Falling for the Boss (30 page)

The silence was finally broken
,
but not in a way that
Victoria
would have preferred. 
“Am I interrupting
something important
?” a
beautiful
,
petite brunette with curly black hair asked, standing in the doorway that led to Thomas’s office. 

All four of them turned to see who had spoken. 

Victoria
’s mouth dropped open as she took in the petite beauty in the doorway. 

The woman continued, apparently oblivious to the tension in the room. 
“I’m sorry to interrupt Thomas, but Margaret told me to come on in.
  She said something about a moment of silence I should take advantage of.
”
 

Thomas nodded his head.  “
Hello, Antonia.  You’re
fine.
  I can’t say the same for the rest of the occupants in this room,” he snapped. H
e looked toward the other end of the table, pointing his finger at
Victoria
he said, “We’ll continue this later.”

Victoria
watched as he moved towards the gorgeous woman, putting a hand to
the small of her back and guiding
her into his office.  The door closed. 
With that sound came the breaking of
Victoria
’s heart.  She stared at the closed door for a full minute, not able to move with the pain ripping through her body at his betrayal. 
 

Without a word or a look at Bob or Mike, s
he picked up her papers and walked back to her office.  Turning on her computer, she quickly wrote a few paragraphs, then stared at the computer screen.  With her hands in her face, she bent down and cried one more time. 

Fifteen minutes later, she was still trying to pull herself together when the door to her office burst open.  “Okay, let’s finish…” Thomas started. 

Victoria
quickly stood up and turned to face the window so her back was to him.  She tried to wipe the tears from her face but knew he’d witnessed her tears. 

“Why are you crying?” he asked, his voice gruff and only slightly angry. 

“I’m not,” she said, taking a tissue from the top of her filing cabinet. 

“You’re lying.  And I’m not leaving until I understand why.”

“Thomas, just leave me alone,” sh
e said and took a deep breath, angrily wiping the tears from her cheeks. 

She didn’t hear him walk up behind her but she felt
the heat from his chest
on her back. 
Victoria
thought he was closer to her but his next comment showed that he was standing near her computer. 
“No way!  I warned you what would happen if you tried to do that and I don’t make idle threats.”

She snapped around and saw what he was referring to.  It was her letter of resignation on her computer screen.  Her shoulde
rs sagged and she couldn’t cont
ain the tears anymore.  “Please Thomas
,” she whispered
. 
“
I know I have a one year commitment to you and to
ATI
, but I can’t do this anymore. 
Let me go.  I had almost convinced myself that I could do this, work with you,
ignore the feelings I have for you and everything that has happened
between us
,
” she waived her arms up in the air to encompass
the room
.  “And if she didn’t have a face, I might have been able to do it.  But now that I know who she is, I don’t think I can.”

“What are you talking about?” Thomas said, pulling her around to face him by grab
bing her arms.  “Who has a face?
”

Victoria
looked up at his handsome, confused face and whispered, “Antonia.”

“What about her?”

“She looks nice,”
Victoria
whispered.
  “She seems like a very nice p
erson with a nice personality.”  She sniffled again but was sick of the tears.  She needed to be strong now and face this situation like an adult.  “Thomas, no one that nice deserves to be treated like this.”

Thomas s
hrugged his shoulders, his eyes confused as he watched her spa
rkling green eyes turn from fier
y emeralds to soft, mossy pools of tears.  “She is a very nice person but what does Antonia have to do with anything?
”

Victoria
looked straight ahead, which meant she was looking at his silk tie.  “I can’t do
this
to her.”

Thomas let out a deep breath
and released her arms to run his fingers through his dark hair
.  “
Victoria
, if you don’t tell me what my sister has to do with this conversation, I’m going to throttle you.”

Victoria
tensed.  Had she heard him correctly?  “What did you say?” 

Thomas rolled his eyes.  “
Victoria
, you’re driving me nuts.  Please explain what my sister has to do with us?”

“Antonia is your sister?” she lifted wet eyes up to his. 

Thomas nodded.  “Yes, but why is that an issue?”

Victoria
burst into tears again.  “Oh Thomas.  I thought she was your girlfriend.”

His hands moved back to her arms when she bent over crying again. Thomas tried to pull her up so he could see her expression
.  “Let me get this straight,” he said, bending down so he could see her face.  “You thought Antonia was another woman I was seeing?”

Victoria
nodded, unable to look at him. 

“Would you mind explaining to me what kind of relationship you thought I wanted from you?” he asked, his whole body tense. 

Victoria
pulled herself together enough to explain.  “Well, I had heard you talking to someone called Antonia several times and you were so nice while on the phone with her, I naturally assumed…”

“You thought she was my girlfriend.”

Victoria
nodded.

“And that I was also having an affair with you.”

She nodded again. 
Victoria
thought about what she was saying about Thomas’ character. 
Put that way, it seemed that she didn’
t have a very high opinion of hi
m and she was
instantly
ashamed
of her misunderstanding
. 

“The relationship you thought I wanted from you was…Victoria please tell me you haven’t put us both through hell for the past week because you thought I only wanted to have an affair with you.”

She nodded again, silent tears streaming from her eyes. 

“And you couldn’t handle that?”

She nodded again. 

“I see.” He said and stared out the window over hear head.  He pulled her
gently
into his arms and put his chin on her head, tucking her into the safety of his embrace.  “So if I were to ask you to marry me, would that be a relationship you could handle?”

Victoria
stilled, sure she hadn’t heard him correctly. 

After a moment, he asked, “
Victoria
?”

“Yes?”

“I asked you a question.”

She took a shuddering breath and pulled herself away from him slightly.  “Yes.”

“Yes, I asked you a question, or yes, you could handle it.”

“I th
ink I could handle it very well
”
s
he said, worried that she had misunderstood his intentions. 

Thomas picked her up and spun her around so she was sitting on her desk as he leaned over her.  “
Victoria
, you
confuse the hell out of me,” he said and kissed her deeply. 

Victoria
returned his kiss with all the love she felt in her heart. 

“You’re going to marry me!”

“Yes boss,” she said and laughed at his chagrined expression. 

“And you’re going to be happy!”

“Yes boss,” she said, since he was being dictatorial and also because it was the truth. 

“
Victoria
!” he said and bent to kiss her again. 

Neither one of them heard Mike and Bob walk by the office door.  “It’s about time!” Bob said.

“Thank goodness,” Mike said, and pulled the door closed and walked down the hallway. 

Victoria
walked into the mansion on Thomas’ arm.  The date was set for two months.  She had a ring on her finger the size of
Montana
and she’d already called her sister and parents to tell them the news.  It was now time to tell Thomas’ brothers and to get to know the lovely Antonia. 

Thomas pulled her into the kitchen where all the noise was originating from.  On any given Sunday, anyone could show up at Sal’s house for lunch.  Aunts, Uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters were encouraged to come.  If they were in town, they usually were in attendance.  This Sunday was slightly different since only Sal’s brothers and his one living sister
, Antonia
, along with her very handsome husband, had shown up.  So it was a relatively quiet lunch with only six adults and one child.  Thomas and Victoria made eight adults sitting around the table, laughing and teasing about everything they could think of.

Towards the end of the meal, Michael, the daredevil of the family asked the question everyone wanted to hear.  “So Thomas, what’s the deal with the rock on that lovely lady’s finger.  Anything we should know?”

“She’s finally agreed to marry me,” Thomas said and smiled down at a blushing
Victoria
.  The whole table burst into applause and
Victoria
was instantly surrounded by extremely large men who were hugging her and kissing her cheek, already incorporating her into the family. 

Sal was the last to offer his congratulations but he was also the most intimidating so
Victoria
didn’t mind. 

Sal stood up and raised his glass, filled with beer for the moment.  “A toast!  To Thomas for beating me to the church. 
Victoria
, we’re glad you’ve decided to join the family,” he said.

“Here here!” Everyone else said and raised their glass to toast the newest member of the family.