Teaching The Boss

Chapter Eighteen

The next day, Sam and April stuck to their normal routine. She rode with him to work and she quickly hopped out of the car as he continued on his coffee run. She had a little extra pep in her step as she reached the bank of elevators and hit the up arrow. The elevators where she and Sam first kissed.

This was good. They'd had the relationship talk and survived. She was basically in the clear in terms of spying on the accounting department. From now on, all she needed to focus on was her final exams and getting quality work done.

The doors dinged open and April practically skipped onto the car. One more little blessing of the day: it seemed as if she'd have the elevator to herself. A rarity in such a busy building.

But as the doors started to swing close, a hand shot between them. April quickly hit the door open button out of instinct even though they were already separating thanks to the motion sensors.

Gavin stepped in and glanced down to where her fingers still rested on the button. "Thanks." He turned around to face the door.

"No problem," she said, as they fell into the customary elevator silence. Ugh, she should say something. This wasn't a stranger; this was her boss. "So how was your vacation?" Vacations. That was a good, neutral work topic.

Gavin's face lit up. "Barbados was fantastic. The weather was perfect, hotel was amazing. I was able to relax on the beach while the wife read books all week."

"Hmm..." she murmured, imagining herself sitting under the sun while waves crashed on the beach. "I'd love to go to Barbados someday."

"You really should. It's once in a lifetime."

April nodded as she watched the numbers tick up. Here she was with one of the few people who was in the building that night: she had him completely alone and they were talking about romantic, faraway places. "My boyfriend and I are looking for nice places to travel to." Oh crap...she'd actually done it.

Surprise flashed across Gavin's face, but he hid it well enough. "I didn't realize you were dating."

"It's a low-key relationship. But we both have big families and no time for lots of planning. So Barbados was kind of top of our list." She studied his face to see if he'd picked up on her clues.

Right on cue, they hit the fifty-fourth floor. "Have a great day," she called as she left Gavin behind.

Instead of going to her cube, she ducked into the stairwell and went up the extra story to the fifty-fifth floor.

Eric shot up as he saw her. "Good morning, April. Mr. Hunt isn't in yet."

"He will be soon. I need to talk to him as soon as he gets here." She strode toward Sam's office. At the last minute, she stopped herself from just walking on in. Eric wouldn't want her there alone and he didn't understand the extent of their relationship.

But he would soon enough. It was time for her and Sam to go public.

"I'm sorry, April, but Mr. Hunt has a nine o'clock appointment and then off-site appointments until late in the afternoon. Are you sure I can't take a message?"

Damn it. It was hard for her to remember sometimes that she wasn't the one in charge of his calendar anymore. If he was booked up most of the day, he'd need all the time he could get to check emails and put out the metaphorical fires that always seemed to crop up.

She bit her lip as she debated turning back and going to her desk. They could always talk about it back at his apartment...

No. This was a favor she was doing for him and it was important. If she was really going all in with Simon's crazy ass plan, she was going to tell Sam as soon as possible.