“You okay?” Jana asks, looking up at me from her laptop.
I search around our office, hoping to find David.
“If you’re wondering where David is, he came and left,” she answers without me having to ask.
I turn to face her so fast that I knock over my coffee cup. I pick it up quickly—thank goodness for the lid. “He left?”
She nods. “He was walking out the door when I came in about a half hour ago. Didn’t say a word as he walked past me. What happened?”
I plop down in my chair like a big blob of nothing, exhausted from this weekend and not sure what to do now. “Let’s just say, he found out who I was and that I had known, but not told him.”
She closes her laptop, knowing I need her full attention. “Ouch … I take it he didn’t take that well?”
I shake my head. “Nope.” I pop thePto clarify just how bad he took it.
“Have you talked to him since then?”
“Sure haven’t. He walked out from the bar Saturday night when he found out, saying, ‘I just can’t.’”
I close my eyes, willing the tears to not fall again when I hear Christina say, “Zoe, do you have a minute?”
I open my eyes to see Jana staring at me with her eyebrows raised. My heart explodes in my chest, and I have to sit here for a few breaths to figure out if my body can even manage to exist right now.
“Go,” she whispers, and I jump up, realizing I can indeed still move, no matter how much it hurts to do so.
I look up to the ceiling, praying my eyes aren’t red from all the crying this weekend or from the tears that were just threatening to fall now.
“Yes, Christina?” I ask, keeping my distance as I stand in her doorway, hoping this is a quick conversation.
She’s sitting at her desk without her laptop open, just waiting for me to enter. “Please, come in and have a seat.”
My heart pounds so hard that I can hardly breathe. I take a seat and force my eyes to meet hers, but don’t say anything.
“David just took himself off the project. He said all of his data work is complete and that you can handle everything else. He says he wants to take the next two weeks off for his sister’s wedding. Want to tell me why he really just took an unexpected two-week vacation when his original plan was to only take two days off for the wedding?”
I close my eyes because I can no longer keep the tears from falling down my face.
“I’m sorry that what happened came between him and his work and that it’s affecting your business. I promise I didn’t mean for any of this.” I drop my chin to my chest and cry uncontrollably.
She walks around her desk, handing me a tissue and surprising the hell out of me by sitting next to me in the other available chair. “No. I’m sorry. I have an admission I need to make.”
I look at her, not sure if what I just heard is correct or if my mind is playing tricks on me. “I’m sorry, but what?” I try to keep this professional, but I guess crying at my boss’s desk threw that all out the window.
“I know you think I’m this harsh businesswoman who, I’ll admit, can be a little scary at times,” she starts, and I let out a laugh since that is the understatement of the year, then instantly regret when I see the expression she flashes me.
I wipe my eyes just so I don’t have to look at her.
“I’m going to tell you a personal story. Are you okay with that?”
I nod because what else am I supposed to do? I’ve both admired and feared this woman since the day I started here, and seeing this side of her is nothing I ever expected.
“You remind me a lot of myself when I was your age,” she begins.
“I do?”
She gives me a soft grin, not something she does often. “Yeah. Your determination, your creativity.” She levels her eyes with mine. “And your stubbornness.”
I chuckle under my breath, knowing she’s right.
