Page 61 of Simply Irresistible
It was verySleepless in Seattleof him, I silently agreed, leaning back in my seat. I’d ordered a company car--something I never, ever did--but I just wanted to sit and chill and process and talk to my friend and I couldn’t do that while battling the Subway. I figured I was owed the favor since the owner of the company’s wife had just dropped a bomb on my desk.
“Should I go?”
“Do you want to go?” she countered.
I sighed. I wanted her to just tell me what to do. I didn’t want to have to think about it. That’s why I called my best friend. I wanted her to give me the answer.
“I do and I don’t.”
“Explain.”
“I want closure, but I don’t know if I want to see him.”
“That’s understandable.”
“I just feel like I should go, you know? You should always respond to the grand gesture.”
“Since you can’t see me, I’m gonna tell you...I’m rolling my eyes.”
“I would just hate for him to be waiting up there for me, and I don’t show up.”
“Well, he should have thought about that before he ditched you.” I winced at her harshness. “Listen sweetie, your heart is way too big. I know you’re really undecided about what to do here, or pretending to be undecided, because you still love him. You’ve always been a hopeless romantic. You know...you can go there tonight--respond to the grand gesture--and not actually take him back. You can thank him for the effort, forgive him even, but still say no. You don’t have to respond to the grand gesture the way they do in all those movies you watch.”
Maybe she was right. Maybe I could just go there and talk to him and we could leave as friends. Or not friends. Maybe we could just make peace.
“Or you could just not go and let him know what it feels like to be ghosted.” Ah, there she was. “That’s my vote, for what it’s worth.”
“I was beginning to think you’d gone soft,” I told her.
“Me? Nah.”
I laughed, appreciating the comfort of my friend, but still not feeling any closer to a decision.
35
Tyler
I’d never been so nervous in my entire life.
It wasn’t only because I was eighty-six stories up in the sky and terrified of heights. That was certainly an important factor, but it wasn’t the only factor. I was laying it all out on the line tonight. I was laying myself bare, and I was doing it publicly. That was a very special kind of terrifying.
I let the security guards know what I was up to so they wouldn’t try to chase me away or call me in for loitering or anything else. One looked at me like I was crazy anyway, the other looked at me with pity in his eyes. Clearly neither one of them were romantics.
As it neared ten o’clock, I alternated between standing off to the side of the elevator and walking around the deck. I wasn’t sure if I should be waiting right there for her to see me right away, or if another position would be better. Then I worried about the view...was one side of the Empire State Building better than the other? And where were they in the movie?
Did it matter? Not really.
And none of it would matter if she didn’t show up.
Shit.
I hadn’t actually considered the fact that she might not show up. When Hannah helped me cook up this plan, it didn’t even dawn on me that she might not come. I was certain she’d show up.Everyoneshowed up for the grand gestures. That’s the way the movies worked. They were romance movies for a reason. If the grand gesture failed, it was a tragedy, not a romance.
But we didn’t live in a damned romance movie.
Why hadn’t I considered that?
I ran my hands down my face and groaned, bumping the person standing next to me. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
