Sleeping with the Assistant

Chapter Eight: Suspects

Joseph's pov

"Look at the baby's little heart pounding," Julia says. We're at her six months check up and our little bean has been keeping it a secret on whether they're a girl or a boy, so hopefully, we find out today.
"Your little one has been very persistent about keeping their gender a secret for the past three months. Let's see if they're ready to show us," the doctor says. I watch the screen intently while squeezing Julia's hand. The anticipation is killing me.
"Oh! Congratulations mom and dad it's a little boy." Julia gasps and starts squealing loudly and clapping.
"I knew it! I told you so Joseph!"
"You did. Wow, I'm going to have a little son," I mumble in amazement. My eyes start getting watery and a few tears fall down my face and onto Julia's arm.
"Are you crying?" she asks.
"I'm not crying, you're crying," I accuse while wiping my tears away. The doctor wipes the gel off of Julia's stomach and hands us the printed photos of the sonogram.

"Do you want me to take you back home?" I ask while helping her up.
"No, I want to tell everyone at the studio. Maybe Cody could take me home," she answers.
"I had no clue you guys were that close," I say through clenched teeth.
"Don't worry it's not like that, I swear," Jules reassures. "It's just that you won't let him touch anything in the studio."
"He told you about that? Of course, he would," I scoff. "Are you going to try and convince me to work with him again?"
"Weeeell..."
"It's not happening Julia. I don't care how much he's claimed to have changed. Now, let's go before traffic starts."

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Forty-five minutes later

"Congratulations on the boy," Chad says while hugging me. "I know you must be excited."
"I'm ecstatic! I can't wait until he's here," I grin.
"Any names?" Cody asks.
"Not yet. Julia was thinking about making him a junior," I reply. "Thanks for taking her home by the way."
"No problem. Me and Chad will be in the studio whenever you're ready." As they head down, I go to Jasmine's office and see her typing away on her laptop. She's so focused on her work, she hasn't even noticed me.
"Hey you," I finally say.
"How was the hospital?"
"It was fine. We're having a boy," I beam.
"Congratulations. While I still have you here let me grab your new schedule," she says. She places her hand under her desk to open the drawer but suddenly freezes as she feels around it.

"What are you—"
"Shh." Jasmine grabs a piece of paper and a sharpie and writes a message across it swiftly.
"I think there's a bug under the desk," I read silently. "Then kill it, I don't know why—" she hands me another piece of paper while shaking her head.
"A listening device dummy. Let's go talk outside." We both hurriedly head for the door that leads to the parking lot.
"Who would put a bug in my office," she asks. "What information could be that important?"
"You don't think someone suspects us?"
"That could be a possibility. Maybe we should cool it for a while until we figure out who's behind all of this," Jasmine suggests.
"Should we remove it?" I ask.
"No. If whoever put it in there finds out it's gone, it'll just confirm whatever suspicion they had. We just can't talk about us during work anymore," she responds. "We have to act like we don't know it's there."
"Right. Can we talk more about it at your place?"
"Yeah but come later. We don't know if they're watching," Jasmine says. We both head back inside feeling very creeped out about the whole situation. Who would try to eavesdrop on us?
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Later that evening

"Well we can rule Chad off as a suspect," Jasmine says while crossing his name out.
"There's only Cody and Julia. They also have access to the key."
"It couldn't be them. Cody just got back and Julia hardly goes over there."
"Wait, janitors also have a key so they can clean. What if the culprit paid a janitor to place the bug under my desk, or even obtained a uniform and key and did it themselves," she says.
"Can we get a copy of the surveillance tapes?" I ask while popping a mini pretzel in my mouth.
"We could, however, we don't know how long the bug has been there," she replies.
"If we do get the tapes, we don't have to watch through them all. Just around the time we started messing around. I think that's our best lead," I say. "I think we should call it a night."
"Yeah, you're right. It's getting pretty late," Jasmine yawns. I move off of her couch tiredly and slip my shoes on before walking to the door.
  "Goodnight beautiful," I say while embracing her. She kisses me sweetly and squeezes me tightly.
  "Goodnight. I lov—Erm drive safe," she says awkwardly.
  "Did you say—"
  "Bye see you tomorrow!" Jasmine pushes me out the door, her caramel face now a bright cherry red. Did she almost tell me she loves me?
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