Page 96 of September

Carly looked at her like she’d just betrayed her deeply and turned around to lie down at the end of it.

“Carly, off,” she repeated.

The terrier emitted a small huff and then jumped off the bed and walked into the living room without looking back.

“Oh, you pissed her off,” Gwen said while laughing.

“She can sleep in here later, if she wants, but I just got here, and I want to be next to you, not have a begging dog between us.”

“So, you like me a little bit, huh?” Gwen teased.

“Yeah, a little bit,” Juliet said, smiling over at her.

???

“I didn’t think you were coming in today,” Molly said the following morning.

“I got back early. I figured since the class ended at five and it was only a three-hour drive, I’d just go home and sleep in my own bed.”

“That sounds nice,” Molly replied as Juliet sat down at her desk.

“It was. I actually went to Gwen’s. She had Carly, and we just hung out and fell asleep.”

“Hung out, huh?”

“Yes, hung out. We did the other things the past two nights, and we were exhausted.”

“Wait. The past two nights? You were at–”

“Juliet?” her boss said, walking over to her desk.

“Oh, hi. Yeah, I’m here today.”

“Can I speak with you?”

He looked at her as if she were a student in a classroom and had just gotten in trouble for passing notes.

“Um… Sure.”

“My office,” he added, and started walking.

“What the hell?” she whispered to Molly.

“No idea,” Molly replied.

Juliet stood, leaving her stuff on her desk without even having pulled out her laptop, and headed to his office.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“I’m going to ask someone from HR to join us. Give me a minute. I thought you’d be in tomorrow.”

“HR?” she asked as he picked up his desk phone. “Am I in trouble for something?”

“Just a second,” he told her, holding up his finger dismissively. “Hey, can I borrow you?” he said into the phone and paused. “In my office, with Juliet.” He paused again. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.” He hung up and looked at her. “I’d rather HR be in here before we start talking.”

“Um… Okay. I’m not really sure what’s going on here. Is this because I left the hotel last night instead of driving back this morning?”

“What? No,” he said. “I didn’t even know you did that, but I don’t care. Who hasn’t done that a time or two when they can?” He looked past her and to his open door. “Yeah, come in.”