His Secret

8. Matías

CHAPTER EIGHT

MATíAS

I didn’t get home until after midnight last night, and after a quick meal, I crawled into bed feeling only partly satisfied.

Christian’s a decent guy. He’s attractive, he listens, and we typically have a good time together. My problem is that we’ve met up at least five times now, and I think he’s starting to grow an attachment. It’s probably my fault. I should’ve stopped agreeing to meet up after the second time.

My alarm woke me up at six, and I walked into my office at seven-thirty. Since then, I’ve had two meetings—one here and one at another office. I brought lunch back to my desk so I could eat while I sent out half a dozen emails, and then I quickly met with an engineering team before finding myself behind my desk to work on an employee training PowerPoint.

A knock on the door pulls me out of my work. “Yes?”

Mr. Bryant opens the door. “Sorry to bother you, but the new guy is here now.”

“I thought he wasn’t coming until Friday?” I ask with a quick glance at the calendar on my desk.

Mr. Bryant shrugs.

I sigh. “Give me a few. ”

After about ten minutes, I get up and open the door to my office, peering out until I spot Mr. Bryant standing in the doorway of the office across the room. I give him a nod and walk back to my desk.

As I’m finishing writing myself a note, a small knock hits my open door. “Hello.”

Footsteps enter my office and I look up.

My breath doesn’t hitch, my eyes don’t bulge. The sudden reappearance of my past doesn’t present itself like it does in the movies. I don’t stumble over my words and make an ass out of myself. I simply freeze, my face stoic as my brain tries to comprehend what I’m seeing.

I internally debate with myself if this is who I think it is. It can’t possibly be him. He must have a doppelganger, and yet, nobody else could look like this.

“Matías?”

His question is my answer. It is him.

I dip my chin. “Well, everyone here calls me Matt, or actually, Mr. Cruz.”

He smiles, putting his hand in the pocket of his gray slacks. “When I saw Matt Cruz on the paperwork, I didn’t put it together that it could be you. Nobody ever called you Matt in college.”

“Well,” I sigh. “They do now.”

His lips fall into a frown, but he makes his way to the seat in front of my desk. “Wow, this is crazy. I can’t—I can’t believe it.” When I don’t reply, he continues. “So, I guess I’m working for you now.”

As reality sinks in, I rub a hand over my forehead, exhaling. “I guess so.”

“I’ve signed all the HR paperwork,” he says. “I took a peek inside my office. Looks like I’ll need to liven it up a little, but I have things from my old office I can bring over. Do you have any information for me?”

I stare at him, his face just as annoyingly perfect and handsome as it was in college, probably more so. He’s got a little bit of a five o’clock shadow happening, but it’s lined up nicely. His brown hair is shiny and combed perfectly. Looking into his eyes transports me back into a time where things were much different.

“I’ll email you,” I say after clearing my throat. “You’ll need to meet with the team and get with Mrs. O’Terry. She’ll get you caught up on a project that we’re about to start on. She’s your assistant project manager.”

He nods. “Okay.

“I take it you’ve done this for a little while?” I ask.

Once again, he smiles. “Yes, a little while. I started out in finance, so this will be my first time in IT. I’ve done my research though, and I’ve taken an IT project management course.”

“Perfect.”

He stands but doesn’t move to leave. When I glance up at him, I notice his lips are downturned slightly and I already know what he’s thinking.

“Don’t bother apologizing, Adrian. It’s been a long time.”

After a few seconds, he sighs. “I wish I would’ve handled things differently.”

I raise my brows before going back to my computer. “Well, you did what you wanted to at the time, and we both need to accept that.”

“Matías,” he says quietly, seeking my attention.

I exhale through my nose before glancing back at him. “Yes?”

“I’d like to make things right. Especially now that we’ll be working together. Let me take you for a drink. Or dinner if you’re still not a drinker,” he says with a tiny grin.

“Will your wife be joining us?” I ask, tilting my head.

He opens his mouth to say something but no words come out. When they do, they’re a chopped up mess.

“Uh…well, I?—”

“It’s fine. Not necessary.”

He lingers for a few seconds before leaving. Once he’s gone, I let my shoulders drop as I exhale.

I can’t believe he’s back in South River, and not only that, working on the same floor as me. I didn’t think I’d see him again, and now I’ll see him almost every day.

At one point I might’ve thought this was a blessing, but I can’t imagine anything worse right now.

Adrian Kennedy was my first love—and my first heartbreak. Even saying that makes it sound minimal. Like it was puppy love and a normal breakup.

It wasn’t.

What we had was the deepest connection I had experienced up until that point, and I haven’t been able to find anything comparable since. Because I’ve never been in love again, I’ve yet to experience that soul-crushing pain when it ends. Which is exactly why I don’t do relationships.

He’s the one and only person to affect me so deeply, and that’s why it’s terrible that he’s here.

It’s only going to bring up memories—both good and bad—and considering he’s married to a woman, I don’t see us getting past what broke us in the first place.

I bury myself in work until seven o’clock, and then I go straight to my favorite restaurant, Alejandra’s, and pick up some food to go.

When I approach my house, it’s already nearing eight, but since it’s the middle of June, there’s still over an hour before the sun goes down completely. And clearly, people are taking advantage of the lingering light, because there are two huge U-Hauls on my street—and one of them is blocking most of my driveway.

Annoyed, I park along the curb in front of my house and march toward the neighbor’s. All I want to do is park in my garage, eat some dinner, then have a drink until I forget I have to see Adrian every day at work.

I hear noise in the back of the truck that’s in their driveway, so I give it a couple bangs with my hand.

“Excuse me. Can you move your truck?”

“What’s that?” a voice calls out, followed by footsteps.

When he comes down the ramp, he’s only wearing a pair of blue shorts and some tennis shoes. His shirtless torso is shiny with sweat, and ripped with muscles. Not as much from eight years ago, but definitely still there.

“Are you kidding me?” I say aloud.

“Matías?” Adrian questions, brows knit together. “What are you doing here?”

I huff out a breath and run my hand over my face. With a gesture to the house next door, I say, “I live there.”

His jaw drops. “Are you joking?”

“No.” With another sigh, I point to the U-Haul blocking my driveway. “Can you move that please?”

He walks closer, patting his pockets for the keys. “Yeah. Sorry, uhh…” I shake my head in disbelief that this is happening. “I might’ve left them in the truck.”

I turn to go back to my car, but his voice stops me.

“Matías.” I freeze, still giving him my back until I finally angle my head over my shoulder. He doesn’t seem to know what it is he wants to say. Or he’s cycling through a million different things. “I?— ”

Before he can continue, a door bangs shut and then another voice joins us. “Hey, what’s going on?”

I stare at my car, biting down on my teeth. I can’t deal with this right now. Or ever. I don’t want to.

“I just need to move the truck for the neighbor,” Adrian says.

Instead of turning around and doing the friendly neighbor thing of introducing myself, I walk straight to my car and hide behind the tinted windows until Adrian moves the truck and I can pull into my garage.

What is happening?