Page 52 of Irresistible Second Chance

Robin’s eyes filled with pity. Ok. It was time for her to go.

“Anyway, thanks for listening, Robin. I appreciate it. And um....don’t tell Robert. I don’t want him to know my life is a mess. I don’t want him to think it’ll impact my work anyway.”

“I wouldn’t tell a soul!” she said. I didn’t believe her for a second, but I didn’t say that out loud. Instead, I allowed her to hug me so tightly I felt like I was being strangled by love and then she wished me good luck and floated out. It was the long dresses she wore. They made her seem as she was floating everywhere.

Once she was gone, I slunk down in my chair and placed my head down on my desk. My life was a mess. Such a mess. I didn’t know what to do. I just knew that I had to do something.

I opened my laptop and got back to work. I had a meeting in an hour. At the meeting, I could barely focus. Luckily no one seemed to notice, at first, how unfocused I was, but I felt terrible and concentrating that day was beyond hard. I couldn’t focus on work and right now work was all I had. I prayed that Robin hadn’t told Robert anything, but when he looked at me across the table during the meeting, he’d given me a funny look when I fumbled while answering a very basic question about one of our partners abroad.

As the meeting ended, I gathered my stuff not wanting to be alone with him. I didn’t want him to ask me anything about my dreadful personal life.

As expected, as I hurried past, he said, “Syd, can you stay behind for a second?”

“Sure,” I said with a forced smile.

He looked as if he was trying to choose his words carefully, “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, everything’s great. Why do you ask?”

“You just seemed distracted in the meeting.”

“I’m not distracted.”

“Are you sure?”

“Robert, give me a break, ok. I’m fine.” That came out a lot more forcibly than I intended. I couldn’t go around yelling at my boss. Feeling contrite I said, “I’m sorry for yelling. I’m just a little stressed right now, but everything’s fine.”

“You sure you don’t need to take any time off?”

“I’m sure,.” then I narrowed my eyes, “Why? What did Robin say?”

He looked at me like I had grown a second head. “What does Robin have to do with any of this?”

“Nothing.” I said feeling silly, “She just stopped by today, so I thought maybe she had mentioned something about me.”

He shook his head,”Nope. She mostly talked about chakras, her students, and visiting her husband’s grandmother. To be honest, I couldn’t keep up with the chakras part of the conversation.” He smiled and I instantly relaxed. I was wound too tight.

“Again, I’m sorry for being short with you. I just need to get my head in the game. I’ve been distracted lately.”

“No need to apologize. I get it. There’s a lot going on, especially with the sudden growth of the company. I’ve relied on you a lot for most of that and I just want to say that I appreciate all your advice and expertise. We wouldn’t have grown so fast if it weren’t for you.”

I smiled, finally a bright star in my abysmal existence. “That’s so kind onf you to say.”

He shrugged, “Well, it’s the truth. And because of that growth, I decided to bring Chris on again.”

“Chris?” I felt the color drain from my face.

“Yeah,” he paused, “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

I shook my head, “Of course not. Chris is great! So good at his job. I’m looking forward to partnering with him again.”

Robert was about to say something else when his phone rang. He reached for it and said, “I got to take this. It’s Krissy.”

I nodded, “Tell her I said hello.”

I walked away, laptop tucked under my arm and went into my office. I would be working with Chris again. Great. Just great.

I opened my laptop, told myself that I would keep things professional and focused on work.

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