Page 19 of Based on You

"I don't have any feelings." A pause hung there. "Anyway. I have something to tell you."

I rolled onto my back. "Do spill."

"I stumbled on some office gossip."

"Do you go around eavesdropping? Because I know nobody likes you enough to bring it to you directly."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny."

I laughed under my breath.

"Do you want the gossip or not?"

"Go ahead."

"There's a team leader, marketing I think, who's seeing one of his team members."

My eyebrows shot up. "In my company?"

"Yes." She let it hang. "They always sneak glances at each other. And here's the kicker."

"What?"

"He's married."

I sat up and swung my legs off the edge of the bed. "You're lying."

"I am not. He's married. And this isn't the first time. He's been with women from different teams. They all find out eventually."

"How do they keep falling for him? Is he good-looking?" I tried to picture the marketing team leader and couldn't place the face. Either my memory was slipping, or I'd never crossed paths with the man.

"Very. Tall. Works out. He's got this kind of dangerous smile."

I scoffed. "From the way you're describing him, sounds like you want to be one of his girls."

"I'm already your girl. Why aim lower?"

I smiled to myself. "Yeah. You're my girl. And I run this whole company."

"Right. And he's not as handsome as you, so."

I stared at the ceiling. "Your lips are full of compliments tonight, Violet."

She giggled. "You're usually the one with the honey. I decided to play your game."

"How gracious of you."

We talked like that for a long time, drifting between nothing and everything, until she said she wanted to sleep. I let her go.

When the call dropped, I sat with the phone in my hand, staring at the screen. I ran my thumb across my cheek. I'd been smiling the whole call and hadn't caught it once.

I'd always liked talking to Violet. But never for this long. She was good at it, better than I'd ever given her credit for. She never brought up Elena, never spoke about my loss, never stood at that careful, pitying distance everyone else still kept. She just let me exist. Ninety minutes on the phone with no agenda, no weight, nothing required of either of us.

It was a good conversation. Long enough that my face ached.

SEVEN

VIOLET