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I peered at him through the rearview mirror. It was definitely sadness I saw on his face. Since I explained to him that Tasha might not be coming back because we had an argument, Cody didn’t really talk much about her. I was grateful for that, because the less we had to discuss her, the more I could ease my mind.
But Cody continued. “I don’t really tell you, because I don’t want you to be sad.”
“Cody, you can talk to me about her. I miss her too,” I said.
His eyes lifted to look at me through the mirror. “Then, why won’t you get her back? What happened?” he quietly asked.
There was no way I would go into those details with him, but I would keep it simple. “A lot of adult stuff,” I simply replied. I looked towards the road, so I wouldn’t get distracted and Cody didn’t say another word about it.
Our talk did get me to thinking more. I needed to do something that I didn’t expect I’d do. I had to talk to her, because it wasn’t doing any of us any good feeling this miserable. Plus, I had to know how she was doing. She was still the woman I loved, and she helped Cody, so that deserved a thank you. I couldn’t wait to talk to her. That thought left me feeling excited about something.
Chapter Twenty
Tasha
The Unexpected Visitor
I quickly got back into the swing of working a full-time job at Colorful Times, and I really forgot how much I enjoyed writing. However, it was true that even though it was what I enjoyed doing, it really was no longer my passion. My heart was elsewhere and remained there.
After finding that the clock flipped over to four thirty, I was out of there. Or, at least tried to be, but was stopped short when I spotted Vicky heading my way. “Sorry and I know you’re cutting out of here, but will you read through this intro? I think it’s missing something.”
I grabbed the paper from her and read through it. It definitely sounded like there was something missing, so I quickly jotted down some notes and handed it back to her. “Maybe this sounds better.”
She looked at it and smiled and nodded. “Perfect! Thanks!” She scurried back to her desk to finish her piece, and I was back to heading out of the office for a long night of holiday Lifetime movies. I was happy to give corrective ideas and suggestions without criticizing the writers underneath me, like Melinda and Nina had done to me, but that’s water under the bridge.
I pushed through the glass doors and fished my keys out of my purse as I headed towards the car. When I looked back up, I slowed my walked down to a turtle’s pace and stared ahead. Matt was leaning against my car, his eyes directed at me. When I got closer, he stood up.
“Hey,” he said.
“Um…hello,” I starte
d. My first thought was to go to Cody and hope that everything was alright. “Everything alright with Cody?” I quickly asked.
He nodded slowly. “Uh yeah…everything is fine. I didn’t mean to worry you,” he quickly said. “He’s staying with a friend’s overnight and I thought I would stop by and see how you’re doing.”
I frowned. Not exactly the visitor I expected to encounter. After we left things up in the air more than two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have been surprised to never see him again. “Oh. Well, I’m doing alright,” I said. It was really only partly the truth, but mainly a lie. One would have to define alright.
“Well, glad you’re doing alright.”
“How’d you know I’d be here?”
“When I got back in contact with Joseph Mallard, he told me that you got your job back, but this time as head writer. Congratulations,” he said.
“Thanks Matt, and thank you for everything you did to get my job back. I appreciate it and I’ve been meaning to tell you that,” I said, while trying to avoid his eyes that would surely pull me back into his orbit, if I were to stare at him any longer.
“So, here’s the thing…I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and was hoping we could talk this evening. You can come over to my place, or I’ll come to yours. If you don’t feel comfortable with either of those options, we can go to a restaurant. I just really need for us to talk.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t feel comfortable at his place. I could never get to that point, no matter what occurred between us, but I wasn’t so sure that going back to the scene of the crime would be such a good idea “No Matt. Now, I’m the one that doesn’t think that’s a good idea. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m not kicking my own ass and I’d like to stay that way,” I said, and, if eating a pint of ice cream nightly didn’t qualify as kicking my own ass, I was being truthful.
“Tasha, I should have given you a chance to explain yourself, and I want to hear what you have to say.”
“That’s just it Matt. I don’t have anything to say to you.” I mean, what could I say that he hadn’t already seen in the video.
Matt stepped closer to me, so close that I could hear him breathing. “Come with me, Tasha. I need…to hear what you have to say.”
His nearness made me lose my gumption to fight what was so natural. To go with him. “I would like to talk to you, too,” I softly stated. “But I’m not so sure that your place, or mine, would be the best idea. Maybe a restaurant would work best.” I laughed nervously and from the look in his eye, he understood my thinking. We needed to be able to hear one another, not cling to each other making up for weeks of being apart.
“Okay. Can I at least pick you up? Or would you rather meet there?”
