AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Work had become a bother to me, and the meetings were hard to get through. The one I was currently in was something about internal marketing we were going to be doing. It was pointless for me to be there since I had already signed off on everything, but it was expected of me to be there and be present. Well, I was there, but I definitely wasn’t present. I looked down at my phone and smiled as a text popped up from Amanda. She had sent me a picture of herself making a funny face. I sent her a message back saying I was in a meeting, with about ten skulls after it. We conversed back and forth for a minute, and then I put my phone down.
There were people at the front of the room doing a presentation, but their voices had faded to the background as I stared out the window at nothing in particular. Thoughts of Amanda ran through my head, and I started planning out our next date. I wanted to take her somewhere out of the city, somewhere we could relax without worrying about running into people like Sarah. As I made a checklist in my head, I was pulled back into the room.
“Hey,” John whispered. “You still in there?”
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “Sorry.”
“At least try to pay attention,” he said. “These people worked really hard on this, and they are looking for your approval. You don’t even look like you’re inside of your body.”
I pulled myself up in the chair and tried to focus in on the rest of the meeting. John was right. Whether I liked it or not, I was leading these people, and they were looking to me for input and guidance. I might not have liked it at that moment, but that was the way I built the company. When the meeting was over, I talked with the group for a little while and gave them the sign off on the project. They all seemed excited that their hard work was being noticed. I knew I needed to at least try to be present for these people. I went back to my office and sat down behind the computer, opening up my email. Before I could answer anyone back, though, John walked in, sitting down in front of my desk.
“Where is my secretary?” I asked.
“She went to lunch,” John said. “Why do I know that, but you don’t?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, rubbing my face.
“What is going on with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me,” I said. “Everything is right with me, and I can’t get it out of my head.”
“Would you like to try explaining that to me without speaking in riddles?”
“I can’t stop thinking about Amanda,” I blurted out. “I’ve fallen head over heels in love with her.”
Normally, after telling your best friend that you fell in love with a girl, you would be greeted with applause and happy comments. However, as I sat there waiting for John’s response, his face went from concerned to unhappy. It was the same face he gave me when he told me about my ex, and I didn’t like what was happening at all. Why was it that I couldn’t have my best friend be there and happy for me, and what was so bad about me being in love? I shifted in my chair and tapped on the desk, grabbing his attention.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking himself back into reality. “I’m happy for you. I am.”
“But…”
“But I want you to be careful,” he said. “I don’t have a good feeling about her. I have been thinking about that since I met her at the party, but I didn’t want to say anything because you looked so damn happy.”
I sat there for a minute, trying to soak his words into my head. I felt like I was having deja vu, especially since this whole scenario had happened with my ex. How could he feel that way about the only two women I had ever fallen in love with? Sure, he was right about my ex, so right that sometimes it stung, but what were the odds that I found another woman that was the same exact way, and John caught on to it? It was impossible.
“You might have been right once, but you won’t be right again,” I said with a slight chuckle. “You are freaking out about my love life more than I am. Amanda is an amazing girl, and you haven’t said more than two polite words to her in your life. How in the world could you come up with that conclusion after watching me with her for a few hours? Do you have these feelings about all of your friend’s girlfriends?”
“She is your girlfriend now?”
“Yes, she is my girlfriend now,” I said. “Why is it so hard for everyone to believe that I just might be happy with one girl? I let go of all the shit from the past. Now that I have, my best friend has become some kind of relationship Buddha. You really should open up a shop and start doing psychic work.”
“I’m serious,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m not trying to ruin anything for you. I want you to be happy. What would it do for me if you were unhappy? Yes, I might have only spent a few minutes with her, but that was enough for me to know that there was something off about her.”
“Maybe there is something off about you, John,” I said, irritated. “This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. I know Amanda better than you think I do, and there is nothing wrong with her or our relationship.”
“You’ve known the girl five seconds,” he said. “How can you know anything about her in that little bit of time? Do you really think she would stop and go, ‘Hey I’m using you.’ Come on, man. Open your eyes, and at least think about what I am saying. If I’m wrong, then great, but I really think you are being blind right now.”
“And I think that you are being paranoid as hell,” I said. “Look, we both have a ton of work to get done. I don’t have time for this right now.”
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” he said, standing up. “I am just trying to be a good friend. You told me you never wanted me to hold back on any of this ever again, and I’m not. I came to you to tell you what I thought. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
I looked up at him and sighed, watching him leave the office and walk down the hall. I got up and walked over to the door, slamming it shut. John had taken something perfect in my life for the first time ever and ripped the rug right out from under me. The last thing I needed was for someone to start putting those kinds of thoughts in my head. I felt com
pletely pissed, not even knowing what to do with myself. I couldn’t talk to Amanda about it, she would forever feel weird around John, and I really had no one else to confide in. I had a hard time believing that she would be that close to Jordan and Lindsey, and he wouldn’t tell me if something odd was going on.
I walked over to the window and looked out over the city, trying to calm myself down. It wasn’t often that I got mad, but when I did, it completely clouded my judgement. John’s warnings were doing exactly what he wanted them to do, plant a seed of doubt in my mind so that everything started looking suspicious with Amanda. I was not going to let that happen. I cared about her way too much for someone else to affect us like that. I knew that John didn’t mean to be malicious, he was just looking out for me, but he was being irrational. It might be out of his character to act that way, but people really had a good way of surprising me when I least expected it.
