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JOSH: Good night, Ella.
ELLA: Good night. Call me or text me any time you want to talk.
JOSH: I will.
I put my cell away and laid back on my bed, glad that he'd texted me, but worried about him. He felt he had to be strong for his brother, but he was also a survivor and had to take care of himself.
As I tried to fall asleep, I couldn't get the image of Josh in the crumpled SUV out of my mind, aware of how close he had come to being hurt or even killed.
The next day, I met my parents at the hotel and we went out for lunch. Their flight back to New Hampshire left later in the afternoon, so we had time to spare. I took them back to the office while I checked in with Sharon. She'd given me the day off, so I could spend time with my parents before they left, so I left my parents in my office and went to meet with Sharon before we went to the deli down the street.
I had a quick chat with Sharon about Josh, pretending surprise about the accident. I felt bad, but it wasn't time yet to come out and admit we were seeing each other. I wanted to wait until we made some kind of more permanent commitment before I did that.
When I came back, Becca, one of my co-workers was in the office with them.
"Hi, Becca," I said and introduced them.
"Your father
was just asking me about you and Keith," she said, her eyebrows raised.
"Yes," my father said, frowning. "She said that Keith already had a girlfriend who works here. Meghan?"
"Yes, as far as I knew, Keith is dating Meghan. I had no idea you two were..." Becca said, shrugging.
"And that Keith is a CPA, not a bicycle courier," my father said, clearing his throat. "It seems that Joshua Macintyre is the one who rides a bike around here. And," he said meaningfully. "There's no bicycle courier business in the building."
"Becca, can you excuse us?" I said, my face hot with embarrassment. "We need to have a chat."
"Okay," she said and had this sheepish expression on her face. "If you want to talk later, we can."
"We should," I said. "Just to clear a few things up."
Becca finally left us and so I closed the door and turned to face my parents, who were looking at me expectantly.
"Tell me you're dating Joshua Macintyre," my mother said.
At the same time, my father said, "Tell me you're not dating Joshua Macintyre..."
They glanced at each other and I could have laughed out loud at how differently the two of them saw the whole business, except I felt sick to my stomach.
"I just made it all up to keep you from worrying about me."
"Keith seemed willing to play along. How come?"
"Because he's a nice guy and realized I had used him as a convenient excuse and went along with it to save me?" I said, hoping it would be enough to throw my father off the trail.
"So, you're not dating Joshua Macintyre?" my father asked, unwilling to give me a break.
"I met him," I said, not wanting to lie, but also not wanting to admit how close we had become. My father opened his mouth to speak but I interrupted him, holding my hand out to stop him. "But we both were burned before and neither of us believe in romance anymore." While that was true, we definitely felt romantic towards each other.
"So, you are dating him," my mother said, smiling.
I stood there, feeling trapped, my fists clenched. "It's not at all what you think. We're friends."
"How do you know what I think?" my father asked.
"You told me that you think he's like his father," I said, reminding him what he'd said earlier about Josh. "You said he was probably a chip off the old block, if I recall correctly."
