“You seem . . . perturbed by this,” I say eventually. And slowly. Because everything I’ve said to Gwen today seems to set her off.
Which, frankly, seems to be on par for my track record with women today.
Gwen narrows her gaze. “You are a moron.”
“I’m aware of that fact.” I sigh. “Can you just tell me what to do?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“Maybe.”
Gwen’s expression softens infinitesimally. She sets her phone on the counter and starts pacing, massaging her temples like that will somehow help.
After several laps, she gives me a shrewd look. “Just how bad did you mess things up with Holly?”
“Why do you assume I messed things up?”
She gives me another one of those “well, duh”looks that I’m really starting to hate.
I honestly don’t know what the right thing to say here is. So I settle on, “Holly is a work colleague. And I’m not comfortable discussing our relationship.”
“Oh my God!” Gwen says. Again. For what must be the twentieth time today. Except this time she follows it with, “You’re in love with her.”
“Why do people keep saying that?”
“Oh my God! Who? Who else has said that? How many people have you talked about Holly with? Does she know you’re in love with her?” Gwen’s voice rises with every sentence until she finally ends in a final, “Oh my God!”
Then she drops back onto the stool and buries her head in her hands.
I don’t do well with hysterical women.
To be honest, I never deal with hysterical women at all. I’ve pretty much organized my life to avoid it. Them. Whatever.
So the fact that this is the second hysterical—or even emotional—woman I’ve had to deal with in the past twenty-four hours is more than a little disconcerting.
And while my instincts told me exactly what to do with Holly, Gwen is something else entirely. She’s normally so level-headed. Clumsiness aside.
When she doesn’t say anything for several heartbeats, I say, “My sister.”
Gwen raises her head and blinks up at me. Obviously, she’s forgotten the first of her many questions.
“My sister, Tavey. She’s the other person who said I’m in love with Holly.”
Gwen nods. “Okay, that makes sense.”
Even though she sounds a lot calmer, I ask, “Are you okay?”
She frowns, but then shrugs and give a head bob. “Yeah. I guess. I know this isn’t about me, but I just . . .”
She gives another shrug. And then sighs.
“Oh my God.” Fuck. Apparently that’s contagious. “You’re not in love with Holly too, are you?”
Gwen blinks in obvious surprise. And then laughs. “No. Not even a little. I mean, she’s awesome. But it’s just . . . well, when your reclusive, misanthropic genius boss finds love before you do, it really throws into sharp relief how pathetic your love life is.”
“Oh.”
