“Guess who I had lunch with today?” I say before taking a bite.
“Who?”
“Gavin.”
Unamused Chase is amusing.
“I was at The Wet Whistle before I was supposed to get Kennedy at school?—”
“Yeah, I’m sorry for not telling you she was going home with Neve. It slipped my mind.”
I shrug. “It’s fine. No harm, no foul.”
He grimaces and goes back to his dinner.
“Anyway, I was eating,” I say, “and Gavin walks in. We had an interesting little chat.”
“What about?”
I grin. “Gavin stuff.”
He scoffs. “That sounds like a headache to me.” He takes another bite. “Did Luke come by today?”
“Not while I was here. You know, I’ve yet to meet the infamous Luke.”
“You’re not missing much.”
“I don’t know. You and Gavin are two-for-two on the interesting level.” I open my can of Sprite. “Apparently, I’m interesting too, though, because my former boss, Dorothy, just offered me my job back.”
“Oh?” He chews slower. “You gonna take it?”
I sigh, falling back against the pillows. “Honestly? I don’t know.”
“Did you like working there?”
“Well, that’s tricky. On the one hand, I loved it. I got to travel all over the world and attend events and meet all kinds of people. But, on the other hand … no. I didn’t. Not really—not thoroughly.”
Chase places his beer on the end table. The sound of the can hitting the wood dings through the room.
The light overhead is dim—something I haven’t noticed about the living room until now. The room is pretty dark without the television's light, the sun's rays from the window, or the lamp by the fireplace.
“What was the worst part of the job?” he asks.
“Well, I guess it was just the loneliness of being on the West Coast alone. Mom won’t leave Dallas—which is ridiculous on somany levels. But I get it. Her life is there; she shouldn’t have to uproot all that for me.”
Although, I wish she would.
“But you liked California?” he asks.
“It was lovely. I don’t think it’s for me, per se. So many people. So much garbage. Never a dark sky or a quiet evening—two things I didn’t know I loved until I came here.”
We exchange a grin.
“So what did you love about your job?” he asks before taking another bite.
I set my plate on a box and then curl my feet up under me.
“My favorite thing was the traveling,” I say. “I saw so many incredible places—Morocco, Greece, Peru. Iceland was amazing. Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont in the fall were stunning.”
