Love & Secrets (Unedited)

Chapter Three

Rosemary

  First day on the job and I'm not even nervous about it. No, I'm nervous that my baby daddy is my boss. What if he fires me because he thinks I'm lying? It's been a month since we had our fun. There's no way he thinks about me the way I think about him. It's clear he didn't even recognize me. Ugh until I process this I'm keeping the pregnancy to myself.

  "Afternoon Rose, ready?" Rome asks, greeting me when I walk in. "Um, yes." No idea why I said um, my nerves need to chill. "Okay.. follow me." He gives me a confused look. I follow him to the back as Henry passes by saying hi. He must be covering the front while I get trained.

Rome shows me what he wants organized and what to combine in the folders. "Please don't mix anything up. I don't want to go into the payment folder and find appointment papers." He says and I nod. "Yes sir." He gives me a look and blush. "Yes, Rome." I whisper and he smiles. His eyes sparkle and I could melt. It brings me back to how he looked at me with lust filled eyes as he touched me between my legs. Fudge these hormones.

I clear my thoughts. "For lunch we always have food in the mini kitchen. We close down for lunch hour so we can eat peacefully and no one has to rush to help anyone. Sometimes we have tours for schools, we normally have a second floor open for the statues and more historical items we collect but it's closed for renovations. First floor is mostly my artwork. Many come in to look but some do want to buy which is allowed only for first floor items. Second floor is a no when it opens in a couple months." I nod so he knows I understand and he continues.

"On your computer out front, we already have the list of items in your files section titled Romes Art. It will have a list of every piece on sale and how much to charge for it. If anyone wants to negotiate just grab me and I'll handle it." Giving a thumbs up he chuckles. "Sorry I know it's a lot. Let me know if it's too much and I can go a tad slower."

"No it's okay, I'm understanding. For lunch we close and for your art we sell. No that hard." His eyes gives me a look and I realize my little sass came out. "Sorry! I-" he ends up cutting me off. "You're good, Rose." He smiles and guides me to the front. "I can tell you don't know exactly who I am." My eyes widen and my hairs stand up on my arms. No way..

"Wh- what do you mean?" I ask and he chuckles. "Relax it's okay, if you're not into art how can you? I'm the creator of this art gallery. Meaning I own it, of course. I'm Rome Pastel." My eyes widen. The Pastel family is one of the riches. I don't know how I didn't realize it was him. Although he is more private with his life compared to his parents and two sisters.

"I didn't know it was you but I did know of you." I smile, finally. He smiles back and walks me over to a painting. The painting he recently made of a girls side profile. "This is my favorite piece." He admires it. "It's not for sale and it never will be. So don't bother telling me someone wants to buy it."

"What makes it so important? Who is she?" I genuinely want to know. The way he captured her ... she's at peace and happy. "A girl I met. She was perfect in different ways. So unique from others I've been around." He says calmly and I look up at him to find him watching me. Maybe I should tell him about the baby. "That's beautiful." I reply and he just looks at me, examining my facial features. "Can I talk to you about something?" I ask him and he nods.

"Sure go ahead." He says and guides us to another painting. "Well I found out-" I get cut off when someone walks in being very loud. We turn around and see a girl with heels walking into the gallery. She has a blue dress on with a jacket over and some sunglasses. "Baby!" She smiles with her arms out and I look at Rome who rolls his eyes. He opens his arms anyway and she grabs on tight. "I missed you so much!" The red head says. "Same here." He pats her back and glances at me. I look down at my feet, feeling out of place.

He gives a slight cough and she released him. "Have you got a cold?" She asks him and feels his forehead. "Uh no but I was in the middle of something." He looks at me with a small smile. Red looks at me and scans my face. It looks like she realizes something and she looks at Rome. "Is she th-" he coughs loud shaking his head. "Please, tell Henry to get you training with any calls that come in." He says towards me and I nod.

Walking away I hear them start to whisper about his painting. The one of the girl he says is not for sale. Red, mentioned if it was me right? That's what she was referring to before he cut her off. And who is Red anyway?

More reasons why I need to keep this to myself. What if he has a girlfriend and just rejects the baby anyway?