Page 112 of Last Night Was Fun

“Going great. Why do you ask?” Emmy said around another bite.

“Well, you’re in here crying and shoving a cupcake into your mouth like you’re pr—”

She cut him off with a glare. “Beverycareful about the next word that comes out of your mouth, Torres. Remember I’m your superior now.”

“Pr—obablyhaving a rough day,” Pedro recovered with an awkward grin.

Emmy glared at him again. “I am, yes, but this cupcake is making things a lot better. Thank you.”

“No problem. Ish and I wanted to drop by and say congrats. And that it’s super lonely without you and Olson in the office. Never thought we’d be losing both of you at the same time.”

At the sound of Gabe’s name another sob punched its way out of Emmy’s throat—which didn’t go well considering she was midswallow on another bite of cupcake.

“Jesus!” Pedro said, and jumped back when she sputtered cupcake bits. “You sure you’re okay, Jameson?”

Emmy wasn’t sure what did it: her broken heart, years of suppressing feelings at work, the fact that her colleagues—other than Alice—were sincerely asking if she was okay, the emotional roller coaster she’d been riding all day, her overwhelming but exciting new job, or maybe the combination of it all, but something snapped.

“I messed up, you guys,” she blubbered. Her face was streaked with tears and frosting. Bits of cupcake clung to her hair from the choking incident. A tide of embarrassment washed over her for crying in front of her colleagues, but she couldn’t stop. She expected them to bolt like frightened animals, unsure what to do with such an outpouring of emotion from the Only Girl, but to her shock, they stayed.

Silas fully stepped inside and pulled the door closed. Pedro reached out for Emmy and put a caring hand on her shoulder shaking with sobs.

“What happened?” Pedro asked.

“You guys don’t care,” she said with a hiccup.

They swapped a glance.

“Of course we care,” Pedro said with an affronted flinch. “We’re a team, Jameson.”

“Yeah, maybe we’re just not the best at showing it sometimes, but you’re one of us,” Silas said. “If you’re down, we’re down.”

Emmy blinked away fresh tears to see them giving her the sincerest looks she’d ever seen on their faces. Even if they couldn’t fully understand what was bothering her, they were at least going to try, and if nothing else, listen. The thought warmed something in her cracked chest and made her realize that maybe the Only Girl barrier was something she’d partly constructed herself. Maybe she didn’t have to keep things so bottled up at work all the time because her colleagues had her back.

She took a shuddering breath, trying to calm her tears. “Well, I don’t know if you know this, but Olson and I are—werea thing. We went to HR the other day to make it official on paper, and they toldus we had to choose between our relationship or the promotion because they couldn’t allow the power imbalance if one of us got it. We decided to give it up and stay together, but then he secretly transferred departments so I could have the job.” She sobbed again.

“Damn,” Pedro said over the sound. “That’s some Prince Charming–level shit.”

“King Charming,” Silas said with a nod.

A tiny laugh bubbled its way through Emmy’s tears.

“So what’s the problem? You got the job, and you get to stay together, right? Also—” Pedro cut off and pointed to Silas. “You owe me twenty bucks. I totally called that they were hooking up.”

Emmy burned with embarrassment. “You guysbeton us?”

“Oh, for sure. Like three years ago, actually. The tension between you two could choke a horse.”

“That... is a very strange analogy.”

Pedro shrugged. “I’m still not seeing the problem here. At least not a problem worth crying and cupcakes.”

Emmy reset herself with a breath. At least their strange conversation had stopped her tears. “The problem is I misunderstood when I heard him talking to Director Allen yesterday and I thought he’d gone behind my back to take the promotion after we’d agreed to both give it up. I didn’t realize they were talking about his transfer, and I said some really awful things to him.” She ached anew at the memory. “Now he won’t answer my messages. I think I ruined everything when he was just trying to help.”

“Oh. Yikes,” Pedro said.

“Oof,” Silas echoed.

She feared they’d reached their limit on understanding and advice. And they had no more cupcakes. Pedro surprised her when he spoke.