12. Kate
My cubicle seems even more drab than usual as I drop my purse in the bottom drawer of my desk, plunk down in my rolling office chair, and heave a sigh. I should have stopped for a latte on my way into the office this morning, but that seemed like way too much effort, so I drag myself back up on my feet and head to the breakroom.
“Kate!” my boss booms the second I round the corner, my nose scrunching at the familiar scent of scorched coffee. “Just the girl I wasn’t expecting back so soon.”
I wince and mumble, “Morning,” because there’s not an ounce of fight left in me after the whirlwind of emotions of the past few days and long drive home alone last night.
“Don’t tell me that tropical depression cleared your location that quickly,” he says, filling his Trust me, I’m a meteorologist mug.
“The dissipation hadn’t quite passed,” I admit, pushing away the mental image of Aiden asleep on the floor as I slipped out and left the lifeguard tower behind.
I thought getting back to Miami, back to my routine, would insulate me from the sting of seeing Aiden again, but maybe, it’ll take more than twenty-four hours to get over what happened.
“Well, I know you didn’t rush back for anything on the home front,” my boss chuckles, shuffling aside as I snatch a Styrofoam coffee cup from the stack on the counter and ignore the insult.
This man might be my boss, but he has no right to know my reasons for hitting the road and putting Love Beach in the rearview mirror as fast as I did.
“I was able to obtain all the data, and the transducers were still reporting as of last night.” I lift my chin daring him to suggest I’m not just as capable as the senior field staff.
“And you did it all without managing to put yourself in danger, I see,” he replies, as if he wasn’t entirely convinced I wouldn’t get hurt in the field. How is he a director again?
“Actually, sir,” I start, considering a topic I mulled over a good chunk of the way home. “I’d like to talk to you about the field positions in Charleston.”
He cocks a bushy eyebrow. “That so?”
I nod as if my, “Yes,” alone isn’t enough.
Being out in the field confirmed it’s where I belong. In the sun and elements, not squirreled away in a stuffy office building with its recirculated air and hideous fluorescent lights.
“All right. Be ready to debrief the team first thing Monday morning and we can talk about it after that.” He shuffles toward the door and adds over his shoulder on his way out, “I’ll be interested to dig into the data and see how it compares to the prediction models.”
“Yes, sir,” I reply, filling my cup with the steaming hit of caffeine I no longer quite need to face the day.
Although I’ve only sat through a handful of debriefs from my more senior coworkers when they returned from tracking a storm, I was always envious. Their first-hand accounts were always informative, and the preliminary data was fascinating, especially when we were able to recommend adjustments to models that might save lives in the future.
But an hour later, as I stare at my monitor and attempt to put together some slides for Monday, I’m more weary than anything.
Maybe, it’s the half-full cup of cold coffee. Or the drab cubicle wasteland, dozens of yards from the sun shining through the windows. Not that I saw much sun in Love Beach. And the weather wasn’t exactly enjoyable, but it felt so good to be back in my hometown, despite the Aiden situation.
Or maybe, because of it.
I push off from my desk and head toward the stairwell. I need to get some blood circulating. And some fresh air. I grab my cell and consider calling Aunt Donna but decide against it. She tried to get me to stay yesterday. Tried to convince me not to leave town so quickly. But I had to.
Though I would have loved to spend more time with her, I couldn’t bear to see Aiden again and didn’t want to admit aloud I’m that girl. The one who still loves the boy who broke her heart years ago. The girl now gone for the man who doesn’t love her.
I don’t regret what happened in the lifeguard tower during the storm, but in order to preserve my self-respect, I had to put it behind me. Put him behind me once and for all.
Because even though I thought those were feelings I sensed in him, simmering under the surface in every glance he shot my way, every touch between us, every kiss that made my world spin, I was wrong. Because if he really felt like I thought he did he would have said something in the hours we had together, right?
I push through the gray stairwell door into the lobby and make for the sunshine flooding in through the glass doors. The receptionist calls out my name across the open space as my heels click on the floor. I’m tempted to keep going, pretend I didn’t hear, but something in her tone stops me. The few minutes of solitude I desperately need will have to wait.
I grit my teeth, force a tight smile, and spin around. And then nearly drop my phone. Because Aiden Landry is at the counter, here at NTSI headquarters in Miami. And he looks like hell.