Chapter 232 OFFICE DYNAMICS.

Chapter 232 OFFICE DYNAMICS.
\~~~SERENA.

Ryan stepped further into our living room and sat down on the edge of the single armchair. Ethan handed Ryan a paper plate with a slice of pizza.

Ryan took it and said thank you in a quiet voice. He looked around the room at all of us. 

For a few minutes, people started talking again. Maya was talking quietly to Ethan, and my mother was sitting nearby, smiling softly as she drank her cider.

Ryan leaned back and let out a long breath. He looked over at me, sitting comfortably against Damien’s side.

Then, Melissa leaned across the kitchen island. She pointed a pizza-greased finger right at me with a big grin.

“So…” Melissa said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Should we tell him?”

Ryan frowned. He froze with his plate halfway to his lap. He looked around, completely lost. “Tell me what?”

I looked up and caught Damien’s dark, steady eyes.

Damien gave me a slow, sure nod.

I smiled, looked back at Ryan, and gently placed my hand flat over my stomach.

“We’re having a baby,” I said softly.

Ryan widened his eyes, looked down at my stomach, back at Damien and then, a slow, real smile broke across Ryan’s face. 

“Congratulations…” Ryan whispered. His voice sounded thick with true emotion.

He looked between the two of us, his smile growing warmer.

“You both are going to be amazing parents.”

He gave a soft, quiet laugh and shook his head.

“And I guess… I’m going to be an uncle, too.”

\~~~

The conversation slowly drifted back to lighter things.

Within minutes, everyone was laughing again, and pizza boxes scattered across the coffee table  

Damien kept joking that pizza doesn’t need a trust fund. I sit comfortably on the sofa next to Damien, my head leaning against his shoulder while his hand rests lightly on the fabric near my collarbone. His jacket is off, and his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows. 

Across the room, Ryan is sprawled across the armchair, folding a slice of pepperoni into a neat triangle, while Maya holds court on the floor by the rug, gesturing wildly with a half-eaten slice as she argues that if you don't double-ferment the dough it's just fancy bread. That makes Ryan scoff and tell her it's an insult to Italian heritage.

Over by the kitchen island, Ethan stands holding a paper plate of margherita while Melissa flips through a stack of napkins. Without missing a beat in Maya's story, Ethan casually reaches out to wipe a smudge of red sauce off Melissa's lip before licking his thumb and grabbing his drink. 

Melissa doesn’t even blink, she just reaches over to straighten the crooked lapel on Ethan's shirt.

"You missed a spot on your left side too," she murmurs softly.

"Thanks, babe," Ethan replies, finishing her sentence right as Ryan pauses his rant.

Ryan blinks and lowers his slice. Across the room, Damien stops talking to me, his eyes narrowing as he watches Ethan hand Melissa his sparkling water so she can take a sip from the exact same side without asking. 

Maya stops talking entirely. The room's volume drops into a pin-drop silence as she squints, tilts her head like a curious puppy, and stares from Ethan to Melissa and back again.

“Hold on.”

Silence stretches thick in the air.

"Wait."

Another heavy pause hangs there before she blurted.

"Are you two dating?"

A heavy silence settles over the whole room. Ethan freezes with a piece of crust halfway to his mouth, and Melissa's hand hovers over the napkins. Nobody breathes for three whole seconds until Damien leans forward with his elbows on his knees, staring at them with total corporate betrayal.

"Hold on," Damien says in a dangerously calm voice. "Let me get this straight. You two have been working under me for almost a decade,managing my toughest accounts, surviving three corporate mergers, sitting across from each other in bullpen B for forty hours a week… and I don't know about this?"

I immediately burst into a bright, musical laugh, covering my mouth with one hand while pointing at my husband with the other.

"Oh, my God, Damien, do you remember?" I gasp, turning to him. "Remember the day I came into your office and told you something was off between them? I literally told you they were hiding something."

Damien squints to search his memory. "You said they were acting weird but I didn’t expect this!”

"No, I told you they were in love, Damien!" I laugh harder, leaning back against the cushions. "And what did you tell me?"

Damien clears his throat defensively. "I said, 'That would never happen. They're professionals, Serena. Corporate compliance would never survive it, and besides, Ethan only cares about profit margins and Melissa only cares about her spreadsheets.'"

Ryan bursts out laughing and points a greasy finger at him. "Oh, man, you got played by your own senior analysts!"

"Wait, back up," Maya says, her eyes lighting up as she scrambles forward on the rug. "How long? How long have you two been sneaking around right under everyone’s noses?"

Ethan clears his throat and looks sheepishly at Melissa, who rolls her eyes with a fond smile crossing her face.

"It's... over a year now," Melissa admits.

The living room instantly explodes.

"Excuse me" Ryan palmed his mouth, tossing his paper plate onto the table with a loud clatter. "Over a year? You've been lying to everyone for twelve months?!"

"Are you serious right now?!" Maya shrieks, throwing her hands up. "A year?! And wait,I found out on the first day of just meeting them, what’s y’all’s excuse?"

"We didn't want it to be a big deal at the office!" Ethan defends himself, holding up his hands. "You all don’t know how boss gets about office dynamics. He treats HR policies like holy scripture!"

"I am holy scripture when it comes to my operating budget!" Damien fires back, though the corner of his mouth twitches upward as he rubs a hand over his face. 

"A year. You monsters. You sat in my quarterly reviews last month and debated profit projections with straight faces while sleeping together?"

"We maintained strict professional boundaries during core working hours," Melissa says smoothly, though a blush creeps up her neck.

"Oh, look at her!" I cackle and clap my hands. "She's quoting employee handbook clauses! That is peak corporate romance right there. I love everything about this."

"I am deeply offended," Maya declares dramatically, falling backward onto the rug with the back of her hand pressed against her forehead. "I know we just met, but please, I was your best friend for the last hours, I demand all the leftover truffle honey pizza as emotional damages."

"Denied," Ethan says instantly.

"See?!" Maya sits bolt upright and points aggressively at him. "He says 'denied' like a true middle-management tyrant! The corporate brain rot is terminal!"

"Shut up, Maya, you love us," Melissa laughs, walking over from the counter to grab a fresh slice of pizza and leaning casually against Ethan’s side while his arm naturally wraps around her waist to anchor her.

Damien watches them for a moment longer, shaking his head with a reluctant grin as he picks up his glass of sparkling water and raises it toward the kitchen counter.

"Well," Damien sighs, conceding defeat with a chuckle. "If I had known you two were capable of pulling off a conspiracy that lasted twelve months under my very nose, I would have promoted you both to executive directors years ago. Cheers to your stealth, I suppose."

"Cheers," the room echoes, glasses and beer bottles clinking together as laughter washes away the last remnants of tension, leaving behind only warmth, grease, and a whole lot of teasing.