As I continue to think about me and Chopard the whole morning, with our agreement, and everything in between, rolling into the afternoon. I soon found myself at Daphne's apartment, hanging out with her and Akako.

This is a rare occasion for the three of us to get together, but here we are.

Daphne's apartment is the definition of a woman who absolutely has her shit together. Every time I come over and visit. Her apartment is always clean, her dishes are away, and it looks like she hired a maid to do all this for her.

Even when I sometimes show up unexpectedly if I'm in the area, she manages to have it spotless.

Daphne denies having a maid, and I guess I'll take that with a grain of salt. I don't know, in every movie, the fashion assistant's apartment is a mess with mountains of papers, and clothes, but I guess that's not real life.

Just like I misinterpreted their reaction to everything I told them about Chopard and me, and plus the deal we managed to agree on.

I thought they would be a little shocked but not surprised, I mean, they went on about his looks when they first saw him, surely–They would create a theory about him and me, since he is my assistant.

But not quite, instead–Their jaws were on the ground, neither of them picked them back up. Right now, it's been roughly six minutes since I told them everything.

I think shock is an understatement, more like I just dropped a bombshell on them like I was moving across the country. And to be honest, I don't think it's that big of a deal, sure we kissed, and I went to his apartment to talk about it, not it's not like I'm going to–

Daphne the first to speak, swallowing loudly as she coughs as well, her throat obviously dry from having her mouth open for too long, "So–" She looks back at Akako, who is staying silent, "How come you haven't told either one of us?"

She then pours another glass of her favorite wine, drinking it as she awaits for my answer.

Now I feel like I'm in an investigation and there is no way to escape this, otherwise I would be sent to prison.

As I cross my legs, I look up at Akako, who is standing behind the couch Daphne is sitting on, as I sat on the opposite side of her couch. Akako carefully sips her wine as well, trying not to spill it.

As she does so, I could just tell that she's thinking about everything I told her, that is just what she does, she overanalyzes anything and everything. She could overthink about a bug if she wanted to.

But finally, I sign as I explained, "Listen, in the beginning, I thought I could handle my feelings, and it would all be over and done with" I laughed awkwardly, as it sounded ridiculous now after what happened between me and Chopard, "I didn't expect it to go down like it did"

"So just to clarify" As Daphne clears her throat, "He gets to keep his job in exchange for his silence?"

I closed my eyes as I imagined what it sounded like, it made Chopard sound like a victim in a crime that I committed right in front of him and I'm blackmailing him to keep his silence.

I joked, "Daphne, you're making it sound so much worse than what it actually is"

Daphne says nothing, shrugging her shoulders, as she drinks the last of her wine, getting up and going into the kitchen, carefully dropping off her glass in the sink, as she starts to wash it.

As she's doing so, I clarify the whole thing once more, "Listen, me and Chopard have come to an agreement or deal, whatever you want to call it. We agreed that as long as he doesn't tell anyone about this whole thing, then he gets to keep his job"

I threw my arms up in the air as I want it into more simple terms, my arms coming to a rest as it hangs on the back of the chair as I continue to watch Daphne wash the dishes.

"So basically" I hear along side me, I quickly turn around on the couch as I hear Akako speak for the first time since I revealed everything, "Since you both confess your feelings, and he gets to keep his job for silence, does that mean you two are having a relationship in secret?"

I wince as I haven't thought about that yet. And better yet, me and Liam haven't even touched on that topic just yet. But I'm guessing we have to because the words are out there, our feelings are known to each other now.

And there's no taking them back.

"Not exactly?" I questioned, not truly answering myself or Akako, I shook my head as I thought about what we are.

Now, I'm interviewing myself–Are we together? Do we go back to the way things were knowing what we know about each other? How are we even going to work together?

I'm not even sure that we have the status of boss and assistant title anymore, more like two people who, I guess, like each other and are now trying to keep it cool around the other workers and staff so they won't suspect a thing.

This whole thing is confusing.

Akako then flat out said something that I didn't have time to process in my head, "So you guys are strictly having sex or something?" She casually says as she swirls her half empty glass of wine, studying it as if she didn't ask the most out of pocket question ever.

"Akako?!" Daphne shouts from the kitchen as she is more shocked than I am, the faucet is still running as Daphne pauses everything as she stares at Akako in disbelief, looking between me and her.

But Akako just shrugs her shoulders as she looks towards me for an answer. While I decide how to answer this, the tea kettle suddenly gets hot as steam is loudly flowing out, making it known.

Daphne is quick to turn off the stove as she quietly announces that she's making us tea, not wanting to lean the conversation in another direction.

That's when I know that Daphne is just as curious as Akako, she just didn't want to say anything.

I started off hesitating, knowing that if I didn't answer then they would be more than curious, they would probably bring it up in every conversation in the far future if I were not to answer her embarrassing question, "Well–I–um..."

Akako sees that I'm struggling to answer this, she rounds the couch as she sits down, placing her wine glass on the coffee table in front of her. She states, "It's just an honest question, Hailey, it's no big deal. Just yes or no"

I tilted my head as she said that, firing back at her saying, "It's no big deal" I said whilst laughing, "I feel like I'm in a investigation and you two–" Pointing at Daphne and Akako, "Are questioning me about a crime that I may or not committed"

"Well" Akako winces as she comes up with something on the top of her head, "When you put it like that..." She leaves the sentence hanging as she shrugs her shoulders again.

Daphne finally comes over, ungluing herself from her even more spotless kitchen, she hums as she sets down a tray, containing some crackers and hot tea.

This seems to distract Akako for a mere second as she protested that coffee would be better than tea, explaining that it's still mid-day and that she needs the energy. Daphne argues back that tea relaxes you and that it's better than caffeine in your body.

Daphne then adds that at least she's making something for us as she wants to be a good host.

Akako shrugs as she didn't say anything back as she accepted the defeat, grabbing one of the hot cups by the handle. I don't say anything as I take one as well, testing the temperature of the tea with the tip of my lips, taking my eyes off both of them.

looking back up, and I instantly regret it. The moment I look up, both Akako and Daphne are staring up at me, waiting for me to answer the long profound question. The question they can't let go of for some reason.

Instead of giving them a straight up answer, all I did was shrug my shoulders, as I casually continued slipping on my tea, knowing that they weren't going to accept that.

Akako leaned forward as Daphne gave me a knowing look, a look of where she tells me that they're getting very curious as I avoid the topic.

And to be honest, I probably shouldn't avoid this topic, it's been in the back of my mind ever since I went over to Liam's apartment, I just haven't thought about it though and that's the scary part.

It's like when I'm near him or I think about him, I can't focus on anything important in my personal or work life. Like my brain carves out a part of my brain to only make me focus on Liam Chopard.

And it's driving me crazy–Insane even.

I thought that telling these two would clarify and make sense to me of what's going to happen next. I was hoping that everything would go back to normal, like Chopard doing his thing, working for me. And I would do my thing, being his boss.

Now I have to think about the other possibilities that might come out from this whole ordeal.

"Listen" Akako said, noticing that I am thinking hard about this whole thing, She looks back at Daphne for a sheer second "You don't have to answer, but we're just curious, Hailey"

Daphne cuts in, "And by what Akako says, I don't think we're going to let it go, so it's best to tell us now before we start coming up with the wildest thoughts"

I chuckled as I jokingly said, "You guys are so invested in my sexual life, I wonder why"

"Maybe because you literally glare at everyone when you get the chance" Akako snapped back, forcing me into silence.

Then Daphne adds in saying, "Yeah and plus, this is the first we ever heard about your feelings towards someone, I thought at one point that you were going to end up an old cat lady. But now–" She claps in excitement, a huge smile plastered on her face, "Oh! Now there is a slight chance!"

I sat on the couch dumbfounded, I didn't think it was that bad, is it? I questioned myself.

"And I know what you're thinking" Akako, "And yeah, I would say it's pretty bad"

Ouch, I thought. Rolling my eyes as I finally gave in, "I don't know to be honest, to answer your answer. We haven't talked about that aspect of this whole thing, and I don't think we need to. The whole purpose of that was to get everything off our chest and start fresh, I guess"

I continued, "All I know is that Chopard is still working for me and we haven't done anything about our feelings, that's it" Crossing my arms.

"I mean" Daphne started off, "That's okay, people don't need to overanalyze things, just let things be how they are"

I nodded as I agreed.

"In that case, are you guys behaving differently around each other? Just wondering" Daphne said in defense.

I scoffed as I quickly said, "No, I would never behave differently because of that", And saying that, I generally think that nothing has changed, it would be ridiculous if something were to change between me and Chopard.

Everything is normal, I think, relaxing on the couch, still sipping on my tea.

Best friends are always the most curious ones. We'll see if there is change or not with the two.

-Summer Roe