When Desta stood, Nina was shaking her head. “I was going to ask what that was.”
“Oh yeah, a television show from the eighties and nineties. I grew up watching it with her.” Desta grabbed her coat from the chair she’d tossed it on this morning, and they headed to the elevator.
Twenty minutes later they were seated in a Manhattan restaurant with two mountain-size steak salads in front of them.
“So, we’ve talked about work, Christmas shopping or lack thereof and the wedding.” Nina used a napkin to wipe her hands before taking a drink from the glass of soda she’d ordered. “Now, let’s talk about you and Maurice.”
Desta knew she couldn’t have been lucky enough to get through this entire outing without Nina broaching that subject. There’d been a few questions while she, Nina, Marva and Riley had sat in the living room after Sunday dinner, but mostly that conversation had revolved around Riley and the details of her destination wedding. Now, she figured Nina thought it was time for her and Maurice to be in the spotlight.
Throughout her life, Desta had never had a lot of girlfriends, so this should’ve seemed odd. She and Riley were coworkers and friendly, but like Desta—at least before earlier this year—Riley hadn’t been the girlfriend type, either. Nina, on the other hand, had sisters and so was more inclined to close female friendships. Besides that, Nina wasn’t a blood member of the Gold family, so Desta felt a certain kinship to her. And to be honest, she needed to talk. So much had been going through her mind in the days since that dinner, having a sounding board would be a blessing.
“We’re seeing each other,” she said as if that had to be announced.
Nina laughed. “I think I got that much. How long have you been seeing each other? Major really did guess that you two were involved, but I swear I never saw it coming. Was it really just the run-in at the ski resort?”
“No.” It was the truth, and she needed to say it out loud. “I’m starting to think it’s been brewing for a long time. As I look back over my time here at the company, I’ve been around Maurice the most, and whenever I was at the Gold mansion we were always together. I guess I never paid much attention to that at first.” She hadn’t been able to get it out of her mind in the past few days. “The ski resort was a shock to both of us, but then things just sort of clicked.” With the help of three months’ worth of very graphic emails, but still, Desta knew there was much more to it than that. There was no way she would’ve done the things she did with Maurice in the Finger Lakes with a guy she’d just met face-to-face for the first time. Sex, sure, but being so open in those sessions, sharing those private parts of herself and then giving herself the way she had each night... No, that was all because she’d known Maurice for so long.
“Like a real-life friends-to-lovers story. Oh, this is so sweet. You know, you usually only see this stuff in movies.” Nina had started poking her fork into her salad again.
“I guess.” Desta wasn’t hungry now. She was conflicted or confused, not sure which.
Nina paused before taking another bite. “You don’t sound so sure. Are you in love with him?”
That word rendered her still. Her mind was freezing as it wrapped around the sound of those four letters together. She couldn’t be in love with Maurice. It was too soon, and Desta had never been a believer in insta-love. But hadn’t she just recalled how close they’d been for the last five years? What if her true feelings for him were just manifesting? “I wasn’t looking to fall in love.” Then, what had she been looking for? To reclaim control of her life? Well, she’d done that by being successful in her job. What else was there to claim? Her heart, she thought with a gasp. All this time, harboring the anger and resentment toward Gordon was like letting him keep her heart.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t think Maurice was, either.” Nina chewed the forkful of salad she’d put into her mouth and then shrugged. “Neither were Major and I. And from the stories she’s told me, I’m positive love was the last thing on Riley’s mind when she and Chaz hooked up.”
“What are you saying?” Desta played with her food while Nina took another drink from her glass.
“I’m saying that nobody ever plans love. That’s not how it works.”
No plan meant no control. Desta had experience with love, and she hadn’t liked it. How was this situation any different?
An hour later she was back in her office, trying her best to stop thinking about the conversation with Nina and all its implications. The new Mrs. Gold was quite smug in her assessment of Desta and Maurice’s relationship, and if she weren’t so close to the truth—at least where Desta was concerned—Desta might’ve had the nerve to be pissed off at Nina’s presumptiveness.
It was close to four, and she still hadn’t made a decision on the mock-ups, so Desta was extra irritated when her cell phone rang.
Taking a deep breath before answering, she pushed the button and said, “Hey, Ma.”
“Hey, Dessie.” Once upon a time this had been the only nickname Desta answered to. Now, her heart warmed each time Maurice called her Des. “Didn’t get a chance to talk to you over the Thanksgiving weekend so I thought I’d call now. Mama said she talked to you and that you’d had dinner with your boss’s family.”
“Yeah. I worked right up until it was time for their annual dinner, so I just joined them, and then I went away for a weekend.” She knew that was a mistake as soon as she’d said it.
“You went away,
