AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m looking it up now. I think I can switch for minimal cost,” she says as she scrolls on her screen. “Can you tell him we’ll do a brunch meeting? Can you get us in at that one place?”
I leave my coffee mug and go to the front door, not stopping as I go through and walk down the pathway towards my front gate. There’s about a mile and a half to that gate, and I need to blow off some steam before I sit in a car alone with her. I can’t fucking believe this.
Actually, I can. This is exactly what I thought would happen. And I’m seriously disappointed that I was right.
Chapter 22
Julia
Ryan doesn’t say a single word to me on the way to the airport. I know he’s annoyed that I’m leaving early, but he also had an entire day and night with me. What could he possibly have planned for one more night and a morning? He knows that my job is demanding. He must have known that this was a possibility.
He kisses me on the cheek when I get out of the car but doesn’t say much else.
“I’ll let you know when I land, okay?” I wait to get an answer from him before I shut the door.
“Yes, please do,” he replies with a tight smile and a curt nod.
I shut the door and head into the airport. I go through security and board at my gate in a daze. I can see that he’s actually pissed but I don’t understand how he could be so cold. I’m hoping that he can get past this after he cools down.
My CFO has a serious issue, and I need to be there tomorrow. The IT project is completely falling apart, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll listen to anyone else. We’re doing a brunch meeting in the morning with the developer, and I need tonight to get on a call and prepare for that.
I text Ryan when I land but he just responds with “ok” and nothing else. He does respond, though, and I think that’s a good sign. I get right into the meeting with my team when I get home and put the rest out of my head. I have to get set up as soon as I walk in the door, and I’m working on prep until 1am. I don’t have time to think about anything else right now.
The next day at brunch, the meeting with the program developer and my IT team goes well, and we find the issue of why the old and new systems aren’t syncing. I also know that it couldn’t have been done without me. I have to find a way to get Ryan to understand this. I don’t want to give this up, and I also don’t want to split my focus again next time I’m with him.
I didn’t take my phone along when we went on the picnic, but I thought about work the whole time. I wanted to find out what my team was doing to find the issue that was causing the roadblock of us being able to launch the upgrades. It was on my mind, and my focus wasn’t entirely with Ryan. I wanted it to be, and I tried. I don’t think he noticed until I got that phone call after we came back from the picnic.
I text him that the meeting went great and ask him if he has a moment for me to FaceTime him, but he doesn’t answer. Later on that night, I see a message that is short and clipped.
Ryan: Sorry, chores. Tired. Talk soon.
That’s it. That’s all I get. He’s still pissed off, I guess. I have dinner alone and spend time setting up my planner for the week. I add notes and events to my digital calendar for my assistant, then I think about what Ryan and I talked about for the next time he would come out to see me.
There are no spaces in the next few weeks that are more than a few hours long. If he comes out here, the same things are going to happen that have made him upset during our past meetings. Maybe if I tell him ahead of time that I’m not going to be available the entire time he’s there, it’ll mitigate his annoyance.
I have no idea how to broach the topic with him. I’m really just not good at this. If I text him, he gives me these short answers and doesn’t have much to say. My best bet is probably to leave him alone and let him cool down. Maybe in a few days, he’ll be more inclined to have a better conversation.
This week, I have two more upgrades to launch towards being fully integrated into the new system, and I know he doesn’t want to hear about it. He’s made that very clear. This is the part of my life that he doesn’t want to be involved with, and I have to find a way to be okay with that. I’m not all that interested in farm chores or the rest of the ranch. I enjoy the horses. I enjoy Ryan. But I’m not going to become some country girl.
I have drinks with my friends tomorrow night, and I’m hoping they can help me forget about the stress of this whole thing. I don’t want to forget about Ryan, not exactly, just these instances where I can see that he’s disappointed in me. I’m not blind to that. I may not completely understand it, but I’m not completely clueless.
Monday goes by as usual and then I’m out with my friends. It’s just a group of people from work, my CFO, my assistant, and some others. We do this from time to time to talk and blow off steam. I tell them about Ryan and what happened this week, over the weekend, and they are ready and willing to throw me under the bus.
Instead of the support and cheering on I thought I’d get from them, they tell me I am insensitive and a workaholic. I mean, I knew I was a workaholic, but they make it sound like such a terrible thing. I’ve never seen wanting to work a lot as something to be ridiculed.
I don’t want to think that I’ve hurt Ryan for real, but it seems like that’s what’s actually happened. Now I’m not sure how to fix it. I’m not entirely clear about what I’ve done wrong, even after my friends roasted me. If I can’t get Ryan on the phone, then what do I do?
Am I going to lose him?
Chapter 23
Ryan
“Hey, sweetheart,” I say to Julia as soon as she answers the FaceTime video. It’s been about three weeks since she left the ranch early to return home for a work emergency, and we’ve got in a routine of video chatting just about every night around ten. Her tone conveys annoyance, not the anticipation of an enjoyable conversation. This is how it’s been for a few weeks, like I’m just a box she checks off on her daily to do list.
“Hi, Ryan.” I can see she’s on her laptop, phone propped up on a hands-free stand. That way, she doesn’t have to hold it and actually pay attention to the call. At this point, I don’t know why she bothers to answer when the video comes through. “How was your day?”
“It was fine. The usual. How was yours?” I’m hoping to stimulate some kind of reaction here. If she’d look at me while we talked, I’d be happy. But she can’t take her mind off that fucking screen.
