I smiled. “I have no plans for that.”
“You know, you talk about how it would do Haley some good to take time for herself and be single. Maybe it would doyousome good to start putting yourself out there for more than just theseflingsyou have.”
My cheeks heated. I was very open about my personal life with most people, but hearing mymomuse me and the termflingsin the same sentence was a little too fucking weird for my liking. I chuckled awkwardly. “Really, Ma?”
“I’m serious.” She smiled. “Don’t you want to find someone to settle down with?”
“No,” I answered without hesitation. “I just don’t have any desire for that. I like my life and how things are.” Minus the fact that I currently lacked a sex life, but I wasn’t going to tell her that and make things even more fucking weird than this conversation already was for me.
My mom shook her head with a wistful smile. “You’re so much like your father when it comes to change…”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that you don’t like it. You balk at the idea of it and slightly panic.”
“I do not balkorpanic,” I scoffed. “I just know what I want. And it’s not a relationship.”
“I have a feeling that one of these days, someone is going to come along and throw you and your entire world off its axis.” She chuckled. “And you’re not going to know what to do with yourself because you’re not going to know what hit you.”
“Don’t hold your breath, Ma.” I shook my head with a smile. “I’m pretty hard to catch by surprise.”
Chapter 6
I grumbledas I opened my car door, popping my umbrella open before getting out. October started out chillier than normal, and the rain that had been nonstop the last couple of days made it damp and feel even worse. It soured my mood more than it already was.
And it wassour.
When I walked into LSID, I grabbed one of the umbrella bags, fighting to get my umbrella in it the whole way to my office before finally giving up and chucking it in the corner behind the door when I walked inside. My eyes landed on my desk, and a sweet cream cold brew with three pumps of cinnamon dolce topped with cinnamon powder from my favorite café sat waiting for me.Bless him. I sat in my chair and grabbed the cup, closing my eyes as I took a large sip.
Lucas had been sending me this drink every morning for the last few weeks. The week after learning Callie was back, the man stalked me every day, pleading with me to help him get through to Callie so she would talk to him. I’dshut him down with harsh words and hadn’t planned on giving him the time of day, but I finally relented and was willing to hear him out. In the end, I didn’t offer to help, per se, but said I wouldn’t try to persuade her against it if she wanted to talk to him. He took it, willing to take whatever crumbs he could get, and even after his sucking up was over, he continued sending me my morning drink.
The truth was, I knew Lucas wasn’t that bad of a guy. Over the last few years, there were times I had to remind myself that I was supposed to hate him by default for hurting my best friend because he was always so goddamn nice, even when I was being a bitch for reasons he wasn’t aware of. And after hearing him out a couple of weeks ago, I knew he wasn’t bullshitting me when he said he was still in love with Callie. She was going through a lot at the moment, so I wasn’t going to push her to talk to him if she wasn’t ready, but there was a part of me—the hopeless romantic in me that was hanging on by an ever-fraying thread—that hoped she mightsomedaygive him another chance.
After gulping down half of my drink in hopes of giving myself some much-needed energy, I opened my laptop.
I worked at Life Styled Interior Design for a few years now. I was one of the first designers Grace Halloway hired to work under her, and not to toot my own horn, but I was damn good at my job. After proving myself with a few big projects, I became one of the company’s top designers, save for Grace herself.
Today was the only day that week I was in the office and not working onsite on a project, so I planned to play catch up with calls and emails, check in with my contractors, and make sure things were on schedule like they were supposed to be.
Except, that’s not what happened at all.
I received a phone call that the tile for one of my projectswas placed on an indeterminate backorder. It meant I would have to reselect another tile and delay the installation until it arrived. It would push back our completion date, making it run into a new project I had on my schedule to start.
After making some calls and sucking up to my contractors hard enough to buy me a few more weeks to get a new tile delivered, I received word from our stone fabricator that one of the marble slabs we ordered for a different project was damaged in transit. That meant another delay and even more rescheduling. It was a logistical nightmare.
Needless to say, I was so over today.
I went to our employee lounge and grabbed a bottle of water to wash down some ibuprofen for the headache I could feel coming. As I walked back down the hall toward my office, Grace poked her head out of hers. “Morgan!” she called out, stopping me as I walked by. “Can you come in here for a minute? I just need another set of eyes on this.”
“Sure.”
I stepped into her office and moved to her work table, where she had several hand sketches scattered across it, piles of fabric swatches, and carpet and wood finish samples. “I’ve been looking at these for hours, and I’m losing my damn mind.” She picked up the plans and unrolled them across the table on top of everything to show me the existing floor plans for the office space.
“This is the Cliffhouse project?”
“Yeah. I just need someone else’s opinion. This is what I was thinking…” She grabbed a pencil off the table. “I was initially going to put the seating area here”—she did a quick sketch of chairs over an area of the plans—“but I feel like we have to utilize this full wall for the backdrop behind the lobby desk. But ifI move the seating area over here”—she tapped the pencil over another area—“it disrupts the flow of traffic coming through this entrance. I also feel we should keep the view out of these windows as the primary focal point, but that leaves anybody checking in with their backs to the water.”
I spent the next hour helping Grace work through options for what she needed and figuring out a plan she was happy with moving forward.
