and yeah, you probably can’t be everyone’s best pal.”

  His brow furrowed. “That kind of sucks.”

  “Not really. We’ll all pretend we really like you. It’s only when you’re not around that we’ll complain about what a slave driver you are.”

  He made a face at her, and she laughed.

  “I’ve always wanted to have more autonomy, more creative control, but I guess I’ve never really thought of myself as a company man, you know?”

  “So you want the responsibility, but you don’t want to be the Man?”

  “Maybe, something like that. I don’t know. I’m just freaking out is all.”

  “You’re going to be great. You know you will.”

  “Carson’s one of my best friends. How’s he going to feel about working for me?”

  “I’m sure he’ll constantly be using it as an angle to get one over on you.”

  “That pretty much sounds right.”

  “I’ll try to be more subtle, however,” Macy said, but it was so untrue, she hoped he wouldn’t believe it even for a second. “You know I’m joking, right?” she added.

  “You may say you are, but…”

  “Oh, so you don’t trust me?”

  He grinned. “Should I?”

  “Probably not,” Macy said, wishing she wasn’t serious.

  His gaze turned warmer somehow, and she recognized the change as Griffin going into seduction mode. Crap. She wasn’t exactly mentally equipped to resist the way she used to be.

  “You know… No one has to know if we aren’t exactly proper coworkers after hours. I’d never tell. Don’t you think we’re mature enough to keep the emotions in check?”

  Macy tried to do just that. She tried not to let any emotions cloud her judgment. She tried to consider his words evenly, let them seep into her consciousness without reacting. But one little voice in her head said go for it, while another said no way.