Rule No. 1: No Romance (GirlxGirl WlW)

Chapter 32

"What's this about? Have you been invited?" I ask Joane as my eyes skim through an email, though not any ordinary email, but one that came directly from Doriah Arquette, my boss — and Louise's grandfather.

"To what?" she raises her eyebrows, walking behind me and peeking at my computer screen.

"It's an invitation for some sort of corporate event, from the boss himself, that's unusual."

"Unusual? I'm sorry, I'm not important enough to be invited to those. I did get invited, like everyone else, to the general one the day after," she mutters, her hand resting on my shoulder. "Might have to do with the merge."

"You're not missing much."

"It's a fancy gathering filled with high-class champagne and gourmet appetizers, you can't be serious," she says, her eyes still glued to the screen, carefully reading the email. "Imagine getting an invite from the big boss himself, how lavish."

"You can go on my behalf then."

"I'm sure I'd get kicked out."

"For smuggling appetizers into your purse? Absolutely."

I lean back in my seat, taking a sip of my coffee as Joane sits on the edge of my desk. She looks at me, a small smile playing on her lips. "What?" I groan, not liking where this is going already.

"Nothing..." she shrugs.

"Don't you have work to do?"

"I'm taking a break."

"It's literally only been 30 minutes since we started working."

"Your point?" she narrows her eyes at me. I sigh but I don't get to answer as she switches the topic. "You and Louise are getting pretty serious."

"What makes you think that?"

"Just an assumption since you don't really share much but it's been a while since... you know, you guys started... whatever it is that you are now," she says cautiously.

"A while?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Louise's internship is ending soon, have you decided if you're going to hire her into the team?"

"Well, I don't see a reason not to — even though I'm sure it'll be a decision out of my control. As much as she claims her family detests her, I can't see them getting her into this internship only not to hire her."

"For sure," she answers. but I can tell her head is somewhere else, deep in thought. "You didn't deny things are getting serious."

"I thought you didn't want details."

"I want to be someone you can open up to again," she sighs. "Emotional details only, please."

"Aren't you curious if she's good in bed?"

She looks briefly at me before clicking her tongue. "Is she?"

"Who knows," I shrug, trying to fight the smile tugging at my lips.

"Whatever," she groans, pushing herself off my table. "Let me know when it's official."

"Why the formalities? Doesn't it just automatically become official after a while?"

"Define a while."

"Depends."

"On?" she glances at me from the corner of my eyes. "And wouldn't you think Louise would prefer something more concrete? Like actual words instead of assumptions?"

"Why me? If it's something she wants that badly, she can step in and propose a relationship herself, when the time is right."

"Which I'm sure she has," she says as a matter of fact. "I can't imagine how she's able to maintain that self-esteem after so much rejection."