Behind Closed Doors by Ashley Goss

Author:Ashley Goss [Goss, Ashley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

Out of all the people Stella could have chosen to rant and cry and despair at, it shouldn’t be a surprise when it turns out to be Augustus from Marketing. Although, Stella hadn’t really chosen him; they more or less ran into each other at some boring convention they’d apparently both agreed to go to months before, infinitely happy the other hadn’t decided to bail. He had been his usual good company, and somehow, she’d accepted him feeding her one (or two) vodkas too many. Afterwards, he’d led her outside to the taxi stand to wait with her in the cold and dark of a late November evening. He turned to her and asked her how she had really been doing, she’d barely managed a fine, thank you before her eyes brimmed with every last tear she had refused to shed over the past few weeks.

“Now there’s a lie if I ever heard one,” Augustus smiles, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Maybe you should find someone to tell the truth to, because you seem about to explode keeping that straight face.”

“There’s no one to talk to this about,” Stella mutters, not looking at him. “I don’t want anyone to know.” And as she says it she knows she’s already gone too far; knows Augustus is without a doubt the most likely candidate to tell.

“That’s your choice, of course,” Augustus agrees. “But you look far from happy, and it messes with your pretty face.”

“Don’t,” Stella starts, but he’s laughing already.

“I wasn’t trying to,” Augustus grins as a cab drives up and he lets go of her shoulder to get the door for her. “But I guess this is about men, then.”

“It is,” Stella admits sheepishly, getting into the taxi. “Want to share?”

Augustus nods and gets in after her; giving her address first - then his, a hotel not that far from her own place. They chat idly on the way to Stella’s home, and before she knows it the cabbie pulls up in front of her door and what she had explicitly forbidden herself to say tumbles out of her mouth anyway.

“Care for a drink?” Stella asks, giving him a casual, sideways glance as she’s getting money from her purse. “An innocent, not that kind of drink?” He smiles and nods again.

“I can walk it from here,” Augustus tells the cab driver and gets out as well.

“So,” Augustus asks when they are settled with a bottle of wine and a bit of music. “Explain to me why you’re terrified of talking about whatever it is you’re not talking about.” He takes a sip from his glass. “Because it’s so totally not you. I’ve come to know you a bit, you know. We have worked together for god knows how long.”

Stella smiles. “Augustus,” she starts, and it’s soft and almost apologetic as she can’t find the courage to look him in the eye. “I’m in love with someone. The head-over-heels and in-too-deep kind of in love.” Stella can almost hear his eyebrows shoot up, she thinks.

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