“What?” I glanced at Jenny, and she pointed to my receipt. “Order forty. That’s you.”
“Oh.” Food was the last thing on my mind, especially now that it was just the two of us. Jenny hadn’t moved away. She hadn’t recoiled from me. In fact, I’d say she was doing her share of pressing her leg up againstme. It was a leg war, and we were both winning.
“Are you gonna get your food?”
“You’re my unfinished business,” I blurted out. I’d had every intention of slowly rolling out my intentions, but as usual, I couldn’t seem to slow my roll. A tiny bit of encouragement from her was all it took to make me lose my mind.
“Noah.” Jenny looked up at me through her lashes. She had one freckle right above her lip on the left side, and more than anything, I wanted to kiss that spot. I’d never kissed her, not even on the cheek. “Go get your food.” Jenny nudged my shoulder. “Please.”
“Okay.” I got up, maneuvering around people in the way with mad skill until I reached the deli counter. I found my food and grabbed it, knowing I needed to hurry.
It didn’t matter. When I turned to look back, Jenny was gone.
Chapter 8 – Jenny
“Why are you waiting up here for me?” Sadie continued to type and frown while I hovered.
“I don’t want to wait at the car by myself.” Which was a big fat lie. I would have been fine by myself. What I didn’t want was to see Noah after work without a buffer.
“Okay, well, I’m going to be a few more minutes. The powers that be want March’s gift of the month featured on the front page of the website starting today, and the new ad copy that goes with it is just obnoxious. Read this. I printed it out so I could show people how much it bites.”
After putting on my reading glasses, I glanced at the picture on Sadie’s screen ofThe Squeaky Clean Anne’s Revenge, my pirate ship bubble maker for the bathtub. Well, it wasn’t technically mine, but I had found it through one of our suppliers and renamed it, and I had one in my closet at home because who didn’t want a pirate ship in their bubble bath?
Sadie shook the paper at me and I took it, remembering this was some sort of ad copy crisis. “Bubble, Bubble, I was soiled, but now I’m bubbled.” I stared at the words, willing them to rearrange themselves into something that did not sound like… well, like a bathroom joke. “It’s horrifying. Who came up with it? Better yet, who approved it?”
Sadie leaned back in her chair and turned to look at me. “Who do you think? Marketing is a one-idiot show up there lately.”
“Marcus.” I said his name like a dirty word. And he deserved it. Marcus was a nepotism by-product, a brother-in-law of the company founders who had a fancy degree and absolutely no sense. Noah used to keep him in check. But obviously he couldn’t do that now. “What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I’m changing it, of course. And then filing this gem away under all the reasons Marcus should be fired. Not that they’ll fire him. But in ten years when they make the Netflix documentary about what went wrong with Connecting Hearts, I’ll be ready for my tell-all.” She smiled at me, and I feared she was only half-joking.
“Do you want help?” My brain was already pulling out every pirate-themed pun I’d ever heard, but I wasn’t sure if Sadie would welcome outside suggestions.
“Just tell me what you think of this.” She pulled up a text window from the bottom of the screen, and I leaned forward to follow along while she read the small type. “Arrrrr you ready for bath time? Have a swash-bubbling good time with the Squeaky Clean Anne’s Revenge.”
When I didn’t answer right away, she started hitting the backspace button. “I know. It’s bad.”
“No! Stop erasing it. Are you crazy? It’s really good.”
“Like, let’s-get-out-of-here-and-get-home good orgoodgood?”
“It’s you-should-have-Marcus’s-job level of good. I’m not kidding.”
Sadie squared her shoulders. “Okay, give me a minute and I’ll get this finished.” Her voice had lost that vulnerable edge to it and she was back to the tough, unreadable Sadie I was used to.
I backed out of the cubicle and pulled out my phone. Ever since lunch, I’d been debating whether to text Noah and resolve things before we had to sit together for the car ride home. I hadn’t gotten farther than adding his name back into my contacts as Carpool Noah. He needed a clarifier so I wouldn’t mix him up with all the other more important Noahs in my life. The hot and available ones I’d be meeting ASAP.
Now that I’d added him back, I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I was his unfinished business? What did that even mean?
I got that he wanted my forgiveness. But he’d also been sending more-than-friendship signals again, and the crush on him I’d tried to stuff down was trying to make an epic comeback, like a diva on her seventh farewell tour. I couldn’t let that happen. My crush had to go away, once and for all.
Besides, Noah didn’t really mean it. There had to be another reason he was here. Seeking me out again was just a bonus—an attempt to get me out of his system. After all, he was certainly over Britta fast. He’d shut down her advances today hardcore, and used me as a shield. Did he not understand how awkward that made things for me as her boss?
I put my phone away and zipped up my purse so I wasn’t tempted to pull it out again. I didn’t owe Noah anything. He’d been the one being weird at lunch, and I didn’t need to be sorry for taking off like that. I had to give myself permission to set my own boundaries and not feel guilty when I did.
“All done,” Sadie announced, shutting down her computer. “Let’s go home.”
Home. The word didn’t bring me the comfort it used to. Lauren wasn’t there to tell my secrets to or commiserate with. Instead, I had Clarissa. This morning I’d awakened to her off-key humming and those darn candles burning again. On the bright side, it had certainly motivated me to get up and out the door on time.
