26. Lila
Chapter twenty-six
Lila
“Ugh. Elise, we are at DEFCON 1 here! Why are you not answering your phone?” I’m practically shouting at my best friend’s voicemail as I walk into the office Monday morning. I sent her a string of text messages every night for the past two nights but haven’t been away from JT for long enough to call her until now. Inability to gossip about him with my best friend aside, I could really get used to him shuttling me back and forth to work. This morning, we spent the time in the car talking about his upcoming tournament, and his travel schedule over the next three weeks. I knew he was going to be back to playing, but it hadn’t sunk in just how much that meant he would be gone in the next few weeks. To say I am bummed would be like saying gummy candy is decent: understatement of the year.
“Oooo, DEFCON 1. Say more,” Becca says from her computer monitor. Kelsey hops up from my chair where she’s lounging. Even though the third desk in the office is now officially mine, it seems old habits die hard from when the Harper sisters used to use it as their own personal hot desk.
“Nope,” Kelsey says. “At least, not until I leave. I have to hold a boundary somewhere, and, based on the conversation we had with JT Friday night, I feel like I have a good idea what this is about.”
“What did you talk to JT about Friday night?” I ask, and quickly follow it with, “And why can you talk to him about this stuff but not me?”
“Because I don’t employ him.” Her brow furrows. “Though maybe it is crossing a line anyway.”
“It’s not, Kels. You know everyone in this town is involved in their employees’ business. I feel like you could live a bit more in the gray,” Izzy jumps in.
Kelsey scrunches up her nose like she got a whiff of a particularly sweaty man’s body odor, clearly not a fan of crossing any lines with her employees. “Nope. Couldn’t be me,” she says before pushing through the doors and heading out onto the street.
“We never should’ve let her hire you,” Izzy says. I put my hand over my heart and fake a gasp. “Excuse me?”
“Not like that. We just should’ve known she’d get all weird about the boundaries of it all. You could’ve come to work for us. Becca and I have absolutely no boundaries.” Izzy leans over to high-five her friend, but Becca just stares at her hand.
“I am not high-fiving you for that. We have boundaries, or we would if we weren’t a two-person company where both employees are also the co-owners. We still don’t do things like sleep with clients, steal money, poach clients—”
“Fine, fine,” Izzy says. “Though I’m upset you didn’t high-five me. It’s pretty mean to just leave me hanging like that.”
“You’ll survive.”
“Well, if I don’t, I’m going to come back to haunt you for sure. And any time you’re with a guy, I’m going to hover over you and offer my critique while also reminding you of all the non-sexy things I can think of, like…hairy moles…or old banana peels.”
“There is something seriously wrong with you, you know that, right?” Becca asks, shaking her head but laughing all the same.
“Yeah. I have terrible taste in best friends and business partners, but it’s a cross I must bear.”
I laugh at my officemates as I pull up the proposal Kelsey asked me to work on. It’s a huge potential contract, and I was so excited when she asked me to take point on it. Unfortunately, I’m realizing nothing I did in college prepared me for this. I’ve spent way more hours than I care to admit Googling different diagrams and information Kelsey included in the proposal outline. I know if I ask Kelsey, she’d walk me through it, but I don’t want her to regret her decision or think I’m incompetent. I’m sure I can figure it out myself; I just need to work harder.
I’m trying to figure out how to correctly interpret a mobile security plan so it’s understandable in the client mockup when my phone vibrates loudly on my desk. As I read it, my heart speeds up.
JT
Is it ridiculous that I miss you already? Can you sneak away for coffee? And then again for lunch? Do you all do elevensies?
Elevensies. Ha. What a nerd.
Me
Unfortunately, Kelsey won’t let me take off three of the first four hours of the day. Real hard-ass like that. Maybe you should consider doing your job today ;)
I smile at the thought of our golf game yesterday. JT had been on fire, and I could tell it was a relief for him to be playing well again. He was actually enjoying being out on the course. And enjoying some other things on the course. Damn back nine.
“Oh my gosh, are you blushing from a text message over there?” Izzy asks. “I know I was the one who got us distracted from the impending nuclear war designation when you came in this morning, but now we must know. What’s going on?”
“You first,” I say, tilting back in my chair and tapping my pen on the desk. “What did Kelsey mean when she said you guys were talking to JT Friday night?”
“Strong power play. Kelsey would be proud,” Becca says. “And, as I wasn’t there Friday night—and apparently my best friend didn’t feel the need to fill me in—I’d also like Izzy to go first.”
The woman in question looks between us, her long brown hair falling over her shoulder as she considers it. “Fine. Seems fair. But you better hold up your end of the deal.”
I shrug and nod my head in agreement.
“Well, as you know, Kelsey and I stayed after golfing Friday afternoon to get dinner and drinks. We had just wrapped up a very long dinner when who should arrive but our dear friend, JT.”
“Why do you sound like you’re Pharrell narrating The Grinch ?” Becca cuts in.
“Do you want to hear the story or not, Rebecca?”
“Damn, she Rebecca’d you,” I tease.
Izzy gives us both her best teacher glare before continuing her story. “Anyway, it was clear he was worked up about something and looking to drown a few of those feelings, so Kelsey and I took pity on the poor man and let him buy a few rounds for the whole table.”
I chuckle. I’m sure JT was just glad to have the company and would’ve happily bought a few roundtrip tickets to Bora Bora for the whole table if they’d asked.
“Anyway, Kelsey mind-ninjaed the man once she got his defenses down out on the putting green—”
Becca snorts. “That sounds dirty.”
She receives another teacher glare before Izzy continues, “And he more or less admitted he was jealous of Lila’s date with Matt. Oh! And he and Lila have been bunking together since the hailstorm.” She shoots me a wicked smirk as my jaw drops. No wonder he was okay with me telling Kelsey and Izzy about this—he’d already spilled the tea. Izzy continues, “Actually, Kelsey had already figured out the sleeping together thing.”
“What?” I ask. “How? Why? What?!” That lady is too damn good at her job.
“She had a whole line of evidence, but it doesn’t really matter, since JT confirmed it.”
“You can’t tell Bryn and Jameo, Izzy. And you have to tell Kelsey not to either. You too, Becca. This has to stay between us.”
They both agree, and Izzy adds, “And you definitely don’t have to worry about Kelsey. Secrets are her thing.”
“But, why is it a secret?” Becca asks.
I let out a groan and slide down into my computer chair until my body is almost at a forty-five-degree angle with the floor. “This is why we are at a DEFCON 1,” I say. “JT doesn’t do relationships. Like is so committed to golf that he might as well be married to it. Not to get all armchair psychologist over here, but the man has some real issues that almost certainly stem from the way his parents treat him like he’s a walking reminder of all their failed dreams. If the stories Jameson tells are to be believed, that is. JT doesn’t talk about them to me, even though I know he talks to his dad multiple times a day.”
Jameson told me a couple stories about his dad critiquing JT’s game so hard during college that Jameson almost started crying to try to get me to be nicer to JT. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel bad for him, even before all this, I just would never want to be treated differently because someone felt bad for me, so I wasn’t going to do that to him either.
“Shit,” Becca says.
Izzy nods her agreement. “I mean, he didn’t get into the parent part of it, but yeah, he essentially said he needs to focus on winning another tournament, and since he knows you dream of a husband and kids, you guys aren’t a good fit.” She offers me a sympathetic grimace.
“Which is totally true. Except”—I hide behind my hands—“turns out we may fit a little too well, if you know what I mean?”
I look up to see the wicked smiles on the faces of both of my new friends.
“Um, we’re going to need significantly more details,” Becca says. “That man is beautiful, and I need to live vicariously through you. Ugh! Why is everyone in my life hooking up with men out of fucking romance novels?”
Izzy double coughs as if to say, “Um, what about me?” but Becca pays her no attention.
“Please don’t compare my brother to a romance novel hero ever again. It will ruin the entire genre for me, and then what will I read? Nonfiction? Get out of here.”
Both women ignore my comment, and at their prodding, I tell the highlights: walking in on JT fresh from the shower (Becca almost swooned, and I would not have blamed her if she did); us diving headfirst into bed together; our decision to be roommates with benefits until we both go back to our previously scheduled lives; acting like a real couple all day Saturday as we cooked, watched TV, read, and slept together; golfing yesterday and doing date-y things. By the time I’m done telling them about it, I’m more confused than when I started.
“It feels like we’re in a relationship,” I say. “At the very least, he’s quickly becoming a good friend. It’s not just crazy hot sex all the time. There is unfortunately also a connection on an emotional level. Though I’m worried I’m not going to be able to be his friend after all this. Even knowing how much fun he is.”
“Why not?” Becca asks.
“There is this electricity—this magnetism—between us that has been there the entire time I’ve known him. When I was younger, it was more of a gentle pull, and it led to him being someone that I always wanted to talk to and be around, but then once I was older, it intensified. We became powerful magnets, and depending on how we are aligned, we are either forcibly repelled or attracted—we cannot simply exist in the same space without having a significant impact on the alignment of the other. We only have two options: fight or fuck.”
Izzy snickers at that. “Based on that one time I was in the same room as the two of you, that is actually spot-on.”
“So you’re just going to date him for three weeks and then go back to fighting with him constantly?” Becca asks. “Because—and I say this with love—that feels like a terrible plan.”
I drop my head into my hands, my elbows propped on the table the only thing holding me up. “I know it is. I can see the nuclear explosion coming, but I have no idea how to stop it.”
“Shit,” Izzy says. “It really is DEFCON 1.”