Page 12 of Playing Pretend

I raised my eyebrows in silent question.

“Do you know Caleb?”

“Of course,” I replied a little too quickly. “Everybody does.”

“I mean personally.”

“What? No. Why would you think that?”

Shit.

Aaliyah’s eyes were far too assessing, but I knew if I looked away it would reveal too much.

She shrugged. “Call it hunch.”

My gaze dropped in silent contemplation, and it wasn’t the first time I’d chastised myself for blatantly staring at him, although the last time I chalked it down to an immature infatuation with someone too far out of my reach.

“Your hunch is a little off,” I said, trying to sound confident. “You can’t blame me for looking though.”

“You’re deflecting, but I’ll drop it because you have no reason to trust me yet.”

“There’s nothing to deflect, but I am curious about the dynamic between you and Caleb.”

I’d noticed that Aaliyah, and Caleb were close, and he relied on her for a lot. She managed his time, set his appointments, took his calls, got his lunch, and I thought it was beyond the scope of her responsibilities. But I also noticed that she cared for him as a friend, and when he came into the office in a particularly surly mood, she was the first to check on him. No one else in the office seemed to pay much attention to it, but I did.

“Caleb gave me a chance when no one else would.”

Aaliyah’s response surprised me, and the lilt in her voice told me there was more to it than she was letting on. I wasn’t one to pry, so I didn’t, but I asked the least personal question I could think of.

“How long have you been working for him?”

Aaliyah swallowed the rest of her drink, and placed the glass on the bar.

“Four years.” Her expression revealed just how carefully she was formulating her answer.

She was protecting Caleb by not giving away too much.

I did the math in my head. She started working for Caleb shortly after he was forced to take over as C.E.O of Callahan Industries. I knew from several reports in the media that it was because his father had fallen ill. That was only half the truth.

“You care about him,” I said. “I’m glad he has you.”

“There you two are.” Annabelle approached us, unknowingly ending the silent conversation between Aaliyah and me. “What are doing hiding at the bar?”

“I’m avoiding Jennifer,” I replied. “For some reason she has it out for me.”

Aaliyah, and Annabelle replied at the same time with, “She’s jealous.”

My brows puckered. “Of what? I haven’t done anything, and I’ve only been here for two weeks.”

“Exactly,” said Annabelle. She took a hearty sip of her cocktail, and then continued, “It’s obvious that Macy likes you, and Jennifer is threatened by that because when she started working here no one wanted to give her the time of day. Macy will be on maternity leave in less than three months, and Jennifer wants Macy’s job. I won’t even get started on the fact that she still carries a torch for Caleb.”

Aaliyah shot Annabelle a dirty look, and when I caught it I blurted out, “What happened between them?”

Aaliyah exhaled through pursed lips, and shook her head at Annabelle in disapproval. “As far as anyone else knows it’s just office gossip, but apparently Caleb got a little too drunk one night and ended up sleeping with Jennifer. She thought it meant more than that, but Caleb wasn’t interested.”

With a scoff, Annabelle said, “You and I both know it’s not just idle office gossip, Liy.”

“Even so, we shouldn’t be talking about it. Caleb’s personal life has been documented for tabloid fodder far too many times already -” I put my hand on Aaliyah’s arm when I noticed that she was getting aggravated, and she stopped to look at me.