Streak

Chapter 19

Lydia

After my run Saturday morning, I had breakfast and started a new book. At around noon, I was surprisingly relaxed, considering everything that had happened that week and the night before. It usually took me a lot longer to unwind.

My phone rang and startled me. I answered because I saw Becca’s name and worried something had happened.

“Hey.”

“Long time no see.” She sounded groggy.

“Are you ok?”

“Yep, just woke up and hungover. Why don’t you sound like me?”

I smiled and shook my head. “I went home earlier than you and didn’t drink nearly as much.”

She groaned. “What are you doing today?”

“Nothing. I usually chill on weekends.”

“Can I chill with you? Whatever that means.”

“Oh. You want to come over?”

“Yeah, if it’s okay. I crashed at Danny’s last night and I don’t really want to go home. You don’t have to say yes, really.”

“I’ll text you my address.”

She groaned again and mumbled something about a shower before hanging up.

I sent her my location and looked around the apartment, trying to see if there was anything I needed to do before having company. Besides the landlord and various repairmen, no one had ever come into my apartment for two years since I’d been living there.

I didn’t really see anything that needed cleaning or organizin, so I made coffee and pancake batter.

When I heard a soft knock, I jumped and shook myself to get rid of the nerves before letting her in. Despite her grogginess on the phone, she looked like her usual self. I would never have guessed she was hungover.

She hugged me softly and walked over to the couch. “Thanks for this, feel free to kick me out if I’m ruining your me time, you time, whatever.”

“I’m good. Coffee and pancakes?”

“Please.”

I smiled and left her lying on the couch while I kept busy in the kitchen. When I brought it all to the coffee table, she opened one eye and looked at me. “Seriously, I love you.”

I chuckled and shook my head, surprised at the sound that came out of me. When was the last time I heard myself laugh? I couldn’t really remember.

“Do you need painkillers?”

“No, I took a couple at Danny’s.”

She sat up and I sat beside her, tucking one leg underneath me. I sipped my coffee while she ate the pancakes. It was surprisingly nice to just be there with someone without talking, though I got the impression she wasn’t talking because of the food and headache.

When she was done, I took the plates back and poured us more coffee. By the time I sat back down, both of our phones buzzed.

?? Brad met with Mark this morning

So I was right about Brad selling her out. I didn’t want to be right.

I looked at Becca and showed her my screen.

“Yeah he sent it to me too,” she said. “I guess Brad waited for the weekend to update that fucker.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.” She sighed and closed her eyes while taking another sip.

She texted Daniel something back, and a few seconds later, I got another message.

?? Is Becca ok? She told me she’s with you

?? Yeah, she came over. Hungover, but ok

I put the phone aside and looked at her, worried. “I want to ask you something, but before I do, please know that I’m sometimes too direct and I do not want to offend you.”

She put the mug down on the table and shook her head. “Yeah I kind of got that about you. What do you want to know?”

“Do you have friends? It’s just that you asked me out for drinks yesterday and you called me today, and we don’t really know each other.”

She exhaled loudly. “Wow, yeah I get the disclaimer now. I do have friends, but they’re all superficial. Good friends to meet for coffee, shopping, hanging out at a gala—not this fucked up stuff that’s been happening. Danny’s my best friend. Sad, I guess.”

“One more than I have, so no, not sad. Not to me, anyway.”

She laughed and then groaned, putting her hand on her forehead. “Well, I’m officially naming you a non-superficial friend.” Her smile faded. “I’ve got something direct to say to you, too.”

“Okay.”

“Danny likes you.”

“Oh.” I tried not to squirm in my seat. “He said that?”

“No, he wouldn’t. I just know my brother. Aaaand this is making you uncomfortable.”

“Yes.” I didn’t bother lying. Let’s see how this friendship thing works, or if it can work with me being myself.

“You don’t have to say anything. Just understand that he’s not like me. He doesn’t date for the sake of dating or for sex. He’s only ever had serious relationships, or tried to, and I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“I know. I just want you to know. If he decides to make a move, be direct, whether it’s saying you want him or not, so he knows where he stands.”

“I will.” That, at least, was something I could easily do.

“And also know that my offer stands.”

“That also makes me uncomfortable.” Might as well continue with the honesty.

“Why?”

“Because he’s my boss. I feel like I should tell him that you made the offer and that if I don’t, I’m hiding something. With everything going on, hiding things feels wrong.”

“You can tell him. Fuck, I’ll tell him myself. Once this thing blows over with Brad, I’ll make the offer official, and you can decide then. Higher salary, more responsibilities, and you won’t be Danny’s employee anymore.”

“Oh.”

You won’t be Danny’s employee. That carried something else with it, didn’t it?

“You’ve got time to decide.”

I nodded, and we sat quietly for a few more minutes.

“You like Jake.” I said matter-of-factly.

She laughed. “Yeah, he’s hot.”

“He seems to like you, too.”

“We’ve known each other for years, since he and Danny met in the army. Nothing ever happened, though.”

“Why?”

“Back then? Don’t know, didn’t think of it. Now, it feels like there’s too much history. I don’t want to lead him on when I’m not into the whole family thing.”

“He wants a family?”

“You know, I don’t actually know. Forget about him. What do you usually do on weekends?”

“I was going to watch TV and do my nails.”

“Shut the fuck up.” She took my hand and looked at my gel nail polish. “You do that?”

I nodded and smiled. “Would you like me to do yours, too?” I felt like a teenager, except I had never done this with other girls when I was younger. I thought she would laugh at me, but she looked happy and squeezed my hand.

“Yes! You’ve officially demoted Danny to ‘just brother,’ bestie.”

“I have a few grays, blacks, and reds.” I didn’t know what to say about the ‘bestie’ thing, so I ignored it. I went with light gray, and she chose a dark vampire red.

We spent the next two hours doing our nails and watching ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns, which always made me smile, and apparently made Becca practically choke from laughing so hard.

When we were done, she got a text from Daniel and told me he wanted to meet her to update her on everything Terry found. She promised to keep me in the loop and hugged me tightly before leaving.

After she left, I cooked a large pot of bolognese sauce and divided it into portions to freeze for the rest of the week, saving a bit in the fridge for the weekend.

I eventually sat down to have lunch and went back to my book, trying not to think about having a new friend or the fact that this whole time, my boss may have been flirting with me.

I also felt something new about my time with her—watching TV, drinking coffee, and doing our nails.

She was a CEO from a wealthy family who hung out in circles that included billionaires and celebrities.

Despite that, it felt weird but kind of natural, like we’d been friends for a while.

And Daniel… Mr. Mason. Had I led him on? I grabbed my phone from where I had tossed it on my couch earlier to look at all of our exchanges and see if there was anything I had written that could have been interpreted as flirting. There was a message I hadn’t seen from him.

?? Can I call you later today to update you? I know it’s the weekend and this is work related so you can say no

?? Sorry, I just saw this. Becca said she’d update me, but sure.

I hoped that looked okay. I realized I may have answered too informally the night before, but he asked me to call him Daniel, and it was late, and I was in bed and half asleep…

Do I like him?

I shook my head, trying to get the thought out of it.

I was getting more comfortable around him, and I did like getting messages from him, even if it sometimes made me uncomfortable.

The discomfort was mostly because I didn’t always know how to respond, not because of him.

Could I even date again? With my past, I thought I just wasn’t made for it.

And with what Becca said about him, I would have to be sure.

I’m not even close to sure.

What does sure even look like?

I went out for groceries before the shops closed so that I wouldn’t have to go out at all on Sunday, and finished my book on the couch before calling it a night.

I woke up early on Sunday after a good and quiet night’s sleep and lounged on the couch with my biggest mug of coffee and a new digital book.

After a while, my phone buzzed, and I realized I had left it on the coffee table all night.

I had a few messages from Becca from the night before.

One was a picture of her nails with a big ‘Thank you!’ on it, another was an update after she had met with Daniel, telling me that Brad was an asshat, and then a third letting me know that her brother would give me all the details and she was planning on sleeping through the weekend.

I didn’t know how to respond, so I didn’t and went back to my book.

There were no more updates from anyone after that, and I got to work on Monday feeling like things were going back to normal.

Chris was getting more confident in my ability to handle his tasks, and his notes were getting messier as a result.

So far, it wasn’t an issue—I was actually glad to see the change in him now that I had taken some of the more menial tasks off his plate.

He was more relaxed, friendly, and focused on tasks that helped Mr. Mason grow the company.

On Tuesday, Mr. Mason and Chris went on a four-day business trip, which left me in a very quiet work environment.

Chris still sent me tasks via email like crazy, but I had barely spoken a word to anyone in four days—it was amazing.

Dianne said that Mr. Mason didn’t go on business trips often when she noticed how happy the solitude made me.

I was a bit embarrassed and felt guilty about it, hoping she wouldn’t say anything to Chris.

It wasn’t anything against them—it was just nice to have peace and quiet after so many weird events.

Becca texted me a few times, mostly asking how I was doing and trash-talking Brad.

I was worried about how to respond since my past experiences with friends had always ended with complaints that I was cold, but Becca didn’t seem to mind.

I had been through too much to find some peace in my life, and I decided not to try to change for other people, so I responded in whatever way came naturally to me.

Surprisingly, that only seemed to make her like me more.

So maybe it was just about chemistry between two people.

Maybe her ‘weird’ matched my ‘weird’ despite our very different backgrounds.

Maybe I just needed to find the right people, and the problem had never been me.

When Friday came around, I easily went back to my usual routine.

Everything was boring again, just like I liked it, for the next two months.

I didn’t get any text messages from Mr. Mason, and I met Becca for drinks a few times at Mel’s and another bar near my neighborhood.

She was almost finished with the design phase of her new project, which would mean moving on to manufacturing.

Howard still didn’t pull the offer, and the lawyers said they had finished the due diligence phase, so Mr. Mason gave the green light to start the negotiations on the agreement.

I saw the emails that Chris copied me on with the lawyers—Mr. Mason added a few terms to the agreement that weren’t initially mentioned in the LOI.

There wasn’t anything unreasonable, so if Howard really wanted to buy, there was no reason to change his mind, but it also gave him an easy out.

I was surprised he didn’t back out immediately, though maybe he was worried about raising suspicion.

Madelyne called me at some point, asking how I was doing after three months in the CEO’s office. I found myself feeling something new when she called. I kind of missed her and the HR floor. I had never missed anyone before.

And then, one weekend, it all went to shit.

It was a hot Saturday in August, and I’d finished all my usual errands, made two trays of lasagna and put them in the fridge to freeze later, and then opened my laptop to find something new to play.

I had a cold bottle of beer in my hand, and I was relaxed, until I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and every instinct I had developed since I was a kid told me to watch out.

I saw it the second I opened my computer—a little green light near the camera for a split second before turning off.

Joke’s on you, asshole—I work in a cybersecurity company.

Yeah, as an office assistant. I didn’t know shit about cybersecurity, but I knew the feeling of someone watching me.

I pretended not to notice and opened my computer like everything was perfectly normal.

I searched for flights to Paris, as if that was just something I planned to do, and closed my laptop, hoping whoever was watching didn’t notice I was on to them.

Now what? Even with the laptop closed, the feeling wasn’t gone. Could I text Daniel? What if my phone was also hacked? Were there cameras in my apartment? No, I would have felt being watched before opening the laptop.

Right?

Shit, I was getting paranoid. I need to be able to trust my instincts. That was the only reason I was still alive.

I opened my chat history with Daniel and typed the first thing that came to mind.