After hours

Chapter Eleven

So this is it. This is what it’s like to be a mistress. To be having an affair with your boss.

He came in, a few minutes late as usual, but it was mostly alright. I mean, he always stayed way later than five anyway so he made up the hours. “Ryan.” He said curtly. “Amber.” He nodded to the receptionist.

Her name was Anna. I rolled my eyes. I’d never met anyone worse with names than Daniel was.

“Hey Amber?” Daniel yelled from his office. “Can you try to bump my 11:30 to a 10?”

Anna went to work frantically punching in numbers on the phone. I rolled my eyes remembering how Daniel always waited till the last moment to make changes like that. I went back to my own work. Lucky for me I had taken a multimedia course before and was in tern pretty handy with the computer graphics. I’d never gotten my degree, nor had I finished the program, and my lack of work in the field made it nearly impossible to get a job dotting my mad skills. But now I was working on a pretty nice graphic for the new hotel chain we were working on building with the Benson’s.

Speaking of Benson’s, my Benson would be here in a few hours. Whether or not we still had a deal, let alone a relationship, was in the air. Or at least, it was in the air for me. I had to tell Patrick we couldn’t be together. Something I had been trying to do for two months but had yet to manage.

Something always seemed to come up, the timing never felt right, on the rare occasion it would strike me ‘now is the moment!’ I would lose all my nerve. But I was prepared this time. Even If I couldn’t come up with the words myself, I had a plan.

I had packed up all of the knickknacks he’d given me, the jewelry, concert tickets for a few weeks down the road. I was a dirty lying cheater, but I wasn’t materialistic. I didn’t want Patrick to think I was only with him for his money and gifts, nor did I want him to think it was for this deal because I mean, I had clearly turned him down! He practically forced me into a date.

I shook my head, shaking the thoughts out. This was all in the past now. What mattered now was owning up to my mistakes, admitting what a shitty piece of shit shitterton I was, and doing my best to make it right.

Ha! Like I could do that.

Making it right would probably be, uh, not sleeping with a married man. I grimaced. I hated thinking of it like that. I was sleeping with a married man. It was something that never quite tasted right on the tongue.

“Ryan!” Daniel yelled from his office.

I calmly picked up the phone and dialed his extension. “Yes?” I said over the intercom.

 “Oh, yes.” He sounded surprised to be speaking to someone over the phones rather than through the walls. “When is Patrick going to be in town?”

I groaned. “A few hours.”

“Great, set up dinner.” Click.

I stood up and walked the few feet into his office. “You want dinner...with Patrick?”

“Well of course. He is our largest client to date. It would be rude of me, knowing he’s in town, and not even trying to touch base with him.”

I cleared my throat. “Will it be just the two of you?”

He looked up from his computer suddenly to catch my eye. “Well, you’ll be there of course.” I can only imagine the face I was making now. He treaded his next few words cautiously. “Should I…invite Tori?” He offered cautiously. He wanted to be helpful, not hurtful.

“Not necessary.” I wasn’t even sure he should invite himself. “I’ll uh…set it up.”

“Great.” His attention turned back to his work abruptly. I stood awkwardly in the doorway for a moment before nodding and going back to my desk.

Great.

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I updated today instead of Thursday because this chapter is SHORT!!! And I know how people hate short chapters, so because it's so short, I decided I'd post it today, and then another update on Thursday to make up for it. 

You're welcome! And yes, you read her right up there, it's been TWO MONTHS since the first time she and Daniel slept together and she's still with Patrick (and he is of course still with his wife). We'll talk more about that in the next chapter.

I wanted to also point out something Ryan did that a lot of people might not have noticed when they read this, but it's actually pretty important (and also common in relationships.) This was the first time she's made an excuse for Daniel. Justifying his always being late.

Now the question is, does she break up with Patrick? Does she tell him the truth? If she tells him the truth is he going to be willing to work things out or is this the end of the road for the two of them? And then if it is, what of the business deal?

Stay tuned folks! And as always;

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