Honestly, my whole life is messy, so this would barely be a speed bump in my summer plans. But, it’s not like this is the first time that someone has told me one thing, and it turned out to be a lie. At least, Patrick didn’t do it on purpose.
When he looks over at me, the corners of his mouth turn up slightly, and I know that no matter what my answer is, he wouldn't be upset with me.
Continuing my point, I say, “I honestly don’t know if I can or not. I don’t have much free time with The Brew and mysummer class, but if I can make it, I would like to help you out. Can I check my schedule and let you know on Monday?”
“Of course, Ellie. And again, no pressure at all. If you—”
We both jump at the sound of banging and look to see Wes passionately kissing the back window of his car.
Patrick rolls his eyes and switches glances from me to Wes. “Oh god. I need to get him home. Get home safe, and we’ll talk later.”
It’s a quick drive, but as I sit in my bed, I can’t stop thinking about the way Patrick’s mouth felt and the way his hand gripped my face.
When I wake up, there are a couple text messages from Patrick on my phone screen. I’m surprised he’s up this early, but he wasn’t the one who had to be carried out of the bar.
Wes pops up in my mind, and I hope he is doing okay.
Patrick:Hope you had a good night! It was really nice having you there, and you were a very convincing fake girlfriend.
Patrick:Can we grab lunch on Monday and talk more about the company weekend? Greg sent out an email with more details.
Ellie:Sure. I get off at noon.
Ellie:Any update on Wes? He was looking real rough when you guys left.
Patrick:I’ll let you know when I know! There’s a good chance he is not going to be alive until 3 p.m.
Patrick:Come to my office at 12:30, and we’ll order in.
Chapter 11
Patrick
Neverbeforeinmylife have I not been able to concentrate on work. When I step foot into my office, it’s like my brain flips a switch and shifts into work mode. There is a significant amount of pride in the fact that I can work no matter the circumstance.
That is until now.
When I texted Ellie on Saturday to see if she could stop by ERI during lunch today, I didn’t realize it was going to derail my whole morning.
Greg didn’t give us a lot of notice with this whole company weekend thing, but he did send out an email with all the details on Friday night. I would have to imagine that he previously scheduled the email to be sent that night because he was definitely tipsy by the time we were leaving the bar.
The attention that should be on the spreadsheets in front of me is instead preparing for Ellie’s reaction to all of the options I’ve come up with for this company weekend. If worse comes to worst and she isn’t comfortable with coming, I’m fine just hanging out with Wes and making the best of it. Though I can’t lie, after spending happy hour with her, the weekend would be better if I had Ellie by my side. The worry that happy hourwas going to be stressful and awkward is long gone, and she pleasantly proved me wrong.
The more my mind lingers on that night, the more I find myself wanting to be around Ellie. It was nice having someone with me for once.
Not being able to stay focused is messing with me, but I’m sure that once I know her answer, I can get my mind on track. But, for now, I’m just going to do what I can.
Stopping by Debbie’s desk this morning was a necessity. She needed to know that Ellie was coming for lunch and needed some direction to get to my desk. Debbie is the hub of office gossip, so it shouldn’t have surprised me that she wanted to know everything about Ellie. Trying to deter her many questions, I threw Wes under the bus, saying that I had to go back to my office to fix a mistake he made with the data algorithm. I’m hoping that she won’t spread that around, but I seriously panicked when I realized that I couldn’t answer anything she asked.
There are so many gaps in my Ellie knowledge; I barely know anything more than where she works and her food preferences. I immediately went back to my desk and stuck a sticky note to my monitor for us to get back to later.
Watching Ellie sit in my office is odd to say the least. Well, not odd as in bad. It’s just different.
She is still wearing the clothes she had on at work when I saw her earlier this morning, but it’s hard to keep my eyesoff of her. I feel oblivious for not being aware of how pretty she was until now. Her hair is pulled up in a messy bun again with those loose pieces framing her face. Her oversized, black t-shirt is covering up her curves that I know are underneath. Even like this, she lures me in. Her flushed cheeks. Her freckles. Her bottom lip that she keeps biting as if she is nervous.
I was already on a phone call when Debbie brought her back, but I waved her in anyway. She sat down in one of the chairs in front of my desk and pulled out her phone to look busy. I would think that she is actually doing something, but seeing how she switched between four different apps, opening and closing them the second they get boring, I know she was not. She is doing everything except for looking at me, and I’m amused.
When I hang up the phone, Ellie finally looks at me. “You sound very business-y on the phone. It’s…interesting.”
