“I was in Springfield working for a small cable network. I loved it, but this was always where I wanted to be.”
She talked more about moving to the city and the perils of finding a decent and affordable apartment and roommates, and by the time our salads came (a Waldorf for me and a cobb for her) I was telling her the best places to go to get decently priced shoes.
In the back of my mind I kept telling myself that she and I had more in common than just shoes. We had both f**ked the same guy. That was the thought I had to keep shoving aside and trying to forget. But it would only be shoved aside for so long.
We both ordered dessert (I was thrilled that she went for the molten chocolate cake and not the vegan gluten-free and probably taste-free cookie topped with soy ice cream), and it finally came up.
“I’m sorry about the other day, and being weird about Lucah and coming into your office and confronting you about it. I’ve felt funny about it ever since. I mean, it really has nothing to do with anything. That’s the first thing you’re never supposed to do, bring your personal life into the office, but I did and I’m sorry. Again.”
“No, no. It’s fine. We had to address it, or else things might have been weird and then both of us would have had to walk on eggshells and five years down the line, one of us would get drunk at the Company Ball and things might get out of hand. Wow, that sounded like the plot of a terrible reality show. But you got the point, right?”
She laughed, and it hit me how beautiful she was. No wonder Lucah had fallen for her. And just as that thought ran through my mind, I wanted to stab it and pretend it had never existed.
“Yeah, I figured out what you were saying. So anyway. This is the last time I’ll bring it up. And I’m done.” She pressed her lips together and pretended to seal them.
“No big deal.” I hoped I was playing off my nonchalance, because I was still freaking out on the inside. “We’re both professional women, right?”
“Right,” she said, opening her mouth. “Oops, I wasn’t going to talk, but it’s kind of hard to converse without words. If only I knew sign language.”
“I know a few signs, but none of them are complimentary.” Sloane had dated a guy once who had a deaf sister and he’d taught us every dirty sign we could cram into our brains.
We both laughed and finished our desserts and I thought that maybe this was going to be okay. We’d gotten past the minefield that was Lucah and we had a lot of things in common. This was going to work. This was no big deal.
“Oh, I meant to ask you about those cute shoe notes you had on your desk. Where did you get them?” she said as we walked back to the office.
“They, uh, they were a gift.” From Lucah, I didn’t say.
“Darn. Well, they are adorable.” I just smiled as best I could while she opened the front door for me and we took the elevator back up to our floor.
“So we should make this a regular thing,” she said. “This was nice.”
“Yeah, definitely. Just let me know.” We sort of waved goodbye to each other and I walked back to my office, with Lilia watching me the whole time. I knew she knew. I was just waiting for her to come to me and tell me she knew. It was the quiet ones you had to worry about. Always.
I texted Lucah when I sat back down at my desk.
Had lunch with Violet. All is well.
It took him a few minutes to respond.
Good. Never forget.
I wouldn’t.
We ended up staying another night at the hotel, but we just slept in the gigantic bed and watched movies and ordered more room service. It was an absolutely ordinary evening after the previous one. Both of us were still recovering from that.
On Friday night we went out as usual, and then Saturday was another day with Lucah’s family. This time I didn’t bring anything. I thought better safe than sorry.
“Good plan,” Lucah said. It was raining when we got to his brother’s house, so the girls didn’t run out to meet us, but as soon as we walked in the door, they were dashing across the floor.
“Rory, Rory!” Gracie yelled.
“Roar!” Fiona added as they both threw themselves at my legs. I looked down at their sweet faces and I kicked myself for not bringing something.
“Girls, let Rory get her coat off,” April said, looking a little more frazzled than last week. Her hair was carelessly thrown back in a ponytail and her jeans had floury handprints on them.
“Hey, you.” She smiled and hugged Lucah and then took my coat and gave me a hug as well.
The girls jumped and frolicked at my feet and then Tate came out, looking like he’d emerged from a trance.
“Sorry, work call.” I got a hug from him as the girls kept bouncing.
“Where do they get their energy from? I wish I could bottle it,” April said with a sigh.
“Rory?” Gracie said, pulling on my pants leg.
“Gracie, what have we talked about? You say, ‘Excuse me, Rory,’ remember?” Gracie thought about it for a moment.
“Excuse me, Rory?”
“Yes, Gracie.” I crouched down so I wasn’t towering over her. I didn’t have to crouch too far. I was the closest adult to her height-wise.
“Can we play princess again?” Her big eyes were so sweet that my heart melted a little.
“Yes, we can absolutely play princess again.”
“Me too!” Fiona yelled, raising her hand.
“You, too,” I said, messing with her red curls. She laughed and hugged me around the neck. I picked her up and carried her into the living room and sat down with her on my lap.
“They’ve been talking about you non-stop, asking when you were coming back. I think you’ve got some new best friends,” Tate said, picking Gracie up and throwing her in the air. She screamed for him to stop, but once he did, she begged for him to do it again. Fiona sat on my lap and tried to touch my earrings.
“Pretty,” she said.
“Thank you.”
“Does anyone want anything? The girls and I made cookies.” At the sound of the last word, the girls both perked up. We all agreed that we wanted cookies, so she brought them out. They had obviously been made by little hands and weren’t uniform in size, but they were delicious. I’d have to ask April for that recipe so I could badger Sloane into making them.
Speaking of Sloane, I was going to start paying her back for bringing the clothes over to the hotel tomorrow at the spa and then again when I bought her brunch. I didn’t know how long she was going to milk it, but knowing Sloane, pretty long. I was going to let her, because I missed her and I did need some girl time.