Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
DORI
“Nothing makes sense anymore. I’m telling you, Melanie. Neither of them are speaking to me. It’s just like you warned me.” I do the last lunge of this set.
“I get why Jami still isn’t speaking to you, but Hunter giving you the brush-off was something I wasn’t expecting.”
“Me either.”
“Tell me how your sit-down went with him again. It was over a week ago, so maybe we missed something.” She starts doing her set of reverse lunges.
“It began with us making dinner while we talked about me needing some time to get my feelings straight and not dragging him through any more pain while I did that.”
“Maybe that’s why he’s ignoring you.”
“I don’t think so. His first thought was that I was telling him Jami and I were going to be together. He chilled out when I reminded him that we aren’t speaking.”
“And you’re sure Hunter said he wouldn’t stop until the day you took him back?” She switches legs and does another set.
“Yes. We had a drink over dinner and a calm conversation about it. At least, I thought it was. He knows we’re broken up, but he told me he wants to remain close. He said he’s afraid I’ll never give him a chance if we quit talking.”
“Dori, you’re not thinking about getting back together with him, are you?”
I place my weights down. “No, but I don’t want to lose him as a friend.”
“That’s where your whole plan is flawed.”
“Why?”
“You have love for the guy. You think hanging out with him as a friend will help you get over him so you can move on free and clear with Jami?”
“Oh, I see your point. I didn’t think about that.”
She finishes her set. “Yeah, you never do. You have a tendency to try to get everything you want. In this case, it’ll never happen. You don’t get both men in the end. Has your therapist not mentioned this to you?”
“Of course she has.”
“Then what makes you believe it’s a smart move to try to be friends with him?”
“It’s not that.” I take a sip of water out of my tumbler. “I just don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Oh, Dori. You’re going to break one of their hearts. Get used to it.”
My thoughts go to my parents. Even though they make me angry, I hate it when either of them is mad at me.
It’s one of the reasons I avoid them. If I don’t see or talk to them, they both think I’m on their side. They act like they love me and everything is perfect between us.
It’s easier that way. Plus, they can’t use me as a pawn in one of their wars if I stay far away from them.
My phone buzzes against the weight bench I placed it on. I grab it as Melanie puts her weights back in their place.
My heart shrinks when I see it’s just a text from Jonah asking if I can come in early tomorrow .
She meanders back to me and stands next to me. “Who was that?”
“Jonah wants to know if I can come in early tomorrow so we can discuss something of importance.”
“Why do you look concerned?”
“He’s never asked me to come in early for a one-on-one.”
“It’s likely nothing, so don’t worry about it.” She places her foot on the bench to stretch her hamstring. “What I don’t understand about all your dating drama is neither Hunter nor Jami have reached out to you other than for work since Monday night.”
I pick up my weights and go deep with my lunges. I need something to help me deal with my stress. “Nope. And nothing over this weekend.”
“Damn, girl. You may be right. Maybe it’s for the best.”
“How do you figure?”
“Let’s be honest. You’ve made a colossal shambles of your love life. Because of that, you’ve dropped the ball more than once at work.”
“True.”
“You’ve been living off fumes for the last three months and the most important part of the successful launch of the app is right around the corner. You can focus on your career with them out of the picture.” She switches her legs to stretch the other one.
“I can’t argue with you there, but I went from two men feeding me attention and love to nothing. It’s like someone reached into my chest and robbed me of my heart.” I finish and place the weights down.
“You have two choices, Dori.”
“What are those?”
“Go to each of them and ask point-blank what’s up, or leave it alone and see what transpires.”
“I don’t know what to do, but I can tell you this. It all started when Isabella Carter showed up in my office two weeks ago.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Both Jami and Hunter acted jumpy around her that day. I even caught Jami telling Hunter he didn’t think Isabella had an ulterior motive.”
“Did you confront them about saying that?”
“Yes, but they played it off as a work issue. I know the difference. She plays some role in this and I’m going to figure out what that is.”
I gesture toward the locker room. “Let’s grab some lunch on the way home and finish this conversation there.”
“I want a greasy hamburger. I’m PMSing, so you don’t get a say in it.” Mel grabs her water bottle and follows me to the locker room.
We gather our belongings and go to the nearest chain restaurant. We snag a booth in the corner and order hamburgers and salads.
“Mel, I want to hear about you. What’s new in your love life?”
“I’m thinking about cutting things off for good with Zengi.” She moves the menu off to the side.
“Why? I thought you liked him.”
“I do, but he’s asking for a commitment.”
I lean forward, resting my arms on the table. “Do you not want that?”
“Not really.”
“Why?”
She pauses and looks off to the side. Before she does, I notice a flash of guilt floating in her eyes.
What is that about?
The server brings us our lunch, giving Melanie the chance to throw me off. She directs the conversation back to me.
“What did you decide to do? Go speak to Jami and Hunter individually or let it naturally play out?” She dips a french fry into her sauce.
“My gut says I should talk to each one of them, but not to pressure them about where we stand. It would be more like a visit to see if they volunteer any information.”
“Why?”
“I’m afraid if I start talking about my feelings, I’ll end up saying something that picks us up right where we left off, and I’ll restart all of this chaos again.” I stab my salad with my fork.
“Good point. I think you should plan the visits because if you just wait for them to transpire, you’ll go out of your mind.”
“How so?”
“You’ll make up all sorts of stories and everything will fall apart again.”
“You’re always right about these things. Help me plan it so I’m not doing anything stupid that’ll lead me back to the land of straddling two worlds again.”
“There’s no way I’ll let you restart all this BS.”
“I’ve hurt them both enough as it is. I don’t want to do it anymore.” I drop my fork into my bowl, realizing how selfish I’ve been.
She taps the table with her fingers. “This is going to sound like a bad idea, but hear me out before you judge.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Hunter still wants you and said he’s not giving up, so I think you need to meet him in the office. Just try to make it over the lunch hour so fewer people are around.”
“Why did you believe I would think that’s a bad idea? Talking to Hunter in the office sounds like a brilliant plan, but what do I say?”
“Start with how he’s feeling about things. Ask him something like, since you haven’t talked with him a lot lately, you were wondering if he had anything he wanted to share. It leaves it to him to direct where it goes.”
“That could work as long as he doesn’t start off with questions about when I’ll be ready to start things up again.” I pick up my fork and move my food around. “How do I approach Jami?”
“Jami’s the exact opposite. If you talk to him at work, he’ll make sure you stay on a business topic.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, he’s too controlled around his feelings for you. With him, you need to go to his place and surprise him. His defenses will be down and you’ll have the opening you need to get him to open up.”
“I agree with that, but what if I run into Hunter outside of work?”
“What’s the likelihood of that happening? You ran into Jami once after all this time and he’s around. Hunter travels and is gone half the time.” She picks up her hamburger and takes a bite.
“All great points. I think we have a plan. I just have to find the guts to implement it.” I rest against the back of the booth.
She swallows her food. “Don’t think too hard. Put it in your calendar and treat it like it’s mandatory.”
She taps the screen of my phone with her fingertip.
I lift it. “Okay, here’s to following your advice.”
Usually, I dread Monday mornings, but I’m itching to get into the office today.
After my meeting with Jonah, I’ll be able to visit Hunter and Jami to see if anything has changed with them.
Hunter’s door is closed, but muffled voices come through, so I know he’s in today. I hurry to my office and prepare for my meeting with Jonah. He calls me into his office a few minutes later.
He’s in the chair behind his desk as I enter. “Dori, thanks for taking the time to go over the updated requirements we’ll need in place.”
“No problem. Tell me what you need from me.”
“With the last phase of the launch coming up, I need you to be on top of everything. This time, there’s no room for missed deadlines.”
My cheeks heat and my chest tightens. Guilt and shame slam into me, stopping me from taking another step.
“Jonah, let me first start by reiterating how bad I feel about the times I’ve let the team down. There was so much going on during that time. I won’t make the same mistakes. You have my word.”
He nods, but worry hangs in his expression. “I hope we can count on that. I vouched for you last time and won’t be able to if it happens again. This job has a lot of requirements and we need someone who can handle it. We believe that’s you, so don’t prove us wrong.”
“I won’t. There’s nothing to distract me this time. This job and the app are the most important things for me right now.”
“That’s reassuring to hear.”
I sit in the chair in front of his desk. “I’m sorry. You’ve known me for years and I’ve always been reliable. Trust me. I’m not going to let you down.”
He scans over me like he needs to say something but doesn’t want to. He takes a breath and nods.
“Dori, it’s none of my business, but you’ll need to work closely with Jamison for this next phase. Is that going to be a problem?” Jonah’s face turns pink, indicating he’s referring to the rumor about Jamison and me.
I want to crawl into a hole but decide it’s better to just get this over with and have an honest discussion with Jonah .
“I’m aware of the rumors about me and Jamison. If you have questions, please ask me. But you need to know those rumors were lies.”
“Understood.”
“If I ever find out who started them, I’ll go straight to them and make them announce to everyone that they made it up for the sake of gossip.”
“Thanks for the explanation. It seemed out of character, but there were times you were acting strange when I saw you together.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard you arguing more than once. If there’s something you need to tell me, let’s get it out in the open now. I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m dealing with.” Jonah gently smiles, giving me an opening to come clean.
“There’s nothing true about those rumors. We never even hugged in my office. I can assure you there will be zero chance of anything getting back to you that would raise concerns.” My stomach aches having this conversation.
I stand, needing to move some of my energy out of my body. Jonah stands as well and walks toward the door.
“I need to grab some marketing documents from downstairs. Wait here and I’ll be right back.” He leaves and I’m pretty sure he did it so I could regain some of my dignity.
As I wait for Jonah to return, a woman’s hoity-toity voice demanding to see Hunter catches my attention. I walk over to Jonah’s office door to find out more.
Once Hailey welcomes her, she lets it be known she’s Ava Aldridge and Hunter’s expecting her.
My adrenaline jumps because as far as I know, she’s never been to the office. I peek around the corner to see if I can get an idea of what she wants with him.
Hailey knocks on Hunter’s door and announces Ava’s presence. She pushes by Hailey without any concern for what he’s doing in his office .
Right as Ava enters, another woman’s voice comes floating down the hall. I freeze and eavesdrop on their exchange.
“Ava, what a pleasure to see you again.” The other woman’s voice comes in louder as if she’s walking toward his open office door. “Hunter and I were just finishing up.”
“There’s no pleasure in seeing you, Isabella. Now that I know what you are to Hunter, you can drop the act. We don’t like each other and never will.” Ava quickly puts Isabella in her place.
“You were so much kinder when I met you at dinner with Jamison the other night. Like I told you that evening when he introduced us, he was mistaken when he thought Hunter and I were dating. We aren’t, so you can relax.”
Jamison was with them at a restaurant?
Why?
Isabella cuts into my thoughts, so I zero in on what she has to say.
“Ava, Hunter’s still all yours. However, I'll admit, if you ever want to leave him, I’ll be right there to pick up the pieces.” Isabella’s voice streams with an entertaining rub to Ava.
“Enough of your classless advancements toward Hunter. He told me you understood I’m the only woman in his life, so you can see yourself out.” Ava’s hand comes into view as she’s using it to show Isabella the way out of his office.
Isabella comes halfway into view, standing partially in his office and partially in the hallway. I step back into Jonah’s office, but stay on the edge to continue listening. I’m learning more from this interaction than I ever thought I would.
“Hunter, thank you for your time this morning. I’ll see myself out. Ava, have a pleasant day.” Isabella leaves his office.
I stand in horror with my hand over my mouth, trembling so much I think I’m going to make the floor shake. Not only does Ava think she’s dating Hunter, but she was out having dinner with Jamison. My world spins, and everything goes blurry.
Jami took Ava out. I didn’t think he would, but he did.
Why?
I practically stumble to Jonah’s chairs and slowly sink into my seat. Jonah returns and says he and Hailey have a department meeting with the sales team he forgot about.
They’re running late, so he quickly grabs his laptop and runs out of his office, promising to pick up our meeting later.
Knowing everyone on this floor is in meetings, I muster the courage to go to Hunter’s office. The door’s cracked open, so I inch toward it as close as I can to listen in on Hunter and Ava’s conversation.
Hunter’s leaning against the edge of his desk. “Calm down, Ava. That isn’t the focus of this conversation. She’s a new sponsor for the app. Nothing more. The bigger of the two issues is we need to get on the same page.”
“We already are.”
“Not really. You say you want out of this as much as I do, but every time I turn around, you’re acting like we’re still dating.”
“We’re in this together, whether you like it or not. You need me and I need you. If that comes across as us being in a relationship, too bad. Unless you don’t care if it comes out you’re dating someone who works in the office. It’s your choice.” Ava moves in front of Hunter.
My brain freezes because I’m losing my mind. I’ve got to be mistaken.
But now the only thing registering is the blood rushing fast and loud through my ears and the fact I’m losing feelings in my legs and hands. Ava knows about me and that realization has my body going numb.
“Dori, what are you doing listening in on their conversation?” Jamison's voice startles me from behind.