relationships lasted!”
I snap. “It’s not ‘cause I’m jumping from one girl to the next.
It’s because work always gets in the way or has to come first, just
like it did with Nicola.”
I feel sad as I
think back to my ex-girlfriend. She was devastated when I had to
choose work over her and we ended up breaking up. Carl knows about
it so I don’t know why he’s bringing it up and accusing me of being
a player.
“ Things are
different with Star,” I insist. “I want to make sure it works out
this time.”
“ And why is
that?” he asks, not believing me.
“ Because I’ve
fallen for her,” I admit.
There’s a
stunned silence and I feel shy at what I’ve just blurted
out.
“ You’re in love
with her?” he asks, still looking surprised.
“ Yeah, is that
a problem?”
“ No, of course
not,” he looks down guiltily. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you felt
so strongly about her. Now I understand why you went against my
judgement.”
“ So you’ll
accept that we’re together?”
“ Okay,” he
agrees, defeated, “but I still think it’s a bad idea. You have to
realise how complicated it will get if you two have an argument or
break up. You’ll need to come in the next day and work together as
if nothing’s happened. Do you really think both of you can do
that?”
“ I’m sure I can
handle it,” I promise, although it breaks my heart to think what
would happen if Starlet and I did ever break up.
“ Good, because
there’s no way I’m losing you or Starlet through an emotion
matter,” he says. “You are one of my best employees and Starlet’s
showing great potential too. It would be a shame to throw that
away.”
“ You won’t have
to,” I say. “Things will be exactly the same as they’ve always
been. I’ll still work hard and Star will too once she’s finished
training. Whatever’s happening with us will stay outside of work
like I promised.”
“ Okay,” he
looks relieved. “Just make sure it does.”
After dinner, I
send a text message to Starlet, hoping we can talk so I can warn
her that Carl knows about us:
Hey Star, can
I c u tonite? I really need to talk to u about something
Xxxxx
She replies
back right away:
Yeah sure, Im
free. Just come round any time xxxxx
I quickly type
in a reply before setting out of the door: Cool. I’ll b right over xxxxx
It only takes
me a minute to walk over to her flat and she answers as soon as I
knock.
“ Hi,” she
greets me with one of her pretty smiles.
“ Hi Star,” I
reply, feeling really happy to see her and go in for a
kiss.
It feels just
as good as it did last night and we eventually stop kissing and go
into her flat.
“ So what’s so
important?” she asks as we sit on the sofa together.
“ Carl found out
about us,” I tell her. “I never told him about our dates ‘cause he
didn’t like me tryin’ to get with you. I was gonna tell him about
us today but he heard it from someone else first.”
She looks a
little anxious, “what did he say about it?”
“ He’s pretty
annoyed at me for going against what he said,” I reply, “but he
finally accepted that we’re together and I think he’s okay with it
now.”
“ That’s
good.”
“ He wants us to
act professionally at work, so that means we can’t kiss or anything
during work hours,” I say. “I know we shouldn’t but I bet it will
be hard.”
“ It’s fine. We
need to anyway,” she says, not fazed by it. “We have to stay
focused, plus we’ll be pretty busy and have missions to do, so I
guess we won’t have time for other stuff.”
“ I guess you’re
right,” I agree. “I promised him we would keep our relationship
outside of work… but he says that if we do have any problems then
we have to just carry on as normal.”
“ I’m sure I
can,” she says, although she looks a little troubled. “Do you think
I should go and speak to Carl about it? Just so he knows that
everything’s fine?”
“ Maybe