Under the desk, my lips tingle from the memory, and I jolt upright.
Greg tilts his head questioningly at me, our faces perilously close.
“Have you seen Ruby?” Erica’s clipped tone carries faintly across the office.
“Oh,” Sarah says, “she was here, but…maybe she went to the bathroom?”
“Tell her I’m looking for her,” Erica says. “And I need that presentation after my next meeting, or else.”
Greg raises his eyebrows and points sardonically at me. I try to smile, even though I feel like I’ve been chopping an onion.
He was a confused, experimenting seventeen-year-old then,and he’s concerned in a strictly platonic, I’ve-known-you-forever way now. And Idowant to be friends with him. It’s a good thing in my life, one that I held at arm’s length for stupid reasons for too long.
I can fix it. We can make it work. I just have to try harder.
Greg pulls one leg to his chest, and he must feel the awkward shape of the box wedged inside my tote behind him. He peers into the bag.
“No, wait, that’s—” I hiss.
“Hey!” Sarah raps her knuckles on the desk, and I jerk at the sound and hit my head.
“You okay?” Greg whispers.
Sarah’s standing inside my cubicle now. From here, I have a view of her wide-leg trousers and chunky heels.
“Ooh, sorry,” she says, kneeling down and grimacing. “I was just going to say—Erica left for her eight o’clock, you can come out now.”
“Oh my God,thank you!” I say, scrambling out from under the desk and offering Greg a hand.
He takes it and lets me pull him up. “You good?” he asks.
“I will be, if I can finish this in the next hour.” I wave frantically at my computer.
Greg shoves his hands in his pockets and nods up at Sarah. “Should we…?”
“Oh yeah, I have that…thing to tell you about,” she says, giving me a tight smile. “Bye, Ruby.”
The two of them head for the elevators together, but I’m too busy tearing through this presentation to think much about it. And when Erica appears next to my cubicle, saying, “It’s eight fifty-five, Ruby, where is it?” I can finally beam at her and say, “It’s in your inbox!”
Chapter
23
After her presentation, Erica pings me:
erica.putnam:
Great work on that
Real life-saver. I’ll remember how you took initiative
Keep it up and you’re going places around here
Yes! Exactly what I needed! I did it!
Just in case Mom isn’t paying attention, I take a screenshot and send it into the haunted DM.Good day at work!I write, and add a blushing face.
sampaguita72:
