Page 99 of Masters of Pleasure
After a moment, Gareth coughed and looked down at his phone again, heading for the desk.
“I am Jon Snow,” he murmured.In other words, he knew nothing.
“Thanks,” Nick said before also vacating the office.Avery had already fled, but that was okay.He’d meet her at her place.
Avery
After fleeing the scene, Avery went straight to her car, silently vowing to get better at acting.She’d done well during her actual shift.She’d only been thrown off because Nick had given her that little swat right before Gareth had come in.Who wouldn’t have been flustered, given the circumstances?
She wasn’t mad at Nick, exactly.At least, she hadn’t been until Gareth had opened the door.If she was honest, she’d been turned on, which was why she hadn’t been able to find the words to rebuke him.She still should have been mad.It had been a little easier to summon that emotion after Gareth walked in, although her embarrassment overwhelmed pretty much everything else.
“Argh.”She banged her head against the top of the steering wheel to clear it.Not that it actually worked, but strangely she did feel a little better.Putting the car in reverse, she got out of there, making sure she was gone before Nick followed her out.Just in case anyone saw them leaving at the same time.
Well, hello there, paranoia.You look like fun.
Making it home in record time, she gave Rae a call as she was walking in the door.She needed to talk to someone who could talk some sense into her, and since Rae didn’t have a kid or boyfriend, Avery figured she was more likely to be free than Domi.It made her feel like a terrible person, but she didn’t want to infringe on Domi’s night, especially because it was already pretty late.
“Hey, girl, what’s up?”Rae always got straight to business when she answered the phone.
“Hey… I…” Avery’s voice trailed off.She was full of worry and tension, but now that she wanted to tell Rae about it, she found she couldn’t find the words.
“Everything okay?”The concern in Rae’s voice came through clearly as if she’d been relaxing and was sitting up.“Nick didn’t fuck up already, did he?”
That startled a laugh out of Avery.
“No… at least, well, maybe sorta?But not really.”
“Very descriptive.Do Domi and I need to come over?”
“No, no,” Avery said quickly, sitting on her couch.Rubbing her forehead, she leaned back and let her head drop.That felt good.“Nick’s on his way over.He’s following me home from the restaurant.”
There was a tiny pause.
“Okay, so that’s a good thing, right?”
“It is.I… before we left, we had a moment in the office.He gave me a little swat when I was heading out the door, and it surprised the hell out of me, but it was kinda hot, you know?I jumped, then turned around and stared at him.I couldn’t think of what to say or do, so we stood there, staring at each other, then one of our managers opened the door and came in, and I freaked out, so I rambled at him… kinda like I’m doing to you right now, so I’m sure if he hadn’t been suspicious something was going on between Nick and me, he definitely was after that.”Avery took a deep breath, feeling lightheaded.That had been a hell of an info dump.She’d charged through it so fast, she was surprised Rae wasn’t asking for a replay.
The pause this time was a lot longer.Avery nibbled on her thumbnail, waiting for Rae’s reaction.
“I know you don’t want anyone at work knowing, and I get that, but this manager—do you think he’s likely to tell anyone?”
“Well… no.”A little piece of the weight pressing down on her lifted.Gareth wasn’t like that; none of the managers were.Though she was pretty sure they talked among themselves, they didn’t gossip the way the others did.They only shared information with each other when it might affect the front-of-house staff—like which girl Jonathan was dating that week.They didn’t bother worrying about the kitchen, leaving that up to Nick.
She relaxed a little more.
Even if Gareth realized something was going on with her and Nick, he had no reason to tell anyone, not even the other managers.
“Now that you’ve been in the situation once, you’ll think of a million other ways you could have handled it, so if it happens again, you’ll be prepared.”
Rae made it sound so reasonable, Avery nodded along as Rae spoke before coming to her senses and shaking her head.
“It better not happen again.I’m going to tell Nick—spankings on the second floor only.”The words had no sooner left her mouth than there was a knock on the door.Avery jumped to her feet, heart leaping up in her chest.“Crap, here’s here.”
“Go get him, girl!I’ll talk to you later.We need to hang out soon.”
“Definitely.Good night.”
“Night!”
