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“No, I’m serious.” Addie was a little annoyed. Was it that incredible to think she might have met a guy? “A friend of the groom, who’s an old friend of mine.”
“Weddings are great places to meet people. All that love in the air.” Linda leaned across the table, eyes hungry. “Tell me about him. Does he live close by? Is he from Maine? Will you see him again?”
“Well, actually...” Addie leaned in, too. She wanted this to have maximum impact, to enjoy Linda’s shock and dismay. “He asked me to leave New York and live with him.”
“Oh, my gosh!” she yelped. More people turned to look. “After a week? Where is he from? What does he do?”
“He’s a charter yacht captain. Based in Hawaii.”
Linda gasped so hard she started choking on her sandwich, and had to hold her hand up to tell Addie to wait, and then drink water a few times. “Oh. My. God. You have to tell me everything.”
Addie told her the short version, leaving out the part about Kevin and climbing into Derek’s bed by mistake, though her whole body was remembering that part so vividly she kept leaving bits out of the story and having to backtrack. Linda, either very polite or totally enraptured, hung on to every word. Addie told her how Derek had taken her to watch the sunset, how he’d shown up to surprise her when she was sunbathing privately—Addie left out naked—how he’d taken her on a moonlit rowboat ride and danced with her by a river under the stars.
And then how after only three full days, he’d asked her to give up her job, her apartment, her well-ordered life, and follow him out onto the ocean to go who-knew-where for who-knew-how-long, who-knew-when.
Crazy, right?
Silence as Linda stared at her in horror and sympathy. Slowly, slowly, the pain in Addie’s stomach started to lift. Here was someone who’d understand. Someone who’d be able to tell Addie to her face that she’d done the right thing. Sarah thought Addie was nuts. Ellen thought Addie was nuts. Paul thought Addie was nuts.
Linda would understand.
“Are you nuts?”
Addie was so shocked she sat there with a carrot stick halfway up to her mouth.
“You came back here?” Linda gestured around the cafeteria. “Instead of living on a yacht? With a guy you were completely crazy about? You came back here? To this? This company and this cafeteria? And that carrot?”
Her voice became louder with each phrase. Her face turned bright red. Around them people were falling silent. By the time she said “carrot” she was practically shouting.
Addie managed to put the carrot down.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Linda looked around, noticed people staring and lowered her voice. “Will he still take you?”
Addie’s eyes shot wide. “No. I mean I don’t know, but no, I can’t go. I’m not the type of person who can just up and leave everything I’ve built for myself. I can’t handle huge changes like that. And boats...I don’t think it’s for me.”
“Oh, so you mean last time you tried living with an amazing hunk on a yacht you didn’t like it?”
“I never said he was an amazing hunk.”
“Is he?”
“Well...” Addie wrinkled her nose. “Yes. But that’s not the point.”
“Agreed. The point is that you are nuts. Boats have schedules, too, they have to, to function smoothly. And after you’ve been on it for a while the life will become second nature like anything else. How long has this guy been at it, you think he’s enthralled with every new day, with every aspect of his job?”
“I guess not.”
“But he wants to be enthralled every new day. With you, Addie.” She shook her head slowly, eyes narrowed. “And you said no.”
Addie could only sit and blink at her.
“Go.” Linda was whispering. “Go now. Just walk right out of here. Tell you what... I’ll take care of your paperwork. We can give you whatever, vacation time, sick time, short-term disability, you leave that to me. If you go and change your mind in the first month or so, you’ll still have a job to come back to. I’m sure you can manage your rent for a few months. But for God’s sake, don’t let this pass you by.”
