NICK
I checkedmy phone to see if I’d missed any calls from Skye. Nothing.
This was the first time I’d ever had my phone on me during a podcast. Jada had given me a side-eye when I told her I’d be holding onto it. I didn’t care if she was suspicious. There was no way that I was going to let this phone out of my sight.
Skye still hadn’t returned my call. It had been almost twenty-four hours since I left the message. I was trying not to panic, but I couldn’t help but think that her delay in response didn’t bode well for her reaction to my declaration of love. As soon as I’d left it, I’d wondered if it was the right thing to do.
Should I have waited and told her in person?
Should I have gone to her house this morning instead of coming to work?
Should I leave now and go see her?
I wish there was a roadmap for how to navigate this situation. I wish there were signs telling me where to go and if I was headed in the right direction. As it was, I felt like I knew my destination but was driving blindfolded.
As I sat in my chair while Selena responded to a caller who was in a loveless marriage and didn’t know what to do, I didn’t miss the irony that the questions we answered on the podcast (a podcast by the way that I was currently doing a very shitty job hosting) sprung from situations exactly like my current dilemma.
Selena had definitely been doing all the heavy lifting on this episode. I’d done the absolute bare minimum. I read the intro and had barely said a word since. I was only half listening when I heard Selena say, “Our next caller is Skye.”
Skye?I looked at the prompt on the screen that had the caller’s name and sure enough, it read Skye. I didn’t believe in coincidences; this had to be a sign. The sign I was looking for.
“Skye are you there?” Selena asked.
“Yes, I’m here. Hi Selena.”
Holy shit.It wasn’t a sign; it was Skye. My heart jumped in my throat.
“Skye, is that—” I spoke over her as she said my name.
“Hi Nick.”
It was her. She was calling into the show. Why was she calling into the show? I grabbed my phone and saw that I hadn’t missed a call from her.
When I looked back up, I saw that a crease appeared between Selena’s brows as she gave me a questioning look before she continued the call. “Hi, Skye, thanks for calling. What is your question?”
“Oh, right, okay, so I met someone at work.”
“Workplace romance, okay.” Selena nodded.
“No, um, we don’t work together; we just met through work. I am a nurse, and he was a family member of one of my patients. Anyway we um, well we sort of spent the night together. I never thought it would be more than that because, well, he isn’t really a relationship sort of guy.”
“So, he was upfront about what your expectations should be?” Selena asked.
No, I hadn’t.Not with Skye. She was the only woman I hadn’t told that I didn’t want anything serious.
“No, he never said that to me. It was more of a, um, well, that is his reputation.”
“Got it.” Selena gave me a look that said I should probably field this one because not being in a committed relationship was in my wheelhouse. Little did she know just how in my wheelhouse this call was.
I was the wheelhouse.
Selena tilted her chin down, indicating I should jump in and actually say something, but I couldn’t. I was too stunned, and honestly, I wanted to hear what Skye had to say.
“I thought that everything would be fine because I wasn’t looking for anything more than that. I don’t date,” Skye continued. “I’m a single mom, and I have just been focusing on raising my daughter and my career.”
“Right, so you thought quick fling, no commitment.”
“Yeah, but then we spent more time together and things got…serious.”
