I can’t help snorting. “And wanting to date my dad’s best friend is?”
Her lips quirk. “Touché.” She takes another sip of her coffee. “Good luck with that.”
The only thing stopping me from grabbing the nearest cushion and lobbing it at her is the fact that I don’t want to risk her spilling her hot drink all over herself. “Why are you my best friend, again?”
***
I can’t bring myself to cancel my date with Brad via text, so I wait until we’re both in the office on Monday morning. Valentine’s Day falls on a Thursday this year, so I’m still giving him the better part of a week’s notice. He’s tall and dark haired, with deep brown eyes and gorgeous dimples — I don’t think he’ll have any trouble finding a replacement date in that time.
“I’m so sorry,” I say effusively, after stammering and blushing through my awkward cancellation ramble. “You’re a great guy,but I’m…a hot mess, really, and you’re actually dodging a bullet here.”
Brad laughs and leans his shoulder against the wall next to the photocopier, where I accosted him due to the semi-privacy of the out-of-the-way location in our office.
“Code,” he says soothingly, not sounding at all frustrated or insulted, “it’s okay. Really. But, for what it’s worth, I think you’re underselling yourself.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew my whole deal,” I grumble, then hold up my hand to forestall the rebuttal I can sense coming. “But no, that’s not going to happen. I just…you seem too nice to lead on, or whatever. And I don’t want to fuck up our working relationship.”
“I appreciate that,” he says. Then, in the weird silence that follows, says, “Tell the other guy he’d better know how lucky he is.”
My eyes go wide and my cheeks heat up. I don’t even bother pretending he’s got it wrong. “How—?”
“There’salwaysanother guy, honey.” He pushes off the wall and gives my shoulder a squeeze on his way past me. “But don’t count me out if he’s not smart enough to see what a catch you are, okay?”
I’m left stunned by the exchange, blinking at the display on the copier as though it can tell me exactly what the fuck just happened.
***
During the week, I pick up my phone to text or call Ken at least a hundred times, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Just like I needed to tell him in person about making the date, I want to tell him about canceling it in person as well.
We don’t really talk between Monday and Thursday, though, and the opportunity to see him doesn’t magically materialize. We still send each other GIFs and memes, but there aren’t any phone calls or impromptu venting sessions. I wonder how much of that is because he’s genuinely busy at work, and how much is because we’re both cowardly dumbasses refusing to make the first move.
Not that he knows I’m available or open to him making a move.
So, maybe I’m the more cowardly dumbass in this scenario.
That checks out.
On Thursday, I get a little braver in the morning and, instead of sending my usual work-related meme, I send a single emoji of a red rose.
I don’t get a reply until after I’ve finished work, but I kind of expected as much. Valentine’s Day is a big day for retail chains and, as the CEO, he’s surely been in important meetings and on and off calls all day. Still, when the reply comes in and it’s a single red love heart, my own heart races and leaps into my throat.
Then a plan begins to form.
His whole idea when we started our arrangement was for me to become confident, right?
Chapter Fifteen
Cody leaves my heart emoji on read.
I don’t know what I expected, but I feel simultaneously relieved and heartbroken on my lonely drive back to my apartment. I worked late again, as I had anticipated, but the sales reports that came in from our stores around the country mostly met our national targets. I’ve highlighted a few locations which have underperformed over the past two holiday periods, and I’ve made a note to focus on ways to improve our profitability in those areas.
At least I’m feeling good about one thing in my life. Two, actually, if you count my cat.
Basil greets me with unexpected affection when I finally enter my apartment, winding around my ankles and purring loudly.
“Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too,” I tell him, before I check that his water bowl and automatic food dispenser don’t need replenishing.
I reheat a meal of yesterday’s takeout and drop onto my couch to watch something mindless on Netflix. I studiously avoidrewatching old episodes ofEldertide, not needing any reminders of Cody tonight.
