Oh No… It’s You

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Zoe

“That’s it. I’ve had enough. Pour me a drink and kiss me good night. I’m done,” I state with a definitive tone, tossing my purse down on the chair next to me and sitting at the high-top table where all my friends are already two drinks deep.

“Hey, look who decided to show up,” Macy, my best friend since I was in seventh grade, teases as she slides her newly poured drink in front of me.

I don’t even bother asking what it is when I pick it up and down it, letting drips of it slide off my lips and onto my shirt, not caring one bit since my shirt is black and I know it won’t show.

“Damn,” Macy squeals out. “It’s been that kind of day, huh?”

I slam the glass on the table, wipe my mouth—very unladylike, I might add—and turn to her. “Jack and Seven?” I ask, finally tasting the liquid therapy I just drank. “Did you have a shitty day too?”

She sighs. “Welcome to the table of misery. I’m Macy”—she places her hand on her chest—“your co-host for the night.” She points to our other friends, sitting across the table from us.

“Candace and Chasity are our ears to listen to our bitching and our judges to tell us how fucked up the world is around us.”

I lean my head on her shoulder, and with a pleading tone, I say, “Then I’m sorry I drank your therapy.”

She laughs as she raises her hand, holding up two fingers, then makes a circle motion to the bartender, meaning to bring two of the same drink he just made.

Most people probably wouldn’t know what she meant, but the bartender is her little brother, Joey, so he knows us well enough to not even question what’s going on.

I glance over at him and give a little wave. He nods his acceptance of the drink order, so I sit up straight, take a deep breath, and move my hands starting at my face then pushing outward, like I’m trying to get rid of the bad vibes I walked in with.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Candace asks.

Before I can answer, Joey walks over and places two drinks in front of us. I give him puppy-dog eyes and pout my lip at him.

“Thank you,” I sigh.

“Maybe don’t down this one in two-point-three seconds. It is only Monday,” he says playfully with a shrug, bringing his hands up to the sides before turning to Candace and Chasity. “You guys still good?”

Candace nods, but I don’t miss the way he and Chasity stare at each other for a second too long before she replies, “I’m good.”

He winks at her, and I instantly raise my eyebrows in question, only for her to turn quickly, pretending a noise caught her attention. I tuck that little bit of info in the back of my mind to ask her about it later, then go back to trying to ease my pain from another awful day.

“So, was it David again who has driven you to drink?” Macy asks.

“You know it!” I pick up my glass to cheers the air and take another sip, then set it down in front of me so I don’t continue to drink it as fast as the last one.

“Why is that guy such an ass?” Candace asks.

“I truly think he is the son of Satan and takes full pleasure in making my life a living hell,” I reply before crossing my arms on the table and dropping my head down on them.

I feel my hair fall forward, slightly releasing from the pin holding it up. I love when Macy reaches over to fix it for me.

“Thank you,” I say, keeping my head down. Then I remember she had a shitty day, too, so I let out a breath and lift my head to ask her, “What about you? King George being a ruthless tyrant again?”

She picks up her drink, holding it up to clink mine, so I match her gesture, and we take another gulp together before setting the glasses back down.

Macy and I are both in our dream jobs with nightmare situations. With me, David is a coworker, but George is her boss. In my head, that doesn’t seem as bad of a situation, though in some aspects, it’s probably worse.

The four of us grew up together, went to college together, and are now living our quarter-life crisis together.

When we first entered college, we had so many hopeful thoughts of what life would be like by the time we were thirty. Now, all of us are staring down the big three-oh birthday, and none of us are where we thought we would be in our personal lives.

“So, what did the asshat do today?” Macy asks me.

I lift my head, close my eyes, and let out a huff. “You mean besides just existing?”

This gets me a chuckle from my girls as they wait for me to spill the details about my horrible day.

“Picture this.” I hold up my hands to be overdramatic in a cinematic display of my day.

“I approached our building a few seconds before my boss Christina this morning, so of course, I wanted to do the friendly thing and open the door for her, only I was holding my coffee and bagel that I’d treated myself to after staying up late to finish the campaign I was supposed to present today—which I was also holding, mind you.

When I see her hands are just as full as mine, I try to maneuver my drink to my other hand while holding the presentation under my arm, and just as I reach for the door, David comes around me, scaring me since I hadn’t known he was behind me, causing me to flinch and knock my drink all over myself and my presentation, which also fell to the floor, right at Christina’s feet. ”

Macy jumps to cover her mouth with her hands. “No. Did anything get on her?”

I pinch my lips together, and nod. “Yep. All over her Prada shoes.”

“Oh, Zoe. I’m so sorry.” Candace rubs her hand over mine.

“What did she say?” Chasity asks.

I drop my head as I admit, “She chastised me for not getting up early enough to finish my breakfast at home and said she’d be sending me a bill if they were ruined.”

“That bitch!” Macy yells out, making me laugh.

I shrug. “I can’t blame her. I’d be pissed, too, if someone did that to my shoes. It never would have happened if David hadn’t tried to reach around me like that. I had everything under control, but like always, he just appeared out of thin air to ruin my life.”

I lift up my finger, asking them to hold on while I take another sip of my drink that I desperately need before I continue.

“There’s more?” Macy asks.

I swallow, nod, then place my drink down.

“That’s not even the worst part. By the time I got everything situated and was able to enter our building, I walked over to the security desk, only to see all of my hard work ruined by the coffee spilled all over it.

You should have seen the smug expression on David’s face as he walked by, not saying a word.

” I clench my jaw in disgust, then take another drink.

“I hope you had a digital copy,” Candace says.

“Of course I did. But these were beautifully printed, enlarged copies that I’d paid extra for the rush job on this morning because I was trying to make an impression—show that I’d actually put in the elbow grease and not just run it through some AI bot.”

“Did they at least like your concept?” Macy asks gently. “I mean, they could still see the idea, right?”

“They did,” I reply with pride. “They actually loved it. The client was totally engaged, asked questions, said the concept was strong—right up until Jackass dimmed the lights and pulled up his presentation.”

I lift my head and glare at my empty glass like it’s personally responsible.

“Perfect slides. Animated mock-ups. A full digital walk-through. Everything sleek and glowing on that giant screen while my poor, coffee-stained prints sat on the table like a tragic art project. And then the client said, ‘We really like both, but his just feels more modern.’ ”

Chasity winces. “Of course it did.”

“So, now they’re going in his direction. Same general concept, just flashier.” I drop my head to the table and thump it once against the wood.

“Easy,” Chasity says, reaching over to support my head before I can do it again. “We need that brain for revenge later.”

I sit up, reach for my drink, realize it’s empty, and lift my hand to signal Joey. “Make it strong,” I call out. “I lost to PowerPoint.”

When I was hired to work for CR Marketing, I was absolutely over the moon.

I thought I had really made it, and from there, all my dreams would come true.

If only I had known just how hard this industry was.

I’m beginning to think the term cutthroat was created for jobs like this.

Clients either like your idea or they don’t, and when they don’t, they are quick to tell you and move on to the next.

If clients keep skipping over my ideas, I won’t be there much longer.

Moments later, Joey sets my drink down on the table and leans down to talk to us. “Now that I have a second to breathe, I wanted to ask you guys something. Do you remember that app Donny and I were working on?”

Macy jumps with excitement. “Is it finished?”

He nods, a small smile growing on his face. “Finally, yes. Which means we need people to start joining. You all are still in, right?”

Joey and his friend have been working on this dating app that he hopes will be the next big thing by offering a unique twist to the idea of being set up on a date.

Working in the bar industry, he’s noticed that most planned dates were happening because someone had set them up to meet there—a blind date.

Women like to play matchmaker, and men just like to get a chance to meet a nice girl, so they created an app to do just that.

The premise is, your friends get to set you up with who they think you’ll like by swiping the photo up to your name.

If friends for both the guy and the girl agree that they’ll like each other, the app matches them.

The kicker is, the guy or girl doesn’t get to see who their friends set them up with until they’ve been chatting for a while through the app.

No sending photos, no exchanging phone numbers, and no mentioning streets or businesses.

Just messages to get to know each other.

They’ve gone to extreme lengths with the coding to discourage people from exchanging phone numbers or meeting in person, and if they try, it will blur out that portion of the message.

The goal is to build actual relationships, not just hookups.

Once they have been talking on the app for at least seven days, the app asks the girl if it can notify the guy of her actual phone number to take their conversation off the app.

When he first told us about the idea, I thought it would be fun, getting to know someone through messages only, and knowing the guy had the stamp of approval from my friend just made it that much more interesting.

“I’m in,” I’m the first to state, slapping my hand on the table. “Lord knows I need some happiness back in my life.”

Everyone else agrees they’re still in, and Joey nods his head with a huge smile.

“Thanks, guys. I’ll have Donny send you all the link in the morning.”

“Glad to see his life is coming together, just as planned,” I say to Macy after he walks away.

She shakes her head with a huff. “Yours is too. You landed this job for a reason. You’re talented. Don’t let this one guy make you feel otherwise.”

I take another sip, trying to remember the good things in my life that don’t involve David White.