“Oh, please. It’s nothing,” I said, trying—and failing—to hide my smile. I couldn’t help it. I liked hearing that.
“Finally ditched the dirty blonde,” she said. “This color suits you way better. You look fresher.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just wanted a change.”
“Hey,” Jessica said casually, “are you coming this Saturday?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Just me and Haille.”
Her eyes widened. “Wait, Adrian can’t make it?”
“No,” I said. “Work came up. He had to go to a site.”
“Aww, that sucks. You won’t be able to join the competition then,” she sighed dramatically. “There goes our division’s ace. We’re definitely losing.”
“Then you watch my kid if you want to win that badly,” I shot back.
She laughed. “Please, dealing with my own kids later is already going to be chaos.”
“I’ll do it,” Harley suddenly chimed in from his seat.
“Oh please,” Jessica scoffed. “You’d be terrified.”
“Not a chance,” Harley said proudly. “I’m everyone’s favorite uncle.”
I rolled my eyes.
Just then, my phone buzzed. I glanced at the screen, it was Adrian, video calling. I frowned slightly. Lately, he’d been video calling me more often during work hours. Even if it was brief, he checked in a lot.
I raised a hand slightly toward Jessica and Harley, signaling that I was on a call.
“Yeah?” I answered, lightly fiddling with my coffee cup as I took the call.
“Hey,” Adrian said. Behind him was the airport waiting lounge.
“Hey. What’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “Just checking in. What are you up to?”
“Not much, just chatting with Jess,” I replied.
“Hellooo,” Jessica called out from behind me. “Relax, your wife is actually working.”
I turned my head toward her. “What is wrong with you?”
Adrian laughed softly at that.
“Alright then,” he said. “Have a good day at work, baby.”
“You too,” I replied, ending the call.
Jessica raised an eyebrow. “Wow. He suddenly calling you like that.”
“He does that all the time,” I said with a small shrug.
She smirked. “Must be missing you.”
“It’s not even been a day,” I replied. “Hardly enough time to start missing anyone.”
