My Strange Addiction (1/2)

chapter nine

"So. . .how'd it go with your fiance?" Trinity follows me around the office as I attempt to get my work done. "He looks at you like you're mad of gold or something."

"You think I'm that precious to him?" That doesn't make sense, he doesn't think about me at all. And he certainly wouldn't think of me in that way.

"Well duh!" She laughs, light shining in her eyes, "I can see it in his eyes. When he looks at you, his gaze softens and they sparkle. That can really only happen once in your lifetime. It's like TL."

I turn toward her, and I try to figure out what the heck she just said. "TL?" I ask, and this time I hope she actually answers my question.

"True Love!" She squeals, "I thought you'd know that, Pacifica!"

"Well, I don't really believe in True Love," I see Trinity's face falter out of the corner of my eye, "that was until I met him." I say quickly and hope that she doesn't sense my discomfort.

"I can see why, he's really cute," she winks at me, "I hope you two are being safe."

"Safe?" I echo, my confusion taking over my voice and I can hear it clearly. "Why would we need to be safe?"

She looks at me like I've grown a second head and made it wear neon lights. "When you guys," she tones her voice to a whisper, "have sex."

I can feel the blood rush from my face and a shiver trailing down my spine. She did not just say that! Although it was almost a possibility Saturday night, but I can't dwell on the past. We both want different things.

"Um, Pacifica? You look a little pale." Trinity waves a hand in front of my face, "you look sick."

"I feel sick," I tell her, "but it's nothing. I should. . .Get to work now." I walk off, leaving Trinity with unanswered questions and I rush into the break room.

"Hey Pacifica," Cody's voice makes me jump. "Did I scare you?"

I swallow and look over at him, "I think startle is the more correct word for what you did." I smile at him, "what's up?"

"I. . .uh heard about your engagement." He mumbles, looking down at his shoes.

Right, my engagement with the devil. "I'm sorry I never told you, it's just that you often didn't believe me when I said I had a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I just can't believe you're getting married." He says quietly, still looking at his shoes. "When's the date?"

"New Year's Eve." I say, thinking about how my wedding will actually go. This one will be a disaster in the making. "I really want you to be there."

"Yeah, yeah, I will." He promises, "but I need to know who was better than me?"

My eyes widen and my breath hitches, Cody never showed me any romantic feelings, why now? "He's um. . .he's. . ."

"He's what?" Cody looks in my eyes, and I can see panic in his deep brown ones. "Pacifica, if this relationship isn't what you want you need to tell someone."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what makes you think I don't want to be in my own relationship?" I know that he is right, but I can't let anyone know what I'm doing for my job. "If I didn't want to be in this relationship I wouldn't have accepted Dipper's proposal!"

"Dipper?" He asks, "did his parents hate him?"

I close my lips to keep from spilling out any other details. I wish I could tell Cody what is going on, but that would only get me fired!

"Pacifica, what's going on in here?"

I dunno why I feel relief when Dipper steps into the break room. His eyes look at me with concern and a little bit of jealousy? "I was just getting myself a snack." I tell him quietly. "I'll get back to work,"

"Actually, I need to see you in my office," he leads me out of the room and I am grateful for the relief of not spilling the secret to Cody.

~ ~ ~

"What happened in there?" Dipper looks furious.

"I told you, I went to get a snack and Cody asked me about my engagement." I say again. "He doesn't know about the publicity."

Dipper doesn't seem to relax one bit even after the reassuring news I just told him. "Was he harassing you in any way?" He demands.

"What? N-no of course not," I assure him. He was only worried that Cody could have been harassing me? That doesn't sound right nor does it make sense. "Why do you care?"

He blinks a few times, and he looks past my face. "I can't have anyone harassing my fiance, especially in public. It'll make it look like you're cheating on me and we can't have that."

Oh, so he doesn't really care. "Oh," I say biting my bottom lip.

He walks over to me and tilts my chin upward so I'm looking directly in his icy gaze. "Don't do that," he commands me.

"Don't do what?" I ask, trying to break my eyes away from his, but I can't seem to be able to.

"Bite your lip like that," he says like it's plain as day and a fool could see what he is talking about. "It-" he stops himself from continuing.

"It what?" I know he probably finds it annoying or weird, because he tends to point that sort of stuff out.

"It drives me crazy!"