Blinking away tears, I let my head fall back. I can’t believe I fucked this up so badly in such a short span of time.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I force myself to look. Whatever he’s got to say, I deserve it.
Don’t do that. I’m not offended.
Adrenaline races through me, leaving me a little lightheaded. Does he mean it?
And yeah, it does come in handy sometimes. Not at work, though. Everyone here knows me too well.
I swallow hard and make myself think through my response.
Oh? Are you the guy who lets someone else take the last doughnut?
Hell, no! When it comes to pastry and coffee, all bets are off. But they all know I’m mostly bark, not bite.
They joke that grunting is my second language.
I laugh out loud, then glance at the closed door, worried that someone might have heard. Not sure why—I’m allowed to laugh. If someone did hear and came in to ask what was so funny, I could tell them, and they wouldn’t think anything of it. Fuck anxiety and the way it makes me worry about things needlessly.
lol so you’re partly nonverbal too. I sense the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Damn. I bite my lip as the status immediately changes toRead. Maybe that was pushy. He’s still a client, after all, and we barely know each other. I need to be more profe?—
Can’t deny, it’d be nice to hang with someone besides Vivi who doesn’t expect me to use words for no reason ;P
The sudden bite of jealousy surprises me, but… who’s Vivi? A girlfriend? Disappointment slithers through me. I knew I found Griff attractive, but I didn’t realize part of me really was thinking he and I could maybe be more than friends. It’s not like I have feelings for him.
But at least friendship is still on the table. And hey… we’re joking around together! Giddiness swirls through me. I turned that shitshow of a meeting that made me nonverbal into a new friend.
Emboldened by my achievement, I ask
Who’s Vivi? She sounds cool.
It takes a ridiculous amount of time for him to reply even though I can see that he’s typing. Either his relationship withVivi is complicated and needs a huge backstory—which, not gonna lie, I’m totally here for—or he doesn’t want to tell me and he’s trying to come up with something to say.
My dog
Even as silly inner me perks up at the news that he doesn’t have a girlfriend after all, a photo of the cutest damn dog I’ve ever seen appears on my screen, and I can’t stop my “Aww.” Not that I’d want to. I’m never going to feel bad about appreciating a sweet pupper.
OMG she’s so cute! She’s a terrier of some kind, right?
Yorkie—Yorkshire terrier. We’re pretty sure she’s a cross of some kind, since we don’t know who the father was, but so far she seems to be mostly Yorkie.
Is her mom yours too?
No, friend of a friend’s dog got knocked up. Vivi was the runt, so they kept her around. Then she and I met at a cookout and fell in love. That was nearly four years ago.
Oh my god, this is too precious.
Vivi’s such an unusual name for a dog. It suits her, but what made you choose it?
There’s another suspiciously long delay. He might be working, but I can’t help thinking he just doesn’t want to answer. It wasn’t a hard question, though.
I sit back in my chair and think about it. A Yorkshire terrier named Vivi. Almost four years old. Runt of the litter. Friend of a friend…. Maybe he named her after an ex or something? But why would that be a big deal? It’s not like I’d know his ex.
Or would I?
I’m pretty sure I’ve never met anyone called Vivi, but that can be short for something else. Viviana, Vivette, Vivienne?—
