Between the Lies

15| Heart

"Congratulations," I said. 

"Thank you. Fifty years is a huge milestone, therefore, I would like to surprise her. And you all because why not?" 

"Aren't you an awfully nice boss," Lyla chuckled. 

"Next weekend, early Saturday morning, we all are flying out to Maui, Hawaii for four nights, five days trip!" 

Pin... drop... silence. 

"Are you serious?" Jade blurted out. 

"Dead serious, my dear. Every single one of you has been working for me for a very long time and these two teams are undoubtedly the best in the office, don't tell anyone else I said that, even though they probably already know. My wife gets along with most of you and I thought why not take us all?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "It'll be a good break from work for our two hardworking leaders and their team members. And the tickets have already been booked so whatever plans you had, cancel them." 

"What about the project?" Aaron asked. Everybody turned to shoot him a look or glare at him while I bit back a snort. 

"The project will be continued once we're back, I've already spoken to Ronan and his manager about it. It's nothing to worry about." After he briefed us a bit more about the sudden trip, we were all dismissed. All of us except Aaron and I. "I just wanted to remind you both in private that this trip doesn't mean your charade can stop." 

"But why? There's no point in us putting on an act on this trip," Aaron replied. 

"It's not like anybody will see," I added. 

"Your co-workers will, my dear. Your co-workers will. I am more than well aware that there are employees in this company who are friends with employees of our competitors. News spreads like wildfire in our world and that's what we need. You two are to keep going with your act. Understood?" 

"Were you actually going to reduce our salaries if we didn't agree to this?" Aaron questioned. 

"Would you like to find out?" 

"No," I said quickly, kicking Aaron's leg gently under the table. "No, we're good to go. Keep the act going. Noted." 

"Very well. Have a nice day." And then he left. 

The door closed behind him and both Aaron and I sighed. "He's blackmailing us, Vanessa. And we're following his orders." 

"He's our boss, Aaron. What are we supposed to do? Refuse? We're going to lose our jobs, if not then at least our salaries. I already told you, I can't afford that." 

"But you can afford to waste your hours away with me and do it all to pretend?" 

I shrugged. "It's not always such a waste. I mean look, we got this project." 

He sighed. "Do you really think we can work together without killing each other?" 

"I don't know if you've noticed, but that's exactly what we've been doing for the past few days." I stood up, gathered my laptop and papers, and walked past his chair and to the door. I paused and spun around to face him again. "It's only a little longer. If we do good on this trip, he might let us off the hook. Oh, and off-topic, bring Blue into the vet's office tomorrow. He's due for a checkup and the second vaccination." I pulled the door open and walked out.