I bet I couldeasily go out tonight and find a girl who is interested in me. I bet I couldmake an online dating profile and meet a girl that way. If I wanted agirlfriend, I could get one by next week.
Up until this tripto Phoenix, I hadn’t really wanted a girlfriend. I’ve been so busy with workand life that there wasn’t much time for one.
Now I would makeall the time in the world for Alexa. I would cancel appointments and shortenmeetings and hire more assistants if I had to. I would do whatever it takes tobe with her.
But I’m not sure ifshe wants to be with me. I resist the urge to look her up online again, and tryto go back to my work. However, my work involves being online all day, and Facebookand Instagram are just one click away, so it’s hard to resist the temptation tofind her again.
Then I startthinking, for the millionth time, that maybe she’s missing me too. Maybe thereason she left my hotel room as quietly as a mouse wasn’t because she didn’t likeme, but for something else. Some other reason I don’t know yet. It’s possible,right? It occurs to me that I am pretty easy to find online, too. If she paidattention to my nametag then she’d be able to look up my business name justlike I looked hers up.
I’d pop up instantlyas the number one google search under Barr Real Estate. She could be looking atmy website right now.
Chills prickle overmy arms at the thought of it. It dawns on me that I am a grown ass man and Ineed to get my life together. I can’t spend countless hours sitting herelonging for some woman I only met once. I either need to do something about it,or give up.
I’m not about toshow up unannounced at her business, but I can do something else. If fate wantsus to be together, then Alexa will find me online the same way I found her. Igo to my business Facebook page since I don’t have a personal page, and Icreate a new post.
Had a great time at the Phoenix Small Business Convention. Ifwe met, and didn’t exchange contact info, please message me through here. Wouldlove to get to talk to you again.
There. That’ssubtle yet obvious. I post the status and then stare at it for a while, my heartbeating a little faster. This is it. My last call. My Hail Mary pass.
If Alexa likes methe way I like her, she will look me up online and she’ll see this and then theball is in her court. If not, well I’ll have to accept that it wasn’t fate.I’ll move on with my life.
Janie pops her headinto my office, nearly startling me to death. I jump and then try to composemyself. I’d been thinking about Alexa so much that I nearly forgot where I was.She reminds me that I have a client meeting in five minutes.
I grab another cupof coffee and leave the Facebook page open on my work computer. When I comeback, I hope there will be a reply.
My meeting onlylasts forty-five minutes, and there’s no Facebook reply when I return. I busymyself with the mountains of work I have to do for the rest of the day, but Ikeep an eye on the page just in case she messages me.
She doesn’t.
But I tell myselfthat she runs a bakery which is much different than a real estate office. I sithere at a desk all day and she’s in a kitchen. She probably doesn’t even have acomputer in there. I’ll wait until tonight before I start to give up.
It has already beena week, I remind myself when it’s after nine in the evening and there’s no wordfrom her. Maybe she did look me up, didn’t see anything important, and thenstopped looking. In all reality she’s not thinking about me the way I’mthinking about her, and this is totally the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. It’sdefinitely the most pathetic.
I think aboutdeleting my Facebook post.
But then I decideto leave it, because sometimes Fate needs a little help. All signs might betelling me to give up, but I’m not quite ready for that yet.
Chapter 15
Things are good. Mylife is all back to normal after that brief and embarrassing derailing I letGabe take me on. Love and relationships are so overrated, and I’m happy with mybakery and my friends and my cousin. I don’t need anything else.
Did you believethat?
I almost did.
While life isokay, I’m still a little off. But I’mgetting by just fine. The bakery is doing well, and although I was a littlenervous about abandoning my business for the convention, it turns out mycustomers thought it was really cool. Many of my regulars talked to me aboutthe convention and asked if I had fun and learned anything cool and new. I liedto all of them and told them it was a blast. Even though there was tons ofinformative stuff at the convention, I don’t think I’ll be going back nextyear. Too much baggage. Too many memories.
I would look intosome small business events here in Texas, but Gabe might be at those, too. Ithink I’ll just stick to what I know—baking—and get all of my new business informationthrough the internet from now on. It’s a Monday, and I’ve had another week toget over a certain guy. Things are a little slow at the bakery since it’s twoin the evening, so the breakfast and lunch crowd is over, but I expect it’llpick up soon. Livi is playing on the computer behind the front counter, lookingup college classes online. Mason and I have both encouraged her idea of goingback to college to finish what she started a few years ago. She wants to be ateacher and I think that’s so cool. I’ve told her to sign up for classes and wecan work her schedule around her classes, because it’s way more important thatshe fulfills her dreams instead of working here with me, even though I’ll missher. But she’s my best friend, so I know she’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
I lean against thefront counter and stare lazily out the window on Main Street, watching some bigbiker dudes walk into Mason’s shop. Lone Star Cycles is the place he originallyused to work at, until he bought it from the owner. The funny thing is that hestill lets the former owner’s son act as manager, even though all the big decisionsare Mason’s to make. Mason just doesn’t like the spotlight, and I think he alsofeels bad for the current manager, who would be lost without the motorcycleshop.
I’m lost in mythoughts when my phone buzzes. I glance over at it, not expecting much ofanything since Livi is right here and Mason is working and they text me morethan anyone else.
But it’s a new textfrom a number I don’t have saved as a contact. My heart leaps a little before Ieven open the message. It’s probably something stupid, like an automaticreminder text from a doctor’s appointment I forgot I had. But still my thoughtsspin out of control wondering if maybe it’s fromhim. If somehow he figured out my number and wants to meet upagain.
I unlock my phoneand read the message.
Hey,is this Alexa?
