“Uh, no. I actually have the day off for once. Boss wanted to make sure I was taking some time for myself. Avoid burnout and whatever.”
“Oh, good. That’s good. You deserve the time off. Well, I’ll see you at the next one then, I suppose.”
“Yeah, see you then.” My brain still isn’t working apparently because I can’t seem to force out words that are more than one syllable.
“Goodnight, Isa.”
“Goodnight, Ryan.”
With that, he climbs onto the elevator, and I let myself into my apartment. I fall back against the closed door and lift a hand to brush over the spot on my cheek his lips pressed.
The lights are all off so Jordan’s either out or already in bed. A fact I’m grateful for because I don’t think I could give her a whole date recap without her weighing in on how I need to throw the rulebook out the window and climb this man like a tree.
But also, I kind of want to?
Ryan’s words bounce around my head.
“The question should be is it still making you happy.”
“Figure out what it is that would make you happy now.”
It’s eerie how much of an echo they seem to be to Jordan’s words from earlier.
“I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time.”
“He makes you happy.”
“But I love my job!”
“Do you? Do you really?”
I think I’m in trouble.
NINETEEN
FERAL CAVEMAN MODE
ISABELLA
“You’re sulking,”Jordan points out as she falls beside me on the couch. “Why are you sulking?”
“I’m not sulking,” I grumble. And I’m a big fat liar for it. I’ve been in amoodto say the least. All day. I know why, but I don’t want Jordan to know. Because I already knowexactlyhow that conversation will go.
I cross my arms over my chest and sink further into the sofa, glaring at the TV remote that continues to taunt me.
“Turn it on.”
“Nope.”
“I know you want to.”
I shake my head. “It’s my night off,” I say, but the words feel uncertain.
“As if that’s stopped you in the past,” Jordan says with an exasperated breath before snatching the remote up herself and turning on the game.
I had been wrestling with the urge to put the game on for the last half hour, missing most of the pre-game show, but now that decision was taken out of my hands.
We sit together in silence, both staring down the screen as Annie runs through the last few minutes of the pre-show. It’s a really weird feeling to be watching your co-workers do their jobs when you’re not. It’s an even weirder feeling to be doing it from the comfort of my own sofa.
