I snapped my head over to him. “What is your problem with her?”

Mason let out a deep sigh, and drew his chair closer to the desk. “She’s trying to ruin your life. Next thing you know, she’s taking you away from your girlfriend.”

I blinked because what was he even talking about? “What are you talking about?”

“Since she showed up, you’ve never mentioned Aurora.”

“We broke up a long time ago; I remember telling you about it.”

“Yes, you seemed torn up about it, and then Fiona shows up out of nowhere, and you’re all over her.”

“I’ve known her since we were kids,” I said carefully, trying to imagine where this was actually going. I didn’t want to lose my temper, especially since I was trying to find out what this feud was between them.

“And?”

“And?”

Mason ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “Office romance is not ideal, you know that, right? When you date someone from work, you start to cheat, and then you’re leaving the person who cares about you-”

“In this case, Aurora.”

Mason snapped his finger and pointed at me like I just gave the best answer in the world. I wondered at that moment if I had never told him about Aurora. There was no way he would have wanted me to end up with her.

“Aurora is not a good person, but Fiona is.”

Mason shook his head, “Fiona is pretending to be a good person. She is just like all of them.”

“All of them?” I asked, suspecting that this conversation was not in any way about me or Fiona.

“You know the man Cherie is with right now?”

I thought back to the man I had seen around Cherie’s house, tall with brown hair, the smile on his face whenever he saw Cherie, the smile on Cherie’s face whenever she saw him even though I always thought it didn’t look as real as when she was around Mason.

“He’s her co-worker. They are all the same. Nothing good comes out of office romances. It’s not like the books.”

I nodded slowly because this wasn’t why I expected he couldn’t stand Fiona. I thought she did something horrible to him, or maybe ignored him, or didn’t carry out a task he asked her to do.

There were a lot of reasons on the list I came up with. I even thought he just didn’t like her for no reason. There could be situations like that.

“Fiona is nothing like that.”

“Of course, you’d think that,” Mason said, disappointed in my reply.

I wanted to stay and reassure him, but I had a meeting with Aurora and her parents. Going through my parents didn’t seem like a good option; I would nip this drama with Aurora in the bud.

“Mason, I say this with love, and I hope you listen to me because I want nothing but the best for you, okay? Talk to Cherie, tell her you miss her. Sure, it’s been seven years, but that is also enough time for her to figure herself out. Tell her exactly how you feel; even if she doesn’t feel the same way. Get it off your chest. It’ll be easier to live with whatever comes next.”

******

I didn’t tell Fiona about the meeting because I didn’t want her to worry. My plan for the meeting was to tell Aurora and her family that I had no intention of being forced into marriage with her.

If she still loved me, as she claimed, that would be something for her to deal with. I had no idea why she was trying her best to make it my problem.

The restaurant I picked was one of the best in town, but I chose it simply because they offered a private room. The cuisine was the last thing on my mind, but Aurora and her parents thought I invited them over to dine because they complimented the food non-stop.

I suppose the pasta we were served was good, and the lighting in the room, dim and warm, made it look like we were there for an intimate conversation. Aurora sat next to me, trying to move her seat closer to mine. And no matter how many times I moved away from her, she never seemed to get the hint.

I cleared my throat to get their attention back on me. Now that I was thinking about it, I shouldn’t have allowed them to dig into the meal. I should have just gone right ahead and told them why I’ve invited them over.

“If you’re going to apologize for dinner the last time, don’t worry about it,” Aurora said and shuffled closer to me. “I explained to my parents that I wasn’t the most understanding girlfriend while we were together, and you just said all of those things to get a reaction out of me.”

I had no more surprise left in me for the person Aurora was. They thought I was apologizing? Aurora was not done talking.

“You know, I’m really glad you invited us here to apologize because I was so desperate I met up with Fiona to ask her to talk to you for me.”

“You did what?” I asked. Then I remembered Fiona talking about meeting Aurora. At the time, I thought Fiona had just been talking to get me to change my mind, but now I know better.

“I know, right? Who does she think she is? Just because I asked her to help me in my moment of need, she decided to use the chance to talk to me however she pleased. What did she say? She was in love with you?”

Aurora laughed at this part as if it was the funniest thing in the world. My chest expanded with joy; knowing that Fiona had told Aurora she was in love with me made me so happy. It made it even clearer what my goal here was today. Even if I didn’t want to draw a clear line between me and Aurora before, hearing this gave me all the clarity I needed.

“I don’t know why secretaries like to act up,” Aurora’s mother piped up, and then turned to her daughter. “Why did she think she could compete with you?”

Beside her, her father nodded in agreement. It was easy to see how they were a family. A family that I had zero desire to be a part of.

I sat straighter. “I’m sure you remember how I said I was in love with someone else at dinner the other day.”

“You don’t need to mention it,” Aurora said and took hold of my hand. “You just said that because you were pissed, right?”

I pulled my hand away from her and turned back to face her parents. “I wasn’t joking about it. I have no reason to joke about it. I’ve fallen in love with someone; if you must know, it is my secretary.” I looked at Aurora, who looked like she’d been slapped across the face. “The person I was talking about at the dinner was Fiona.”

“What is the meaning of this?” Kevin thundered, and I waved my hand, indicating for him to calm down.

“I still have a lot to say. Your daughter is not a saint, and I wasn’t happy while I was with her. I put up with a lot, and at the end of the day, she broke up with me. And what did I do? I still tried to make it work, but not anymore. That’s all in the past, gone with the wind.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not. There are a lot of things that I could joke about, but this isn’t one of them. I am in love with Fiona and intend to commit to her, and marry her somewhere along the line. I don’t want her to deal with you again.”

Aurora stood up so abruptly, the chair she was on fell back and hit the floor. Her father clenched his jaw.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?” Quinn asked. “Do you know what we can do? We can leave your company.”

I nodded because that is all they have to dangle over our heads. “You can pull out of the company if you want.”

“What?”

“I don’t care what you do. If you want to leave the company, do. I’m not going to force you to do business with us, but if you decide to remain with the company and continue with our partnership, I hope that we never have to discuss such unpleasant matters again. And in case you think I don’t know, your company needs us as much as we need you. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”