Chapter 29
Iwas fucked. Or maybe I wasn”t?
It had taken forever to get home, and now here I was scrambling because I was definitely going to be late for work. I had ensured to come in early because I wanted to catch up on learning and just generally be ahead, but here I was tying my hair into the messiest of buns and trying to find the second one of my heels.
Grabbing my purse, I sprinted out and decided that I had to take a taxi or else I wasn”t going to make it. It was just as I arrived at the curb, however, that all of the details of last night came to me, specifically why I even had gone to his apartment in the first place. And it was then I recalled that I had gone there to more or less hand in my resignation and that was why what had even happened between us afterward had happened at all. And so, technically, I didn”t have a job anymore.
At first, and before we went to the restaurant, he had only mentioned transferring me, but I had gone over and resigned altogether, so what the fuck was I hurrying for? Sure, I had to communicate this to Human Resources, but then I could do this over the phone, right? Also, going in would seem like I was taking advantage of him and not keeping my word, which was to disappear out of his sight as quickly as possible.
Just then, a cab pulled up, and sighing, I looked at the door and wondered where to go. Eventually, I got in and immediately pulled out my phone to call Mandy.
”Hey, how”s it going?” She greeted the sound of a blender going off in the background. And then she stopped it. ”I”ve been trying to reach you for updates about that hideous boss of yours. What”s happening?”
I sighed then and shut my eyes.
”Are you going to your studio?” I asked.
”No, it”s work from home day. Well, not technically, but I feel really sick, so I”m taking time off today to relax. I think it”s all the fast food I”ve been eating, though. I think I messed up my system, so I”m going to try to meal prep and all of that.”
I listened to her ramble on and quite enjoyed it, as it gave me a break from my own tumultuous life. However, she soon noticed that she was the only one talking and stopped herself.
”Wait, you”re the one who called,” she said. ”You almost never call first. Is everything alright?”
Smiling, I nodded and leaned into the seat as I gazed outside at the already bustling city I loved so much.
”Everything”s fine,” I said, and then I wondered why I was lying. ”Actually, no, nothing is fine,” I corrected myself. ”I called to ask if I could come over to the studio for a little bit to talk.”
”To talk?” She was immediately concerned, and I could hear it in her tone. ”Of course,” she replied. ”Come to my apartment; I”ll have breakfast for you. But if you”re not going to work this early, then that can”t be good, right? Anything you want to talk about over the phone before you get here?”
”No,” I replied. ”I”ll be there soon.”
”Alright,” she said, and the call came to an end. When I arrived at her apartment, it only took a few seconds after reaching the door for her to hurry over to it and open it for me.
”Come in,” she greeted happily but had a towel wrapped around her. ”I just got out of the shower, but the food”s on the table.” She bounded off before I could say a word, and I was left standing confused in the middle of her apartment.
I was incredibly nervous as I looked around, even though the whole place was much bigger than mine and in order. And that was because it was past the time for work to resume, and yet I was here. If I wasn”t, for some reason, bored, I was going to be now, but I just couldn”t get myself to go over to the firm. Sighing, I tossed my purse aside and headed over to the counter to see the waffles and sausages she had plated for me.
Famished, I dragged over one of her island stools and sat down to eat. A few minutes later, she returned with her half-dried hair.
”Hey, I thought you”d come to the bathroom. We could talk there.”
”I”m exhausted,” I mumbled through my full mouth, and she was amused.
After grabbing a bottle of orange juice and bringing it over, she took her seat beside me as well and began to eat.
”You”re fully dressed, so there really must be an issue. Did they call you or something to tell you not to come in?”
”I have no clue what”s happening,” I replied and set the last piece of the waffle back down on my plate.
”Did you quit, or were you fired?”
”Both, I guess,” I answered, and she gave me a dry look. ”Okay, I”ll explain.”
I told her about what Guy had said before I arrived at the restaurant, about transferring me, and then about how I had gone to his apartment later on to hand in my resignation.
”Why the hell would you do that?” she asked, thoroughly confused. ”You didn”t try to kill him on purpose; you made a mistake. And it wasn”t even your fault; you were given the wrong information.”
”It”s my job to not use bad information as an excuse,” I replied. ”After all, and to be sure, I could have just asked him what he was allergic to.”
”That”s unfair to you,” she said. ”From the beginning, he hasn”t been the easiest person to approach, so why all the expectations of cordiality?”
She was right; however, I couldn”t confidently see this as a defense for everything, so I simply remained quiet.
”Anyway,” she said, ”After you acted, insane. What did he say?”
”The reason I went there was just to apologize, of course, and since I was quitting and since he”d told me before that working together was the reason why we couldn’t be intimate, I offered it.”
At my words, she stopped chewing, and then her mouth dropped open.
I looked away.
“You what?”
”What is it about the night, Mandy, and its tendency to make people lose their brains?” I asked. ”Now, in the light of day, I am mortified.”
”No, no, no,” she said. ”That”s not the story here. What did he say after you proposed that?”
”He agreed,” I said, and her mouth fell open again.
”So, what”s the problem?”
I stared at her, upset about her not getting it, and she was amused.
”Okay, let me not trouble you with my own brain,” she said, and I continued with my meal.
”I spent the night there,” I told her, ”With him. We fell asleep on the couch together, and from the time I woke up till now, I”ve just been a mess.”
”Wait, what?” she asked. ”You... you two did it on the couch?”
I paused at the question, watching her hands twist together like they were having sex.
”Actually, we did everything else, but we didn”t actually have sex. We were going to. That”s why he carried me to the couch, but then after I came, we just both fell asleep.”
”What,” she shut her eyes, trying to understand. ”So, before you two could have sex, you fell asleep?”
”Yes.”
”And he carried you?”
”Irrelevant, but yes.”
She was amused. ”I won’t ask, but this seems to me to be the start of a very peculiar but interesting relationship.”
”There”s no relationship,” I countered. ”I”m not even working there right now.”
”And it”s a mistake,” she said. ”You should have gone in regardless, to see what he said and navigate your way from there. If he still insists that you continue on, then you do so, but if not, then you move on. But not even going in at all, I don”t condone.”
She was right. I grabbed my glass to swallow down my juice. I truly didn”t want to think about it, but after last night, I”ve felt quite scatterbrained and disorganized.
”You really think so?” I asked, and she nodded.
”You just basically said that people make clear decisions in the light of day. Of course. Last night was a jumble for you two both professionally and privately, but you both survived it, fell asleep in each other”s arms, and woke up in each other”s arms, so maybe discard what you said yesterday as well as him and face the day with confidence.”
”Easier said than done,” I said. ”He tends to not forget anything ever, so who knows if I will immediately get escorted out by security even before I”m able to get to the office.”
”You”re being too pessimistic,” she said. ”Which makes me think that you”re not worried about your job. Instead, it”s about your relationship with your boss, or the absence thereof after, and you really don”t want to face it. Not yet at least.”
”Yeah,” I replied and agreed with her. A long silence followed as I thought about her words and moved on to eating my eggs and sausage. And then I pushed it all aside and rose to my feet.
”You”re going in?” she asked, and I nodded.
”Yeah. It”s killing me, so why wallow here? I”ll slip in before it”s too late and see what happens.”
”Exactly,” she said with a smile, and I hurried on my way.
I grabbed my purse and put on my heels, and then I hurried out of her apartment building and was hailing down the next cab I could find.