Page 98 of Whispered Promises

What I would give to have that ability, to just shrug something away if I didn’t want it to bother me. Is that how he managed to get over our conversation so easily? Because even now, I can still feel the bruising flicker inside me.

“What about you? You seemed a little stressed when I arrived,” he points out, a frown puckering his face.

Not wanting to bore him, I wave it off. “No, it was just a busy morning. Some mix-ups, but that’s just my job.”

“Did you think any more about talking to Noah, seeing if he has any ideas for you doing the animal job full time?”

I’m saved from answering as Tilly arrives at our table, a tray balanced in her arms. Placing each of our orders in front of us, she adds Max’s drink in front of him and a to-go bag.

“Enjoy.” She winks, then retreats to serve another customer.

“Fuuuuck, this smells unreal,” Max hums, then scoops up his sandwich and takes a bite, not even stopping to check if it’s cool enough to eat. “Tastes even better too. I need to come here again.” His words are slightly muffled around the food he’s got in his mouth.

Smiling, I pick up my cutlery and make a start on my own. I love coming here when I can, and having Max’s company makes it even more perfect.

We finish our sandwiches with easy conversation flowing between us. He tells me more about the work he does day-to-day on site and about the people he works with. In return I try to tell him about the less mundane parts of my job…not that there’s much.

As we leave the cafe, Max walks me the short distance to the office.

“Honestly, you don’t need to. You’ll be late to work,” I offer, feeling guilty over the idea of him getting into trouble for me.

“No, I won’t. You don’t need to worry, honeybee. I’m the boss’ favourite.” He winks as we walk shoulder-to-shoulder.

Laughing as he pushes open the office entrance door, I step through and feel him follow in.

“Rosemary.” Peter’s sharp tone has all humour draining from my body. “You’ve been gone for hours. Each time I’ve come out to find you, you’re still not here.”

“I…I had a meeting for Julia, then I went for lunch. Peter, I’m so⁠—”

“Julia had no idea where you were. No one did,” he interrupts, and the air is sucked from my lungs.

She said that?

“Ah, that was my fault. Rosy got back from her meeting, and I took her straight out for lunch,” Max intercedes behind me. His words are light, but as his hand lands on my shoulder, tension thrums from him into me.

“She’s my employee. She reports to me, not you.”

Max steps around me, placing himself between Peter and me. “She’s a person, not a belonging. As I said, the fault is mine, not Rosy’s.”

Peter’s eyes turn hard at my name, but he refuses to look at Max, his dismissal coming across loud and clear. “If you wish to avoid a warning, then I suggest you ask your acquaintance to leave, Rosemary.”

Max’s eyes widen, then narrow into slits filled with contempt.

But I’m frozen, unable to locate the words to deal with the situation. I know I need to de-escalate it, to put the proverbial fire out so I don’t lose my job…but there’s a part of me that isn’t used to having someone fight for me like this. Someone who cares how I’m treated.

After Mum died, the time I did have with my dad is hazy, but I remember needing to make myself small, quiet…unnoticeable. He didn’t want me there; he was hurting and in pain, and I couldn’t make that worse for him. Nanna helped soothe a lot of that, but I was still always aware that I couldn’t make things too much for her. I needed her to want to keep me. It’s left me with this ever-present fear of people walking away. In all my life so far, the only person who didn’t do that was Nanna, and now that she’s no longer here, the world is a much scarier place.

I’m constantly fighting that fear, and I push so much of my energy into making sure I don’t upset people. It’s exhausting to juggle my own selfish needs with everyone else’s.

Having Max here doing that for me, it’s both everything and too much at the same time.

“You best watch how you talk to your employees, Peter. I don’t tolerate bullying.”

“Max,” I snap, unable to cope with the vibrating tension filling the air, suffocating me on top of the threat Peter made. “Please, just leave. Everything’s fine, but you need to go.”

He glances at me, and I can still feel his anger, but as his gaze darts across my face, concern seeps into his features too.

“Please, Max?” I try to make it assertive, but my voice betrays me with a choked breath.