Her Secret Santa - Miley Maine Page 0,21

off. “Oh, my God! You do have a guy there! Yes! Is it your boss? Is it him?”

Nellie was chiming in now, as well. I tried to keep Tony from overhearing the noise on my phone as the two went crazy.

“What? She is doing her boss. That rich guy?” Nellie asked confused.

I tried not to laugh, but my friends were hysterical when they got together. They were always going on gossiping to me about each other, but when they got together, they really got going on random topics.

“Yes,” I answered them. I knew it was the only way they would get the least bit calmed down. I gestured to the plate on the opposite end of my small table that I had prepared for Tony. His eyes lit up when he saw the stack of pancakes and syrup. He poured himself a cup of coffee and then he sat down to eat.

“Thanks. This looks amazing,” Tony said.

“You actually did it?” Lizzie asked me. “For real? You aren’t messing with me?”

“Guys, I have to go,” I said to Lizzy and Nellie. Before they answered with protest, I ended the call.

“You didn’t have to end the call on my account,” Tony said. He stuffed a wad of pancakes in his mouth. I smiled at him.

“It’s no problem,” I said.

“So, do you want to talk about last night?” Tony asked.

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, so I nodded and said, “Sure.” I felt my heart sink. Was he going to tell me it was a mistake? Was he going to say that he really didn’t want this to become a thing? Had I blown this up in my head to be way more than it was? I had a tendency to do that stuff, but I wanted to let go of that so badly.

“I don’t think we should really tell people at work, yet” Tony said. “I mean, I was thinking about some of your reservations about this and you are right. You are in the company and you have to work one on one with a lot of people and I don’t want you to constantly be wondering if they think I’m giving you special treatment or something. If I see anyone mistreating you or any employee then they would absolutely be gone. But I probably won’t see or hear a lot of the gossip going on since I’m kind of removed from it. And I don’t want you to have to deal with that shit.”

“I’m a big girl; I can handle myself,” I reminded him.

“Oh, I realize that” he replied. “But I just think it will be easier for you to get work done, to get the support you need from the others as you are just getting your feet wet in the company, to keep this on the down low for now. Unless you really want to just tell everyone for any particular reason.”

His eyes were looking at me questioningly now. I shrugged. I didn’t really have a good answer for that. “Um, no. I don’t. I just want you to know that I’m fine with whatever you are most comfortable with. But don’t worry about me. I’m just fine.”

“Ok,” he said. “Then we will tell people when we are both ready.”

I agreed. I wasn’t sure exactly what reasons he had for wanting to keep this a secret, but if he was just worried about me, then he didn’t need to be. I was tougher than he probably realized. I’d had to be in my life.

“That looks amazing,” Barb said.

I looked at the necklace around my neck. It was gorgeous. It was also more expensive than anything I would ever be able to afford. And Barb probably felt the same way which was why she was now asking about it when I was deep in thought about something else. I stroked the necklace remembering a few nights ago when Tony had presented it to me after dinner. He was so sweet. It was a wonderful gift, but I did tell him I wasn’t comfortable with him buying me anything. It made me feel weird. I’d always paid my own way and it just made me feel somehow odd to have a man buying me things.

And I’d forgotten to take it off. Or did I just love wearing it so much that I never wanted to take it off? Yeah. Probably that one. But I had forgotten to tuck it back into my shirt. That was my fault. And