He turned back to look at me. His hair was tousled from where I had tugged on it, and his lips were still swollen from kissing me. Even in my anxiety, I felt breathless from how hot he looked.
Get your fill now. You’re probably never going to see him again now that you’re fired…The tears were threatening to fall again at the thought of never seeing Jay again.
“Milo, why don’t you head home? I need to talk to Sebastian for a minute.”
I stood there, frozen and shaking, my eyes so wide I knew Jay could see how much my anxiety was eating me alive.
Completely ignoring Sebastian, he brushed my hair back behind my ear and straightened out my now slightly crooked glasses.
“Go home, Milo. Everything’s going to be okay. Wait up for me. I’ll find you when I get back.” He spoke low enough that Sebastian couldn’t hear him and gave me a reassuring smile.
“Uhm—”
“It’s okay. Please, go.”
I nodded and awkwardly fumbled with my glasses, pushing them farther up my nose.
“Yeah, okay.” Shuffling away from Jay, I shot a quiet‘sorry’to Sebastian as I passed him.
He only frowned at me, pursing his lips into a firm line, and my anxiety intensified.
Once I was out of the bar, I nearly ran home.
I tripped and fell twice, scrapping my palms on the asphalt, and by the time I turned onto Amygdala Ave, I’d lost the battle with my tears, and I was crying.
I was so stupid.
Why couldn’t I just be normal foronce?
I always messed everything up.
Now I was going to lose my dream job, and probably my only friend, because I was a pathetic loser who couldn’t be cool for even one second.
NOVA greeted me as I stumbled into my cube, but I ignored her, collapsing into my couch and curling up into myself.
In my dark cube with no one but NOVA to see, I broke down and mourned the loss of both Jay and the job I’d dreamed of for my whole life.
“You have a visitor!” NOVA chimed happily an hour later. Her pretty voice cut through my pity party, and I sniffed, frowning up at her speaker that was built into my ceiling.
“Wh-what?”
“Jay Reynolds, Chief Memory Therapy Research Officer, would like to pay you a visit. Should I let him in?”
I sat up on the couch and glanced at the door to my cube. I could see the shadow of what could only be Jay, waiting quietly on my porch.
He was here to fire me. Ugh. This was it. My life was officially over.
I wanted to tell NOVA to send him away so I could cling a little longer to the idea of being a Neurovance Memory Therapy Researcher, but I knew I couldn’t.
I had to face the music.
“Yeah. Let him in,” I said, wiping my tears away hastily from under my glasses.
NOVA unlocked the door, and I watched from the couch as it swung inwards, revealing Jay in his full glory.
In one hand, he was holding a tiny bouquet of bright periwinkle forget-me-nots. In the other hand, he had a small can of some sort of drink with the Neurovance logo on it.
His gaze anxiously scanned my cube until he spotted me huddled in a pathetic little ball on the couch, and his entire body deflated.
