Nothing but the Truth by James Holly

Author:James, Holly [James, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Adult
ISBN: 9780593186503
Amazon: 0593186508
Goodreads: 59447597
Publisher: Dutton
Published: 2022-07-12T07:00:00+00:00

Come to the kitchen when you’re done.

Curious, she obeyed. She held her head high from one end of the office to the other despite the stares and whispers. But does it really matter what people assume? she wondered. To the extent that they pitied her for atrocities that never occurred, maybe. But otherwise the key takeaway was that Jonathan’s behavior was unacceptable, and he needed to go.

She risked a glance at each J’s door; both were still shut. She wouldn’t be surprised if Jonathan had left the building.

When she rounded into the kitchen, a sunny oblong room with windows overlooking a courtyard with palms, what she found made her smile and want to cry at the same time.

“Happy birthday!” Oliver softly sang. He stood with Annie and Mikayla behind the kitchen island where a sheet cake sat, decorated in curly script and frosting flowers. A bundle of pastel balloons was tied to a communal fruit basket, and the three of them wore little party hats.

“This is the saddest party I’ve ever seen,” she said with a laugh, because it was true. “But thanks.”

Oliver held out a fork. “Well, yes. It was supposed to be bigger, but . . .” He shrugged without needing to explain further.

Mikayla looked like she was only halfway there, with one eye on her phone, and Annie looked like she wanted to run. Lucy had to give her serious credit for even hanging around the office after her email. She had been sure she’d have to hunt her down to talk to her about her plan, but there she was at Lucy’s sad little office birthday party. Her makeup showed telltale signs of having been dabbed with bathroom tissue; most of it was worn off. She cautiously met Lucy’s gaze, as if she expected to be reprimanded.

“Are you okay?” Lucy asked her.

She nearly flinched in surprise. “You’re not mad at me?”

“Quite the opposite, actually. I’m indebted to you for speaking up, and I have an idea I want to talk to you about. Do you have ten minutes?”

Annie gaped, causing her to stumble over her words. “I, um . . . HR told me I should take the rest of the day off, but I wanted to make sure you weren’t mad at me before I left.”

Oliver placed a small plate with a wobbling piece of cake on it in Lucy’s hands. She jammed her fork into it and took a bite. “I told you: I’m not mad,” she said around a mouthful—white cake with strawberry buttercream filling, her favorite. “We can go to my office, then you can sneak out the back door. I just need you to sign off on something.”

Annie’s face shifted to half-nervous, half-intrigued.

“This cake is delicious,” Lucy complimented, and took another bite.

“Of course it is,” Oliver said, scooping his own forkful. “Only the best at my events.”

“You planned this?”

“Yes. Why do you sound surprised?”

Lucy shrugged. “It’s just that women are always expected to plan office social events. It’s nice to see someone else do it for once.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.