Page 3 of Falling Madly
I sighed, glancing at the window again. My boyfriend—strike that, myex-boyfriend—was now talking to the waiter, gesturing at the menu. “That’s okay. He’s not worth it.”
Part of me had always known we’d part ways, eventually. Either that, or we’d magically fall in love. How delusional had I been to even think that earlier?
My sister Suzanne had once told me I was probably too independent to fall in love. She might have had a point. I’d never slept over in Richard’s apartment or left my things behind. He’d poked fun at me for my “crime scene cleaning,” but I didn’tcare. That was why they were called personal belongings—they belonged in my home.
In the nine months we’d been together, we’d only ever talked about the future in vague terms. Before Thanksgiving, he’d suggested a trip to his parents’ place in Connecticut, but I’d carefully steered us off that topic. If you weren’t madly in love, why would you meet someone’s parents? So, maybe this was all my doing. I’d been holding back.
Of course, he could have done the decent thing and broken things off before sucking the tonsils off another woman. Even Suze couldn’t saythiswas my fault. Not that I had to worry about my sister saying anything like that. She might have been in a blissfully co-dependent relationship, but she didn’t want me to give up my independence for the wrong guy. And now I knew Richard was exactly that.
“Are you sure?” Trevor pressed on. “I’d very much enjoy helping him see the error of his ways.”
A small part of me wanted to see Trevor march in there, lift my useless boyfriend by his fake-fur collar and shake him for loose change. For entertainment, or closure. Maybe both. But did I really want a favor from Trevor?
I cast him a warning look. “If you think that using your fists to defend my honor will make us even, think again.”
He dropped his arms to his sides, feigning defeat. “No, my darling dragonfly. Nothing could ever make us even.”
He’d taken to calling me that sometime in the last few weeks. I pretended to be offended, but it was hard, because dragonflies were awesome.
“And you can drop the hurt bunny look with the fists,” I instructed him, keeping my voice calm. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
His eyebrows lifted. “How much time are we talking about?”
That playful spark in his eyes hit my insides, causing a slight wobble. This is why I didn’t want to see him in person. Everything about him threw me off balance and brought back memories. I’d friend-zoned him for all eternity for a reason.
I’d first met him about two years ago, when I’d taken the designer job at Wilde Creative. We’d flirted from day one. Inside jokes, looks, and glances, a bit of friendly competition. We’d kept bumping into each other in the tiny printer room, bonding over our frustration with the complicated machine and its constant paper jams. By the time the Fourth of July party rolled around, my panties were already halfway to melting off. But I was also in the middle of a huge campaign. A career-defining one. I’d pitched my idea to Charlie, our Creative Director, and he’d liked it. All I needed was the blessing of his team, and I’d be designing a massive blockchain game.
Nope. Trevor vouched for Boris, and they chose him. What was worse, I stood right there, behind a potted palm tree. I heard his words, loud and clear.
Maybe Teresa isn’t the right fit.
I guess I’d been lucky to hear those words and see his true colors. Just like I was lucky right now to find out the truth about Richard. I didn’tfeellucky, though.
Trevor hadn’t just cost me the job. He’d cost me my big break. As it turned out, the client was so happy with their work that they each got gifted a whole lot of tokens, the internal currency of the new game. In six months, the game tokens were upgraded into a crypto currency and the value of the coins skyrocketed. And yes, they used my ideas. Not exactly as-is, but not any better either. If anything, they butchered those graphics.
I could have used the money. I’d been saving for a deposit to buy my own place, scraping it together. I’d still managed to buy a small condo, but on a tight budget, at the worst possible time.
I didn’t know Wilde Creative was going to implode, causing us both to look for new employment. As expected, Trevor had followed Charlie like he was the pied piper. And I’d followed both because I had no choice. I still wasn’t sure why they’d offered me a job at their new venture, but it must have had something to do with Bess. She had pull with Charlie, and Charlie had pull with Trevor. So, here I was—working with the guy who’d so casually betrayed me, trying to avoid him in person for the sake of my fragile equilibrium.
“Why are you even here?” I asked, my voice sticking to my throat.
He glanced to his left, and I noticed his blue Volvo parked in front of the restaurant. “I’m off to check out a vacant office in Cozy Creek.”
“Cozy Creek?” My insides flipped. “I thought we talked about this! The clients are here, it doesn’t make sense…”
I tried to quell the swelling panic. My job could not be moving to a small mountain town in the middle of nowhere. There was no way.
“Bess and Charlie seem tae think it could work. We cannae stay in the current one and everything else in Denver is too expensive. Plus, the company is already called Cozy Creative.”
I groaned. “That name is so misleading! Someone called us today asking if we do baby accessories.”
Trevor’s mouth twitched. “Well, in Cozy Creek it’ll make sense.”
At the last meeting, we’d agreed that the company would stay in Denver for the time being, which I had hoped meant at least for a year—or however long it took me to find another job. I’d been distracted though, happily working on exciting new briefs that Charlie kept hauling in. For all his faults, that man could attract quality clients.
When I got excited, I got absorbed, telling myself that I’d just finish this next job before updating my portfolio. It had been months and the only thing I’d done was idly browse job ads on my lunch breaks while snacking on yogurt raisins and pretzels.
It was exciting to be part of something new, away from our old boss’s looming presence. We played music as loud as we liked, took breaks whenever we wanted, and celebrated every win. I’d even toyed with the idea of becoming a shareholder, since Charlie kept that option on the table. But that would have meant owning a piece of the same company as Trevor. He and our developer, Lee, had jumped onboard from the start, and I’d become the only full-time employee. I had a good deal. I wasn’t sure how they could afford it, but I didn’t want to question it. Not while I was saving up for a vacation in Bali. One I would now have to take alone, if at all.
