Page 35

The n Scarlet Confessed

T he leftovers were just as good the next day. Rafferty had decorated the crust with leaves and vines, making it almost too pretty to eat. Almost. Somehow bringing the container with her to work made her feel more reassured as she marched toward what could very easily be her last day at Scarlet Pr omotions.

The tension in the main office could have been cut with a knife. Even the water wall wasn’t running that morning, a guy in blue coveralls cranking on the pipes through a hidden panel at the side. Helena could hear everyone whispering, which immediately ceased the second she came around the wall.

Oh, crap. It’s worse than I realized, she thought.

Before she could make up her mind about whether she wanted to try to engage with everyone or not, Yosef appeared beside her. He looked less than his usual put together self, but his face was as stoically neutral as ever.

“Scarlet would like to speak to you,” he sai d softly.

Helena nodded. What else could she do? The second she turned her back, the office started to whisp er again.

At least packing up my desk will be quick, Helen a thought.

It was almost a relief to step into Scarlet’s office until Yosef made to take her coat and her lunch box, being the courteous assistant again like he could be before her p romotion.

She didn’t know what kind of sign to take that as, so she just focused on Scarlet.

But the boss wasn ’t there.

“Where…” Helena started to ask, but Yosef was already indicating the side conference room connected to their office by a side door that had been made double wide to accommodate Scarlet’s wheelchair com fortably.

Bracing herself again, Helena headed through the door.

Scarlet sat in her wheelchair on the window side of the room, gazing out over her beloved city. She didn’t turn when Helena shut the door.

“Come sit, Helena,” she said instead, indicating an already pulled out chair waitin g for her.

The trepidatious younger woman complied as expected, though she sat on the edge of the chair, prepared to pop up the second she was fired to book it out of there.

Yet, once she was seated, she noticed that Scarlet was smiling wickedl y at her.

“So the only real question is whether you want to stay or not?” Scarl et asked.

“Ma’am, I can assure you—” Helena started, but Scarlet held up her hand.

“If you choose to go, I will of course compensate you with a generous severance and glowing recommendations as well as annulling your non-compete agreement. And honestly, I would have given you the glowing recommendations to you anyway, even without you catching me in a compromising situation with my personal a ssistant.”

She said the last just as Yosef appeared at her elbow to present her with a steaming cup of tea. If his ears could have burned redder, Helena was sure Yosef’s hair would have caught fire. Scarlet only smiled serenely.

“If you choose to stay, nothing will change, though I will ask that you not speak of what you saw to anyone, even though everyone out there already has some ideas that might more or less be true. I just ask that you not confirm or deny anything. Frankly, it’ll add to your mystery and that can pay dividends when I appoint you to succeed me in the company.”

Helena did not know what to think. All she could do was sit there and blink while Scarlet waited for her to pr ocess it.

She even absentmindedly took her cup of tea from Yosef before she could put two thoughts together. Don’t ask her if she’s firing you, don’t even bring it up, don’t ask if she’s not f iring you…

“So you’re not firing me?” she asked despite herself.

Scarlet’s smile widened. “No, dear. That would be illegal.”

“Oh.” Giving herself another moment to think, Helena took a long sip from her tea. “I guess I would like to stay and just continue on as things were. Maybe with a code word for when you two are going to be … pre occupied.”

Scarlet snorted. “We did say I was getting a massage.”

Helena snorted into her tea. “Well, yes, but also you do actually get massages.”

Her boss shook her head bemusedly as she continued to stare out the window, the gray world of the city reflecting in the blueness of her eyes. “It must seem so crazy that a woman of my age would be caught in such a position with someone like him.”

“Why?” Helena genuine ly asked.

Scarlet looked down at her hands holding the teacup, as if she were just waiting for the liquid to evaporate so she could read the tea leaves. Of which there was none because this was a well-made cup of tea. “I know what you’re goin g to say.”

“ I don’t even know what I’m going to say, so tell me.”

“That why should I worry about what anyone thinks of me. Men my age do this sort of thing all the time.”

Helena had to nod at that. “You’re right. That is one of the things I would say. Though if I’m being fully honest, I went through the depth and breadth of emotions yesterday, but I know that had more to do with me and my own hangups.”

That elicited another chuckle. “Do you know how incredibly annoying it is for someone as young as you to be so wise?”

Helena smiled. “One of my therapists said I’m an old soul.” Then she hesitated before adding. “I know what it’s like to hold secrets that you know are difficult for other people to un derstand.”

Now Scarlet looked at her, not speaking, again simply waiting, as if to say, You know one of my secrets. What is yours? It’s only fair.

Letting out a long breath at the risk she was about to take, Helena steeled herself for whatever reaction she received. “In high school, I bullied a girl so badly she committed suicide.”

Scarlet’s eyebrows shot up, as surprised as Helena had been learning h er secret.

Helena smiled, sadly serene. “I’ve carried that with me for years. And I will for the rest of my life.”

Scarlet let out a long breath, “I am sorry for making you reveal something like that. For making you relive it. I did not have the right and I should have know n better.”

“Actually, you didn’t. I have another reason I needed to tell you.”

Now Scarlet’s eyebrows furrowed.

The younger woman sighed. “I have a friend… though I don’t know if I can really call him a friend anymore, who I recently have caught being unfaithful, and he’s threatened to reveal my secrets here at work in retribution if I say anything to hi s spouse.”

“Ah, I see.” Scarlet nodded as if she were all too familiar with that sort o f threat.

“I was already torn about having not told his husband, who is also my friend, but now I’m so deeply hurt by him, by his actions… That’s really the worst part. He was my friend. For years.” The familiar lump rose up in Helena’s throat, and she took a deep drink of her tea to try to swallow it down. “I still care a bout him.”

Drinking her own tea, Scarlet returned to her contemplation of the world outside.

“If I can say one thing about what I have learned in my life it is this, and it’s not even mine originally, but the older I’ve become, the more true it’s proved to be. We, every being in existence, is a collection of good things and bad things. They are independent of each other and cannot be balanced against each other, though we as humans try. The good things do not always soften the bad, and the reverse is also true—the bad things do not invalidate the good things or make them unim portant.”

Then she reached out her wrinkled, yet still strong hand to rest on Helena’s younger one. “What made Chris your friend is still there and always will be, even as it’s time to let him go because his darkness is taking him away. As for what he could do to your work, there is nothing he can do that I cannot undo.” She squeezed reas suringly.

A clatter came from behind them, and both women turned to see Yosef hovering outside the door. He disappeared the second they not iced him.

“Oh my dear child. It’s so unfair to my dear Yosef,” Scarlet said, shaking her head after where he had been. “I didn’t believe it at first, but he is truly in love with me, and I will leave him sooner th an later.”

Helena smiled warmly. “So, how did it happen? What’s your lo ve story?”

“You know if I’m honest, I should really be thanking you,” Scarlet said, finishing her tea.

“Oh? Did I do something inadvertently?” Hele na asked.

“It was after your dinner party,” Scarlet said. “I don’t know. There was something about that night that just pushed past the last bit of resistance for both of us had and it just … h appened.”

The older woman was blushing now while Helena’s face went pale.