Josh folded a slice in half. I watched the grease funnel down into his napkin. “We lived in Sherman Oaks when I was a little kid, but then my folks moved to Hawaii.”
“Hawaii?”
He took a bite, chewed through it. “I know. Everyone always asks me what growing up there was like, but honestly it’s not that different from everywhere else.”
“I feel like that was true of Malibu, too. The Palisades was suburban but still close to the ocean. People would ask me if I surfed all the time.”
“Did you?”
“Not well.”
Josh smiled, wiped his mouth. “Do you miss it?”
“The ocean?”
Josh shrugged. “Home.”
I took a small bite of pizza. “Not right now.”
Josh laughed. “One thing that’s nice about the start-up life is that it doesn’t matter that San Francisco sucks, you never have time to hang out in it anyway.”
“So is work what you do for fun?”
Jake smiled. “Indeed,” he said. “I’m honestly not sure I could sketch my apartment from memory. I broke up with someone last year, and my life has been kind of all work since.” He looked at me, alarmed. “Sorry if that’s too much information.”
“That you’re single?” I asked. “I can handle it.”
Flext’s office was incredibly close-knit—everyone was friends. It felt halfway between pulling an all-nighter in college and summer camp. Both things I had, confessionally, enjoyed. I loved the energy of it. Whole hours would go by where I’d forget the past two years.
I was the one who asked Josh out first.
We were at a company happy hour, at a karaoke bar not too far from my apartment, as it turned out. It was called Karaoke One, and it had a neon sign that read:OPEN YOUR WALLET. YOUR MOUTH IS YOUR CHOICE.
We got a room in the back that was covered in geometric-print wallpaper. It would have made me feel claustrophobic if I hadn’tkicked that fear somewhere around my eighth MRI scan—being forced into small, confined spaces regularly made me adapt.
Josh got up to sing a Pat Benatar song. I liked him, that much I knew. I liked his ease, and how down-to-earth he seemed. It had been two weeks since the paper, and my crush had fully bloomed. I felt it was reciprocated, but it was hard to tell. Josh was a good boss and a great role model. I knew he’d never make the first move.
“?‘We are young,’?” Josh sang.
Tanaz cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered into my ear.
“He’s cute, huh?” she said to me.
I was staring.
“Yes.” I didn’t see the point in denying it. People met at work sometimes, didn’t they?
“He was so torn up about his ex last year he barely came around. He seems happier since you got here.” She smiled at me. “When you have so few people in the office, one person can really change the dynamic. And I think you changed ours in a great way.” It was the longest conversation we’d ever had.
“?‘Searching our hearts for so long.’?”
Someone handed me a beer. I took a swig. The bar was loud, and our room was small and crowded and hot. Everyone was sweating. I loved it.
“?‘Love is a battlefield.’?”
When Josh passed the mic off to Janelle, he came down to Tanaz and me.
“How much did that suck?” he asked.
