Chapter 13
Julia
“You two did a great job,” Gina said, giving us a smile. “This proposal is going to get funded, I just know it.”
“Thanks Boss,” I said. “It was a ton of work, but we did our best and I feel really good about it.”
In the chair next to me, Chris nodded.
As weird as it was to say, Gina had been right.
Chris and I were a good team. Once we’d gotten past our differences, the proposal had come together nicely, and we were both happy with it.
Chris and I worked out our differences related to the admission criteria, and I had to admit that the training modules that she’d proposed were well thought out.
We’d both shared the highlights of the proposal with our respective teams and gotten good feedback from the staff members who would actually be implementing the program if it got funded.
I hadn’t seen Chris since she left my house Sunday night after having sex several more times. We’d talked on email and via Teams chat to finalize the proposal, but it had all been strictly business. Sitting next to her now, after four days apart, I felt the oddest sensation. I think… I missed her?
That couldn’t be right. First of all, we hadn’t spent enough time together to make her absence generate some kind of feelings inside me.
Secondly, we’d had a sex-fueled weekend, but we’d both agreed it was a one-time thing.
We didn’t particularly like each other, and we spent most of our time together either arguing or fucking.
I needed to find someone more compatible that I could spend my life with. Maybe my mother’s pressure was getting to me, but over the last week I’d had these urges I’d never had before. Urges to have a long-term girlfriend. To share my life with someone. To have a family.
When I closed my eyes and imagined this future of coupledom, I imagined Chris.
But that was just because we’d spent the weekend together, I was sure.
Or maybe it was because we’d had sex so many times, in so many positions, and it was so freaking good every single time, that I just had Chris on the brain.
Now that we’d finished our grant proposal and our boss had blessed it, there was no reason for us to talk or see each other.
My stomach pinched at the thought. Maybe it was just a cramp. I was pretty sure my period was due any day.
“I’ll have Allison approve this and then I’ll send it over,” Gina continued, oblivious to my internal processing.
Allison was our executive director and Gina’s boss, and she reviewed all grant proposals before submission to make sure they were in line with the board’s strategic plan for the agency. They’d been a lot more involved in governance and oversight since the big embezzling scandal with our former CFO.
“You guys should both take tomorrow off and have a long weekend,” Gina suggested. “You deserve it.”
“Oh thanks Gina, but I have a lot to do.”
“I insist,” our boss said firmly. “I’m giving you both the day off tomorrow, and I’d better not see you in the office or on your email. You two go have some fun.”
I couldn’t help but look at Chris then. Judging by the pink flush rising up her cheeks, she was having the same flashbacks as I was. I wouldn’t mind having more of that fun, but then again, spending more time with Chris would be a terrible idea.
The last thing I needed was to fall for someone who was so different than me. Someone who didn’t even seem to like me that much. It was a recipe for disaster and there was no way I was going to allow myself to be that pathetic.
We walked out of the office, then paused awkwardly in the hallway. Chris gave me a searching look but didn’t say anything.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” I finally spoke. “Thanks for working with me on the project.”
When she still didn’t say anything, I turned on my heel and walked away. I got about five steps before Chris called out to me.
“Hey, hold up!”
I stopped and waited for her to catch up to me.
“What about our fake relationship?” she asked.
I looked around, worried that someone would hear her. If there was one thing my coworkers loved, it was gossip. I gestured for her to follow me, walking into the first empty room I found and closing the door behind us.
She raised her eyebrows, waiting for me to respond to her earlier question, and I had the strongest urge to either yell at her or kiss her, I wasn’t sure which.
“How do you think we should play this?” I finally asked. “Should we tell our moms that we broke up already? I don’t think they’d be surprised.”
She shook her head. “No way, if we break up so soon after getting together they’ll be all over us. We need to fake date long enough that when we fake break up we can milk the mourning period for a good long while.”
“Milk the recovery period?” I asked in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“If we break up now, they won’t believe that we’re that upset about it.
The mourning time is generally proportional to the amount of time a couple was together.
If we date for a little while, say a couple of months, and then we break up, we can both pretend to be heartbroken for at least a few months.
Then we’ll get some more of a reprieve before they restart their matchmaking efforts. ”
“That’s actually a good idea,” I said, impressed with her deviousness.
“I know.”
I rolled my eyes. “I guess we’ll need to keep in touch then, let each other know what we say or hear from our parents. They’ll probably be comparing notes about what we tell them.”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I said ruefully. “It’s such ridiculous romcom shit. If I saw this in a movie I’d say it was too unbelievable.”
“Your mother brought a strange woman to your birthday dinner,” she reminded me. “And if she hadn’t found us in bed together, I’ll bet cash there was another poor sucker waiting for you at brunch.”
“Oh I know. I’m surprised I haven’t come home and found some woman naked in my bed waiting for me.”
There was only one woman I wanted to find naked in my bed, but I wasn’t going to mention that right now.
“Meanwhile my own mother hasn’t bitched at me about when am I going to get a grown up relationship and make her a grandmother in over a week. It’s been heaven. She’s thrilled that we’re together.”
“Those two are like two peas on a pod,” I said.
“Peas in a pod.”
“What?”
“It’s peas in a pod,” Chris said with exaggerated patience.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“No you said peas on a pod. You find peas inside the pod, not on top of it. They’d fall off if they were just sitting there on the pod.”
“Do you pick a lot of peas?” I asked snidely.
She huffed out a sigh. “Thank God we’re not dating for real because you’d drive me so crazy that I’d have to stick my head in the oven or something.”
“Like you know how to work an oven.”
When we had dinner the other night Chris’s mother had regaled us with stories about all the times she’d tried to teach her daughter how to cook, only to give up.
“I’ll have you know I like to cook. Sometimes.”
Based on the look on her face, even she didn’t believe that lie.
I raised an eyebrow. “When’s the last time you cooked something that wasn’t eggs, toast, or oatmeal?”
“I made pancakes with you, remember?”
Oh I remembered. Then we ate them in bed naked before having each other for dessert. It was only four days ago but it already felt like one of those memories that popped up at the most inconvenient time.
“I made the pancakes, you stirred the batter and asked me why I was spending so much time heating up the griddle.”
“Oh my God are we really going to argue about pancakes?” she asked impatiently.
“If you’re such a good cook, why don’t you make me dinner sometime?” I dared.
“You think I can’t?”
“Totally,” I shot back. “I bet you can’t cook anything that doesn’t come out of a box.”
“Fine, come to dinner tomorrow night at six and I’ll cook you something box-free to show you how wrong you are.”
“Fine. But you can’t just pick up something from the hot bar at Whole Foods and pretend like you cooked it.”
“I don’t make enough money to shop at Whole Foods.”
“Okay. Bye.” I stomped out of the room, then stuck my head back in. “I don’t know where you live.”
She sighed impatiently. “I’ll text you my address later.”
I rushed back out of the conference room, nearly running into our QA Manager Rochelle. She nodded at Chris, who was still in the room watching through the window.
“Hey, how’s your partner?”
“Chris is not my partner,” I said firmly. “We don’t even like each other, there’s no way we could have a relationship. The very idea is ridiculous.”
I had the sudden urge to sew my mouth shut.
Rochelle tilted her head, giving me a quizzical look. “I thought you two were partnered on that big grant application?”
That’s when I remembered that she’d given us some information for the application and knew that we were working on. Now I’d gone and made things weird.
“Oh yeah, sorry I already forgot about that grant.”
“Gina said you just turned it in.” Rochelle was looking at me like she was starting to grow concerned about my mental health.
“Well you know me, I like to move on when I finish a project. No sense being worried about the past when there’s so much to do in the future.”
Chris walked out of the conference room, and I met her eyes over Rochelle’s shoulder. She looked like she was trying not to laugh at me.
I took a few steps back and inched away towards the lobby.
“Anyway, I need to get back to the shelter. We’re enrolling a new family today and I have no idea what they’re going to need. I’ll see you guys later. I mean, I’ll see you when I see you. I know none of us have plans for anything. So I’ve gotta go. To the shelter. Bye now.”
Rochelle’s eyes widened at my babbling, but she didn’t stop me as I rushed off, my heart pounding as I realized that I’d made a total fool of myself.
The question was why was Chris still throwing me off my game? And why on Earth had I manipulated her into inviting me for dinner? Clearly I’d lost my mind.