Thankfully, all of my testing came back negative.

Right in time for Valentines Day.

Not that I was doing much of anything for it. Both Kori and I agreed that Valentine's Day didn't mean much to either of us, and of course we would see each other, but we weren't going to explicitly celebrate it.

The day before Valentines Day, my mom called me.

I don't talk to my parents a whole lot outside of seeing them. My mom calls me a couple of times a month, and my dad calls me maybe once a month. Even though in person they act like all is fine, they have to know there is animosity toward them from my end.

It's the same with Alyssa, they call her even less. Addison, on the other hand, talks to our parents much more on the phone, and texts them often as well.

My mom asked me about work, and about how I was doing in general, and she then asked me, "Do you have any plans for Valentine's Day tomorrow?"

"I'm seeing someone, but no specific plans," I replied.

"Oh you're seeing someone? How wonderful!" my mom cheered, "What's her name?"

I tried to rack my brain and think if I had ever told my parents my boss's name before, and I decided I hadn't.

"Her name is Kori," I said to my mom.

"Kori, how lovely. How did the two of you meet?"

I paused before I said, "A mutual friend. She's really great."

"I'm sure she is, for you to be dating her. Well, if it ever gets more serious and you'd like to introduce her to your father and I, of course you're more than welcome to."

"Thanks, mom," I said, "I appreciate that."

I also do not know how that would go over, with Kori being 13 years older than me.

When I went to Kori's place on Valentine's Day night, I told her about my conversation with my mom. Even though Kori and I didn't celebrate, she still ordered us a very nice Thai dinner.

"I don't quite know what to make of your parents," Kori said to me, "Obviously, I know how they were to you when you were younger and all you were put through. It seems like now they're trying to make up for it all...but what they did to you isn't something that can be made up for."

"You hit the nail on the head. They act like nothing happened and that my dad wasn't an abusive alcoholic and my mom didn't shove everything under the rug. God, I get mad just talking about it."

Kori gently took my hand in hers and said, "If I ever do meet your parents one day, of course I'll be polite. But I'll know what they did. How do you think they'd react to me being older than you?"

"I'm honestly not sure. I don't think they would have too much to say about it, my dad especially. I think they'd have more to say if they knew you were my boss over anything."

Kori chuckled lightly, "Yeah...there's that issue."

"I actually have a question for you regarding that."

"Go ahead," Kori nodded.

"Do you think that I should switch departments? I don't want to, I love your department. But I wonder if that would be best, as I wouldn't want you to get in trouble if anything was ever brought to life with our relationship."

"I understand you asking me this, but how would anything be brought to life with our relationship? No one knows. Now, I get you asking me this question when it comes to you wanting our relationship to be made more public. I get that it's tough keeping it a secret from everyone."

"Part of me still likes that it's our little secret. But...part of me wants to be able to go out to dinner with you without worrying that we'll see someone from work."

Kori sat up a bit straighter, "Do you want to discuss switching to another department now?"

"No, not now. But maybe sometime in the future. I'm good where we are now."

Kori nodded, "Whenever you really want to discuss it...we can. Of course I'd hate to lose you in my department, but obviously I care about you as my girlfriend, not nearly as much as my employee."

I snuggled up against Kori on the couch and said, "When I'm really thinking about it, I'll say the word."

Kori nodded and then said, "There's something else I wanted to talk to you about. How would you feel about an overnight trip with me in a few weeks?"

I looked at Kori, "I'd love that."

Kori shot me a smile and then said, "My sister Charley, her best friend Amanda is getting married. It's the wedding that I told you I have at the beginning of March. Well, I had RSVP'd just for myself back in October, and I thought that was that. Charley told Amanda that I had a girlfriend now, and Amanda said she would love for you to come as well. What do you say?"

I smiled at Kori as well and nodded, "I'd love that. I would love to be your wedding date."

"I'm glad. We'll both have to make up excuses. I am going to be leaving work early that Friday to make my way to Maryland for the wedding. You can either make up an excuse to leave early as well, or I was thinking you could use a PTO day so it seems less suspicious?"

"I'll use a PTO day. I haven't yet."

Kori looked thrilled as she said, "Wonderful. This is going to be a lot of fun."

Kori told me that the wedding was black tie affair, and I realized that I didn't have a dress that was black tie ready.

Addison went with me to the mall to pick out a dress a couple of weeks before the wedding.

"So things are going really well with Kori, huh?" she said as we browsed the racks, "Have you told her that you love her?"

"I haven't. But things are going really well...and I feel like I do love her. Is it bad that part of me wants her to say it first?" I looked at Addison as I ran my hand over a few dresses, looking to see if they might be a good fit for me to wear to the wedding.

"It doesn't surprise me that you want her to say it first."

"It doesn't?"

"Saying 'I love you' to Kori first would be quite vulnerable. And I know that's tough for you."

"It's also tough for Kori. Who knows, maybe we'll both never say it," I joked with a chuckle.

"I sure hope not!" Addison laughed, "One of you is going to have to bite the bullet."

Addison then stood in front of a beautiful silk forest green dress and said, "This could be the one. It would look stunning on you."

"It's very pretty," I nodded, "I'll try it on."

I tried on the forest green dress and a couple others, and settled on the green dress. It fit me well, and it was comfortable yet beautiful. It was a long dress with spaghetti straps and a neckline that dipped slightly, so it would show a bit of cleavage but not too much.

I decided to take a PTO day for that Friday, the day of the wedding. On the Thursday afternoon before, Kori came over to the department from her office and spoke.

"Okay all," she said, "Ashley is off tomorrow, and I leave at 10 AM tomorrow for a wedding I'm attending. I know it's a Friday, so not much work will come in, but try to not let the general inbox that Ashley checks get too flooded with emails. Got it?"

Everyone nodded in response, and Grace turned to me and said, "I hope you have a nice day off tomorrow! You're helping your sister move into her new apartment, right?"

That was the lie that I had come up with, that Addison was moving, and I was helping her move into her new place. Believable enough.

I nodded, "I am. She tried to see if she could get a move in date over the weekend, but tomorrow is the date the complex gave her."

"Nice of you to help her," Grace grinned at me.

Yeah. Super nice. Not like I'm going to the same wedding as our boss or anything. As her date.

"I hope you have fun at the wedding you're going to, Kori," Lewis said to her.

I swore Kori's gaze drifted over to me for a split second as she said, "Thanks, I'm sure it'll be a fun time."

On Friday morning, the day of the wedding, I was a bit apprehensive, but in a good way. This was the first overnight trip I was taking with Kori. Yes, I'd stayed overnight at her condo, but we were traveling a couple of hours together to Maryland and staying overnight.

Kori picked me up on Friday at 11 AM, still in her work uniform. I had a suitcase with me, along with my dress on a hanger that I hung up in the backseat of her car.

Kori looked at me a bit sheepishly as she said, "I made a playlist on Spotify for the drive. Don't worry, it's not just my 90s music. It's some of your favorite rock and rap songs as well."

She started the playlist and the song "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd started playing.

I laughed and said, "Oh, is this how you're feeling, Kori?"

Kori playfully waggled her eyebrows at me and said, "With you, always."

I laughed, loving the small moments that I got with Kori where her true playful nature came out. It wasn't often that I saw it, but when I did, I always appreciated it. At work she was always stoic, and even outside of work her demeanor was usually more austere.

The drive, which took about three hours, went by quickly. The whole time was spent with music playing, and Kori and I laughing and talking about multitude of topics.

When I first started dating Kori, there were times where I worried, we wouldn't have the most in common, considering our age gap. But when I was with Kori, just the two of us, that was completely forgotten.

When Kori and I pulled up to the hotel, her sister, Charley, and brother-in-law, Mike, had just pulled up as well. I had met Charley once at the bakery by accident, but I was a bit apprehensive to meet her again.

However, she greeted me with a warm hug, "Ashley, so good to officially meet you this time!"

I hugged her back, "So nice to officially meet you, Charley."

Mike gave me a warm hug as well, and he then wanted to show Kori something with his truck.

Charley smiled at me and rolled her eyes, "Those two and their cars."

Before I could say anything, Charley spoke in a low tone, "You know, I wasn't surprised when Kori told me she was dating the woman who I'd met at the bakery who was so good with my kids."

I smiled at Charley, "They were super cute. But you weren't surprised?"

Charley shook her head, "Not at all. I could tell that Kori was smitten with you. Listen, I know it's a bit of an odd situation considering she's your boss, but I have no doubt that will work itself out. I'm glad that Kori found you."

"I'm glad I found Kori as well," I said to Charley, "Very glad."

Charley grinned at me, "I'm so glad to hear that."

Kori and Mike came walking back over to us, and Kori said to me, "Let's check in. The wedding starts at 4 PM, so you've got a couple of hours to get ready, Ash."

Kori then smiled at me, and my heart fluttered.

I think this may be a night to remember.