Chapter Thirty-Five #2
“I wasn’t trying to be on the wrong side.
Or to give you shit about trying to help your friends.
I fucking hate Brad just as much as everyone else does.
I was angry because as soon as I realized what you’d set in motion at the all-hands I knew one way or another I was about to lose you.
And hurt that you didn’t trust me to fix it.
“After Brad ordered me to fire you, it all just felt so pointless. The thought of having to continue on day after day without you at Taskio was unbearable, and not just because of your coding skills,” he adds, with a goofy smile.
My laugh is watery. Hearing him say all this is overwhelming.
He keeps going.
“The truth is, I was unhappy there. I had been for a long time. I was toeing the line because I didn’t have the energy to do anything else.
As soon as you left, I realized what Ben had been banging his head against the wall trying to tell me for months.
I was so ground down by the politics of it all, I forgot I could choose something different.
Turns out you were right when you said I was a Taskio bot,” he adds, his smile crooked.
“Connor,” I say, squeezing his hand. “I never really thought that. I was just running my mouth.”
He looks at me and I look back at him. I can feel the dust starting to settle on this misunderstanding, and with it the glimmering hope that maybe we’ll be OK.
“So what happens now?” I ask him.
“We do our own thing,” Connor says. “I told you before that Ben and I have always stayed in touch with the company that bought DinoCode. They liked an idea we pitched a while back, so we could try that, see where it goes. If Taskio floats later this year, we’ll have enough cash to fund ourselves for a little while.
And you,” he adds. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Ben really wants to offer you a job. ”
“But—you never called.”
He hesitates. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to hear from me. I expected you to show up and ream me out for being such an idiot. When you didn’t, I worried you were done with me. And I don’t know. I guess before I came after you, I wanted to prove I could be different.”
“I’m not done with you, Connor,” I tell him, surprised to realize Shannon was right. He was waiting for me to come to him. “I just didn’t think you wanted to talk.”
He moves in closer. “I did, for the record.”
“I-I went back to Canada. But it was good. I spent time with my sister. We cleared the air.”
“That’s good, Annie,” he murmurs, closer than he was a minute ago. It feels like he’s leaning in. To kiss me.
“You know,” I tell him, my hands tentatively coming up to rest on his hips. He doesn’t stop me. “It was actually her who suggested one of the ways I could make it up to you.”
“Oh yeah? What did she advise?”
I can hear the warmth in his voice, the affection. Feel the heat of his skin through his T-shirt.
Mischief dances across my face. “She suggested I text saying Connor I’m sorry here is a picture of my tits.”
His responding smile lights up the entire room.
“Wow. That’s—that’s pretty good, actually. Maybe try it? I’m still kind of mad.”
I burst out laughing, then smack him on the arm.
“You’re right, too complicated. Just show them to me. In fact, let’s take your top off.”
“Connor!” I squeal when he reaches for my T-shirt, and he laughs at my feigned outrage, crushing me to him. He plants a huge kiss on the side of my forehead, the only part of my face not hiding in his chest. I cling to him tightly; if I didn’t, I would float.
“This is serious,” I mumble.
“You’re right,” he says, his voice full of laughter. “I’m seriously happy to see you.”
I pull back slightly and look up at his shining, perfect face. The best face in the world.
“You can’t just take my top off.”
The corners of his mouth move. “Why not?”
“Because we broke up.”
“Did we? When?”
I look at him sternly. “In the lobby, after I got fired. You said forget it. Remember?”
“No,” he says. A bold-faced lie.
“You don’t want to go out with me,” I tell him, lacing my fingers together on the small of his back.
“Obviously. Why not, again?”
“Well, I blew your life up, for starters.”
“It needed to be blown up, a bit. Once is good, though. Please don’t do it again.”
All the way back to New York I fretted that it was too late—that I’d had a chance at something and I’d ruined it.
I’d apologize to Connor, and he’d probably even accept my apology, but there would be no going back to the way things were.
He’d seen me for what I truly am. Why? He could always see it. It seems so obvious now.
“What if we work together and then you want to break up with me again?”
“Annie,” he says, reaching up to cup my jaw. The way he says my name makes it seem like that alone explains everything. “You must be the last person in the world to notice this but…I love you. I’m literally never going to break up with you.”
In that moment our faces are two mirror images, one staring back at the other, smiling the same way at the same time.
“Careful,” I warn him. “I might hold you to that.”
“Go ahead,” he says, moving in closer. “I dare you.”