Gillian watched her for a long minute. “Did you rest at all over the weekend? I can see your dark circles from here.”
She rolled her eyes. “You can leave any time, you know.”
“I need a break, too. How was the flower market?”
She slapped a hand to her forehead. “Dammit. I need to call the seller.”
“Deep breaths,” Gillian advised. “So I take it you guys found the right flowers?”
“Yeah. Once I lock in the contract, that will be one thing down. We should have a cake flavor, too, but I’ll have to check with Darian.”
Gillian’s brows rose. “You guys had time to visit the bakery? Look at you, super woman.”
“No, no. We tried it at—” She stopped, realizing what she’d be admitting to.
“Where?”
“The bakery delivered.” Flipping open the file in her hand, she scanned the document inside and hoped that would be the end of it.
But of course, knowing her nosy friend, it wasn’t.
“To your place? You ate cake without me? No fair.” She frowned. “So you picked the flavor without Darian having any input?”
“They went to his place,” she said, hiding behind the folder.
Which was promptly snatched away.
“Allison Jane Reed, explain exactly what that means.”
She winced. “He made me dinner. Or tried to. Then we ate cake.”
Gillian strode to the office door and pushed it closed. She then grabbed a chair and put it next to Allison before dropping into it.
“What happened after the cake?” she demanded.
She could lie. The words were on the tip of her tongue. But as the silence stretched, she found she couldn’t utter them.
“Oh my god,” Gillian said. “You slept with him.”
“It was just a one-time thing,” she defended. “A little fun to de-stress. It meant nothing more to either of us.”
Gillian collapsed back against her chair, saying nothing. Nothing good came when the chatty redhead was silent.
“I swear I have this under control,” Allison said. “Weren’t you the one who said I should loosen up a little?”
“Yeah, but I meant have a spa day. Maybe buy some guy a drink at a bar. There’s loosening the reins and then there’s diving off the deep end.”
“Well, it’s over now, so no harm, no foul.”
Gillian leaned forward. “Are you all right?”
She wished she had the ability to slay with a look. “Why? Because you think I’ll devolve into some clingy girlfriend wannabe who doesn’t understand what ‘temporary’ means?”
“No,” she said. “Because you’re not the kind of woman who can do casual sex with a man she’s been crushing on for years.”
The breath left her in a rush. “I’ve done no such thing.”
“You’ve denied it for four years, but let’s face the facts, shall we? You two have a strange version of the boss-assistant relationship. You devote your life to that man. Watch him whenever he’s in a room. Hell, you can’t even quit because you’re worried about losing him.”
“None of that is true.”
Gillian’s green gaze was utterly serious. “He matters to you.”
“He does,” she agreed. “But not in any way that will break my heart. It was a one-time deal. I was curious what it’d be like before I quit, and he was willing. That’s all there is to this story.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m serious.”
“So you guys had a perfectly normal breakfast after doing the deed and you talked out how this would impact your work life, if at all, and made plans to ensure it didn’t damage your great relationship.”
“Well…not exactly.”
“What did he say?”
She flinched. “I may have slipped out before he woke up.”
Gillian groaned. “Yeah, you’ve totally got a handle on this one-night-stand thing.”
“I’m telling you it won’t be a problem.”
“Time to put it to the test, then. Darian wants to see you. Told me to tell you to pop in when you had a minute.”
Allison lurched to her feet. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“He said it wasn’t time sensitive, and this seemed more important.”
“I’ll be fine. I swear.”
With a sigh, her friend got to her feet. “Let me know how it goes.”
Allison followed her out of the office before striding the short distance to Darian’s door.
Lifting her hand to knock, she pushed back the nerves gnawing at her. There was nothing to worry about. One night of sex did not break a four-year relationship.