Page 19 of Without You

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You think Hannah’s gonna sit back and let it happen? She’ll shit all over our relationship.”

“Now it’s a relationship, huh?” he teases. “Thought there was nothing to tell.”

“Fuck me, but you’re such a gossip girl.”

He shrugs, not caring. “I am what I am. I’m not ashamed of the fact that I want to see you happy.”

Happy. Interesting.

“I’m happy.”

“Sure you are. But, what I mean is, happy for more reasons than just the fact that you kick ass at your job. Personal life, happy.”

“I’m happy there, too,” I tell him. I’m not unhappy, though, I don’t go to sleep at night with a smile on my face because of how I spent my evening. He’s not wrong in that I kick ass at my job and that’s why I’m happy. Is it enough, though?

“Is that enough?” he asks, reading my thoughts.

“For now, yes. Let’s get to work, okay? Fill me in on the morning,” I say.

“Conversation is tabled then, got it.” He continues on, telling me about the delivery that he was notified would be delayed — the reason he was calling me this morning — and goes on about the number and type of jobs we have lined up for the day. This is our typical, he knows the jobs on the schedule like the back of his hand and I trust that he assigns the appropriate person to do the work, and that includes assigning me to whatever needs to be done.

I like knowing what’s going on. It’s important to me, and not just because I’m the one who signs everyone’s checks. This is the business I built and it may be shifting into something that I never expected, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about what got me here.

I’ll never forget.

It’s not who I am.

“What day did they say the wheels would be here?”

“Two days.”

“Damn. Why the delay?”

He scrubs a hand over his face and groans. “Some dipshit doesn’t know how to run a fork lift and ended up dropping the load, dented a bunch of the wheels or something like that. I honestly don’t know. I stopped listening because I was annoyed that it was going to put us back a couple days.”

I chuckle. “It’ll be fine. We padded our timeline, remember? We have to because stuff like this happens,” I remind him.

“Yeah. Still annoying. Now it’s a little less padded than it was before but I guess we’ve still got plenty of time.”

I wave him off. “What else?”

He stands up and backs toward the door, opening it behind him. “Nada. Just work, work, work. You’re a slave driver.”

I grin. “Better get to it then.”

He shuts the door behind him, knowing that I can’t get any of the office work done otherwise. This is the only part of owning the company that I hate. I’d rather be getting my hands dirty than pushing papers but it’s an evil necessity.

I work for about ten minutes before my mind wanders back to the blonde beauty I spent an hour with this morning. I can’t stop myself from reaching for my phone and going onto social media to do some research on her. I’m happily surprised to see that we’re still social media friends, though it says a lot about how often I scroll through the site since I couldn’t even remember my password, much less who I’m friends with.

She doesn’t post often, but there are a few recent things, especially about moving back home. She’s also tagged in quite a few pictures, including some from Hannah’s bachelorette party and wedding. I wonder if Hannah realizes that one of her bridesmaids outshined her on her wedding day. I also wonder how, when I was dating Hannah, I somehow missed how breathtakingly beautiful Katie is. Though, I suppose, it would have made me quite the dick if I had.

After about ten minutes, I set my phone down and sit back in my seat.

I only spent an hour with Katie this morning but I already know I like her. She’s funny and kind and sweet and I really want to get to know her better. However, what I told Johnny this morning holds true. Hannah is just petty enough that she’ll flip out if I pursue anything with Katie. She’s territorial and, even though she’s married and has no claim to me, I’m afraid she wouldn’t be happy about it. And it’s not that I care what she thinks, but Katie might.

My phone rings, startling the shit out of me and I almost throw the damn thing because I was so caught up simply staring at a picture of Katie.

---