Chapter Fourteen
2017
Chase
I’d thought going after Erica years ago was the answer to all my problems, but it seemed to be the start of it. No matter how many late night work sessions we went to or how many lunches I took her on, nothing ever changed. She never lingered in my presence like I did with her. I even thought one day at my desk when she was leaning over me that I might be able to turn my head and let our lips touch, but I thought against it. She wasn’t showing that she wanted anything more than friends and it killed me.
I never understood how over my head I was in all of this until I watched as Marcus, one of the illustrators that started the same time Erica did, asked her on a date one day when I was in the break room at work.
I watched from across the room, trying to hide myself against the counter, making myself a cup a coffee, pretending not to eavesdrop on their conversation. I listened as he joked with her and her laugh filled the air and then he so confidently asked her to go to dinner with him that night.
The second the words had come out of his mouth I was grateful I didn’t have anything in my hand but the wood stirrer that I dropped into my cup of coffee on accident. I didn’t try to retrieve it as my body froze in motion, waiting for her answer.
Lucky for me, she’d said no. But with that, I’d watched as she’d pulled out the chair next to him, telling him that dating him wasn’t something she saw between them. She never once said that dating wasn’t her thing, though, and a spark of hope filled me. But then a sprinkle of dread still lingered with me that if I asked her that question, she might say the exact same thing.
It had been a total of four years trying to get Erica and today was the first time I’d witnessed someone else trying to go for what I wanted and I hated the feeling. Screw the possibility of her turning me down, because now I just had to know.
She’d told Marcus that dating him wasn’t what she saw, but what about dating me? We knew each other well enough and saw each other every weekend to climb Stone Mountain. Maybe she could learn to see something between us if I just asked her. The worst that could happen would be that she turned me down just like she had with Marcus. But deep down, that had been the fear that had prevented this exact thing from happening for so many years.
So here I was, sitting at Max’s apartment with a glass of scotch in my hand, trying to nurse away the headache that started forming when I had started thinking about a plan to ask her out. I’d never asked a girl, or even a woman out before, so I had no idea where to start.
“What was so important that you felt the need to come over here at one in the morning?”
Max rubbed his eyes and plopped down on the couch next to me. He was in only his boxers and I was lucky enough that when I showed up unannounced, Alexa, Max’s fiancée, wasn’t here. Most likely, she was working late at the office again. She had been doing that since Max gave her her own portion of the company to publish romance novels. One time I found her passed out at her desk. Since then, Max put in a couch in her office, just in case.
“I need your advice.”
“Well, that’s a first.” He mocked and raised an eyebrow at me.
“I’m being serious, Max.”
He shifted in his place and ran a hand over his face.
“Fine, what’s going on?”
“It’s about Erica.”
“Fucking finally. Are you going to do something about that? Because I’m tired of seeing you walk around that office like a lost puppy.”
“Fuck off, man, this is serious.”
“I am being serious.” Max leaned forward and placed his head in his hands and elbows on his knees. He looked more in distress than I was. “Listen, I want you to be happy, but I’m tired of this run around you’ve got going on. No one else really knows except the guys and me, but fuck, dude, if you don’t do something soon, someone else is going to swoop in.”
“Already almost happened.”
“See!” Max threw his hands in the air. He was always one to use his whole body when talking, but me, I just stayed calm and in one spot, listening and answering. “You could lose her.”
“But I didn’t. She said no, so I need to know what to do so that doesn’t happen again.”
“The her saying no part or someone asking her again?”
The smirk that crossed Max’s face made me want to slap him, but right now I needed him. He was always good with women and it’s not like I could go to Jack without getting Greg involved as well.
“It’s more than what you think, Max.”
“What, that you’ve loved this girl since college?” He clearly remembered when I gave him the hint at the Christmas party years ago.
“Longer.”
