I was thinking about Cecilia for a girl and Simon for a boy.
Her heart swelled a little at the thought of giving a name to her child. Giving him or her an identity.
I don’t know… those sound very British.
All the good feelings she’d been having fled.
I am British!
"Bloody idiot."
Mandy’s groan of frustration was so loud that the woman in the cubicle next to her peered around at her. "You okay?"
"Yes, I’m just thinking that my boss is insane." What on earth made Damien wonder at eleven A.M. on a Tuesday more than four months from her due date what she was going to name her baby? And then criticize her choice.
The woman next door laughed. "All bosses are insane, but I’ve heard yours is the worst."
That brought Mandy up short. "Oh, he’s not so bad as all that."
He wasn’t bad at all, in fact. Damien was at least asking – that was more than she could say for Ben. He seemed more concerned with investigating her new breasts than wondering about their child. Maybe she wasn’t being fair to him, but then again, maybe she wasn’t being fair to Damien.
I was thinking that Rebecca is a nice name.
Did he now? And who the hell had asked him? Pursing her lips together, Mandy clicked the "close" button to get rid of the offensive window.
She was done with that conversation.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t get rid of her thoughts about Damien as easily as that window. Especially when the tickets she’d ordered for the Saturday Yankees game showed up in her mail at the office.
She had bought them in a moment of weakness, thinking that Damien really needed to pursue outside interests. At the time, she had been secretly hoping those outside interests would involve her and how many sexual positions they could try, but she realized now that was exactly the wrong thing to do.
She’d told herself all along that she couldn’t get involved with Damien, long term or short term. She had a child and Ben to contend with. But that didn’t stop her from repeatedly entertaining making love to Damien again.
So she had ordered the tickets as a reminder to him of their time together. But Damien seemed completely over his attraction to her, given all the energy he’d put into pursuing her since their return.
Which was none. He hadn’t once even tried to see her in person, yet he’d obviously spent hours surfing the Internet looking up baby furniture and birthing classes.
The tickets shouldn’t go to waste, but she didn’t think she could spend an afternoon listening to Damien extol the virtues of breastfeeding.
As far as she knew, Rob Turner was Damien’s only friend in the office. She’d take the tickets to him and suggest he invite Damien. If she gave the tickets directly to Damien, she had no doubt he would stick them in his fastidious drawer and never use them.
Rob was hanging up his phone when she knocked on his open door. He looked at her curiously. "Mandy, isn’t it? Come on in."
"Thanks." Feeling a bit ridiculous, she slapped the envelope with the tickets in her hand. "I was wondering if you’re busy Saturday. I’ve got tickets for the Yankees game and I thought you might like to go."
His eyebrows shot straight up. "Does Damien know? Because I kind of thought you and he…"
Mandy stared at him for a second, not sure what he meant. Then she felt her face flush. "Oh, God! I didn’t mean you and me. I meant you and Damien."
Rob laughed, but she wasn’t feeling very funny at the moment.
"Oh, okay. But what a disappointment for me." He winked at her.
Embarrassed, she rambled on. "If I give the tickets to Damien, he won’t go. He’ll just come up with some excuse and work the whole day. So I thought if you dragged him there, at least he’d get out a bit."
That little speech had been way too revealing, given the fact that Rob’s grin fell right off his handsome face. "It sounds like you know Damien pretty well."
She shrugged.
"Why don’t you go with him? Given the way he talks about you, he’d rather be with you than me."
She would not ask, she would not ask…
"He talks about me?"
Rob nodded. "He’s mentioned you quite a bit. And though he hasn’t said anything specific, I get the feeling something happened between the two of you in Punta Cana. And if that’s the case, I’m happy for both of you. Damien needs someone in his life."
Rob leaned back, tipping his whole chair off the ground. He had a stress ball in his hand, and he tossed it up in the air.
"I’m pregnant," she blurted, because sooner or later people were going to figure it out, and given the whispers she’d heard from some of the other secretaries, they were already wise to her situation. It was getting hard to hide. And she wanted Rob to stop his thoughts there, because she didn’t want any rumors swirling about her and Damien. Nor did she want Rob suggesting to Damien that they could have a future together.
Rob’s stress ball plummeted to his desk. His feet hit the floor hard. "Are you serious?" He glanced at her stomach. "Well, hell, that’s the best damn thing that could have happened to Damien."
Mandy clenched her teeth. Damn it, she was making a complete muck of this. "It’s not his."
His eyes narrowed. "Come again?"
"Damien isn’t the father." And for the first time, she was willing to admit that she almost wished he were.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" What did she look like?
Rob sighed. "Oh. All right. I’ll take the tickets then." He held out his hand. "It’s a damn shame though. I thought you might be the woman who could finally get through to Damien."
"He doesn’t see me that way." She was still hurt and seething over that. "He thinks I’m a good assistant, and he’s curious about the baby. That’s all there is between us."
His hand closed around one end of the envelope she held out to him. "You’re wrong. He’s attracted to you and trying to pretend he isn’t. You’re the first woman I’ve seen him have any interest in since Jess."
Mandy dropped the envelope with the tickets. "You care about him."
Rob nodded. "I’ve known Damien all my life. You should have seen him before. He was a great guy."
"He still is," she whispered.
And she meant it.
Chapter 18
Damien had walked all over the eighteenth floor looking for Mandy and couldn’t find her. He paused in front of the reception desk and clenched his fists. He wasn’t going back to his office until he found her.