Our embrace was a real one. We were friends before I set her up with my boss. And I made a good choice when I decided to do that.
“Hi yourself,” she said. “Is he around?”
“Well, we’ve had some hiccups this week, and he left the floor a little bit ago to try and handle something. He should be back soon if you’d like to wait in his office.”
I was willing to bet he went to find Simon, to see if he was still in the building and try to talk him into staying. But I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
“Great, thanks,” Harper said as she made her way toward his door.
She didn’t make it two steps from me when the elevator dinged again. We both turned expecting to see Gage stepping off, only to see Chase.
“Hey, Harper,” he said. He wrapped her in a bear hug and lifted her off the ground.
She was hard not to like.
“Hi, Chase,” Harper said, and then laughed.
Chase put her down and guided her toward his brother’s office, maybe assuming Gage was inside. While doing so, he walked right by, ignoring me, as he followed Harper and closed the door.
I didn’t know why, but that really bothered me. For long moments I sat at my desk, staring at the closed door. As I tried to shake myself out of it, the elevator dinged once again.
“Hi, Gage. Harper and Chase are here. They’re waiting in your office.”
He sped up as he approached his office, a smile consuming him. The door closed as quickly as it had opened. I could hear his animated voice as he greeted the love of his life, the laughter loud between the three of them as they hung out.
And my heart broke a little more.
I felt left out, and I didn’t know why. These things, meetings like this, happened all the time and I was never privy to them.
I forced myself to get to work, trying to forget about the happiness taking place only feet away from me. As soon as I focused on my computer, the door flung open and the three of them came pouring from the room, laughing and talking.
Harper waved as Chase walked out with her.
Once again, he avoided me.
Another invisible slap.
What the fuck was my problem? Like seriously. I needed to grow up and make up my mind. He wasn’t going to sit around and wait for someone who kept turning him down. I knew he was still playing the field. Did I even want to consider being with someone who wasn’t ready for a real relationship?
“Maryellen?” My thoughts were interrupted by my boss standing outside his office door. “Can you come in? I’ve got some things we need to go over.”
“Of course, sir. I mean Gage.” He hated when I called him sir, and I still slipped up once in a while. As soon as I sat, we got to work.
“We need to plan a retirement party. I wouldn’t normally make a big deal about someone retiring, but it’s for Calvin Waters. He’s been here since the beginning, an original with my father. Nothing as formal as The Plaza, but definitely a nice event space. And since I’m a bit behind on doing this, a lot of places might be booked already because I’d like to do it in less than two weeks. You might need to make this top priority today, if that’s OK.”
I was already pulling up some choices on my tablet and emailing them to him.
“Some of the options I’m sending you have next Thursday available. There’s one I really like, so we may want to jump on it, but I’m not sure if a Thursday is an option for you.”
He sent me on my way to the event space to check it out. This was going to be a quick turnaround if it worked, so I called Harper to have her join me. We could talk flowers while deciding together if the space was a good option.
“Hey,” Harper said as she got out of her Uber. “I love this place. This would be a great spot to have a retirement party.”
We opened the solid double wooden doors and stepped inside. The space was covered with white twinkle lights and greenery everywhere the eye could see. The decorations were simple and classy.
“May I help you?” an older woman asked.
“Yes, I’d like to inquire about your party space for an event next Thursday.”
