Chapter 28 Nora
Chapter 28 NORA
“ I . Hate. Mondays,” Nora mumbled to her computer.
Her office smelled of rotten fruit—a gift from Nora-from-the-past, who’d left a banana peel in the trash can Friday afternoon.
Not even the most stupid thing you did that day.
What had been the worst decision? Bringing a stranger in? Allowing herself to open her heart and soul to him? Believing everything he said? Kissing him?
A brief memory of the kiss crossed her mind, making her hot at once. The sofa. His hands. His touch. His lips. The way everything felt right at that precise moment. Like there was no one else in the world. Like they didn’t need to care about anything else, just feel .
But they did need to care about other things. There was a whole world outside of her basement, one in which Aiden was not simply the man who almost fainted because of a few drops of blood, who looked ridiculously sexy in sweatpants, who made charmingly terrible jokes. A world in which he was not just Aiden, but the Aiden Elliott.
A world in which he couldn’t conveniently omit that fact.
The ring of her phone brought her back to reality—work, yes, she had to work.
Thirty-seven unread emails, a stack of old memos begging to be sorted, and two meetings she dreaded weren’t as bad as not being able to get Aiden’s face out of her head. Aiden, guarding the building’s entrance. Aiden, mopping the floors. Aiden, blabbering about a birthday or something.
And of course, every time Nora had to talk to one of the people in her team, she was reminded that she, too, was lying by omission.
She. Had. To. Tell. Them. But how?
Her knee jerk reaction would be to tell everything at once. However, she’d never been responsible for other people’s lives like that, and the role weighed on her shoulders in a way she never thought would happen. Maybe she could start by praising them, so that they would feel good about themselves—only for her to go and kick them from the pedestal? Should she talk to them individually? Or as a group? Face to face? Or an email? Nora hid her face in her palms. Even if it was not her fault, she felt like she was going to ruin their lives. And she would decide how to do it later.
As she scrolled through her emails, Nora received a notification that it was Martin Bottom’s birthday. Her one English friend; three hundred and sixty-five days in the year—some years more—and that had to be the day Martin had been born. It was no reason to be rude, though, so she took her phone and sent him a happy birthday text. But as she left her office for lunch, her phone rang.
“Nora-Bora! Long time, no talk!” Martin yelled in an oh-too-familiar accent.
“Hey, Mart. I was afraid you wouldn’t even receive my text, I thought you might be back in the UK.”
“Nope. Still around. What about you, are you going anytime soon? You must visit my ma while you’re there.”
“Uh, no. Why would I go to England?”
“Aren’t you dating Aiden Elliott? My friend Nora-Bora, famous! Who would have imagined!” Martin’s voice was full of excitement. “Nora? Are you there?”
“Yes.”
“Is everything quite okay?”
“I am not dating him. And I am not famous.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you, love.”
Her teeth clenched at love . “He’s the biggest jerk I have ever met.”
“My word, really? My cousin’s brother-in-law dated his sister for a while, and once at a Christmas party I heard him speaking so highly of Aiden, saying that he was polite and kind. Maybe he was star-struck, eh?”
Nora wanted to yell that Martin was not helping at all. But more she wanted to yell at Aiden, so she did that silently. See, you stubborn piece of crap? There was a connection between you and Martin. He knows someone who dated your sister. Less than six degrees. I told you. I was right; you were wrong.
“Anyway, I’m so sorry things didn’t work out, Nora. Do you want me to ask my cousin’s brother-in-law for his address? I can have someone throw eggs at his car, for old times’ sake.”
“Instead of eggs, can you have them throw chocolate? He hates chocolate.”
“What kind of person doesn’t like chocolate?”
“Idiots who lie to you. Don’t ever trust them.”
Martin laughed. “Oh, my dear, I miss you. Let’s grab coffee some time, shall we?”
As she ended the call, another voice startled her. “I really don’t recommend the coleslaw here.”
Yeong was right behind her in the cafeteria line. Oh, great. At least she hadn’t told Aiden that story.
Nora glanced at him. “Hm.”
“It upset my stomach yesterday.”
Nora let go of the coleslaw and took a green salad. “Thanks.”
“Hey, the chicken sandwich doesn’t look so bad.” The line moved, and Yeong kept on chatting. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”
Nora couldn’t make herself say that she did mind. Yeong was being friendly, but his presence made her uncomfortable. She couldn’t stop picturing him in her bedroom, his hands on her body so awkwardly; waking up beside him without a clue of what to say to him; his weird “hey, good morning, I should be on my way,” his bumping into Dipa in the living room. Then meeting his girlfriend.
His girlfriend.
The thought made Nora’s pulse speed up. Her hands balled into fists, and she clenched her teeth. How could he be friendly, acting as if nothing had happened, when he had cheated on his girlfriend... with her?
“You’re unbelievable,” Nora muttered.
Yeong chewed his sandwich. “Pardon?”
His calm added fuel to her rage. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend?”
Yeong squinted his eyes for a second until he understood what she was talking about. “Oh, Nora, no. We were on a break.”
Was he telling the truth? Or just trying to pose as innocent?
“I mean it. I’m really not that kind of guy. We’d broken up but got back together after you... we...”
“Oh, okay. Got it.”
Nora thought the subject was over, but he continued. “I think we just needed some time apart to figure out our shit. To realize we actually wanted to be together.”
For some reason, the words went straight to her heart. “Yeah, I know how it is.”
“I’m really sorry you got caught in the middle of it.”
It was like the Millennium Falcon had lifted from Nora’s shoulders. She had been a rebound, yes, but so what? No actual harm done, in the end.
To lighten up the mood, she changed the subject. “You know, this mango smoothie is great. You should try it next time.”
Yeong smiled in understanding and raised his soda with a smirk. “I can’t. I’m only having healthy drinks lately. So, how’s the salad?”
Yeong relaxed, and they talked about trivial things. Soon, loner-Dave joined them. Biting huge chunks of his odd-looking burger, he shared some of his kids’ antics—with four little ones, there were many. Nora pictured his family, and wondered what would become of them once Dave was unemployed. Did he have savings? How long would it take for him to find another position? Once or twice, she opened her mouth to ask him to come see her after lunch, so she could finally warn him he was being laid off. But she didn’t.
When lunchtime was over and they said their goodbyes, Nora tried her best to not let her voice show the guilt that was eating her up.
But she couldn’t hide from her sins forever.
Awakened in the middle of the night, she stared at the ceiling as overwhelming pain traveled through her back, burrowing between her bones and muscles, invading her soft tissue.
With tremendous effort, she dragged herself out of bed.
The house was dark and silent. Once again, Nora took her strongest painkiller. Her doctor’s voice echoed in her head, “This is for extreme situations, Nora, take it with caution,” he’d said. Well , she thought, this certainly qualifies as an extreme situation , as the agony seized her lower back and all her muscles tensed in reflex. All she wanted now was for this fucking pain to go away.