I have to excuse myself to the bathroom, so I can brush my teeth and calm the fuck down.
When I come back out, she is dressed and ready to go for today. “Can you hurry up, please? I’msohungry.”
Her pleas are adorable, and I don’t think I would be able to say no to her if I wanted to. “Geez. Wes texted me that he’s already down there, so why don’t you go ahead and I’ll meet you in a couple minutes?”
She runs out the door before I finish what I’m saying. It makes me happy that her and Wes get along so well, but I continually have to remind myself that this is not real. Hopefully, Wes doesn’t hate me when Ellie and I inevitably break up.
Before going downstairs, I try to shake these feelings away, but my thoughts keep going back to how good she felt in my arms this morning. The tile is cold on my feet as I go to the bathroom to splash some water on my face.
Hold it together, Patrick.
I quickly pull on some shorts and a t-shirt and make my way down to the breakfast buffet.
When I get there, Ellie already has a plateful of food and is eating blueberries one by one. I put my hand on her shoulder and plant a kiss at the top of her head. This whole not needing to ask first about PDA freaked me out briefly, but she was right.
It was a little weird getting used to it last night, but our interactions are becoming more natural. We are about to be up close and personal with everyone at the picnic this afternoon, so it’s good that we are practicing now. While it’s much more convincing this way, I still worry that I might be getting too comfortable.
I grab a small plate of fruit and some toast to tide me over since I’ve never been a big breakfast person during breakfast times. Don’t get me wrong, I love breakfast food, but I like it more at 2 a.m. When I sit down, Ellie is back at the buffet line filling her plate with waffles. She is adorable, completely smothering her waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, so much that you’d have to send a search party to find the waffles.
She sits down next to me, and I can’t help but tease her. “I think you don’t have enough whipped cream on there.”
I swipe my finger through the creamy pile and stick it in my mouth.
Ellie watches my action intently, and the pink rises in her cheeks. “I have a very specific way I like things. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to date me.”
“Oh really? It’s that easy.”
“Maybe you’re more suited for someone with boring preferences.” She rolls her eyes at me.
“Oh, Ellie.” I push some of the hair out of her face and speak quietly in her ear as she leans in to take a bite. “You know I don’t want anyone else. Only you.”
A shiver runs through her body, and I feel a slight note of accomplishment. After our encounter this morning, I can’t help it. I'm desperate to see how her body reacts to me.
We eat our breakfast while listening to Wes recap the night after we went to bed. While a lot of our coworkers are married with children, quite a few are very single, so there are some bets going around wagering over who is going to sleep with who this weekend. I shudder at the thought of hooking up with someone I work with. The whole thing seems way too messy for my liking.
And fake dating someone is not messy?
Since Ellie and I are already dressed for the day, we decide to take a walk before we go to the picnic. We wander through the lobby and out the back door as she reaches for my hand. At first I think it’s cute, but then I realize that she is just using me to drag her along. Three plates of breakfast food will really weigha person down, and Ellie is feeling the effects. I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t thrown up yet, but if pulling her around is what it takes to avoid that situation, I’ll do it.
Despite her current predicament, spending this time with Ellie makes me feel good. There is a deep comfort in our silence, and just her presence brings up my mood.
Chapter 21
Ellie
Thesummersuniswarm on my skin, and I’m grateful that my moisturizer includes SPF as we make our way around the back of the hotel.
Even though Greg has stopped outwardly bothering me at The Brew, I still get bad vibes from him. Those feelings are heavily present as we approach the park entrance. While there isn’t much backing it since he looks fairly pleasant, catching up with people and introducing himself, I can’t forget the way he basically harassed me for a full week.
As I look around the park, I notice that they really went all out with this company weekend thing, and it doesn't surprise me that Patrick enjoys working for them so much. The best thing The Brew has ever done for me is the free shift drink, but that is chump change compared to this. Although, it does makes sense when you compare a small business like The Brew to the empire that is ERI.
When Patrick said he worked for Emberton Recreation Inc., I didn’t make the connection that it was the same company as ERI—since most people only refer to it by the acronym. During our walk this morning, he said that there’s over seventy people working in his office, but that the company as a whole hasover one thousand employees. When he started working there, they were just a small start up, and now they have seven offices open along the East Coast and quite a few brick and mortar locations. It was cute listening to him talk about his beginnings with the company, but I don’t know if I can attribute that to the company. It might just be that I like hearing Patrick talk.
Our interaction with Greg is not terrible, but he still manages to rub me the wrong way.
“Patrick! I’m so glad you could make it.” He leans forward for a hug, but Patrick strategically puts his hand out and switches it to a handshake. When Greg turns to me, his eyes roam across my body first, making me feel sick. It shouldn’t surprise me that he stares at my chest before making eye contact, and I desperately wish that I could call him out for it and show these people they work for a creep. He tries to reach out for me, but Patrick takes a protective stance in front of me, essentially blocking him. “Emmy, it’s great that you were able to come along!”
Before I have a chance to correct him, Patrick’s arm wraps around my shoulder, and he pulls me into his side. It feels possessive, like the action is meant to intimidate, and the funny thing is that it actually works.
