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“She called me. She needs me,” Reagan pleaded.
“Yeah. Of course,” she replied before stepping back and letting her inside.
/> Doing away with pretense, Reagan ran toward the end of the hall where she remembered Libby’s o ce was. This time, white curtains obscured her view inside.
Asking Taylor to wait outside until she was sure Libby wanted to see her didn’t go over well. It was obvious Taylor was used to knowing everything happening with her boss
and being left out was visibly uncomfortable. After begging Taylor to trust her, she agreed and let her go in alone.
“Libby?” Reagan asked, glancing around at the empty o ce. Deciding she couldn’t be anywhere else, she darted for the bathroom. “Libby?” she repeated softly against the door.
“In here,” Libby replied, her words trembling.
Sitting in the corner with her knees pressed against her chest, Libby’s eyes were pu y and her nose bright red.
“What happened?” Reagan asked as she squeezed in between her and the sink. “Did something come of that stupid post? I don’t even think anyone’s even seen it. There weren’t any comments on it, and I didn’t see it shared anywhere.”
“Are you trying to tell me this extremely embarrassing nervous breakdown is premature?”
Reagan wrapped her arm around Libby’s shoulders and pulled her in for a side hug. “Well, I’m glad you’ve got your sense of humor back. Now that you’re intelligible, do you want to tell me why you’re so upset?”
Libby’s head lolled to the side and dropped on her shoulder. “I’d rather wait for the ground to swallow me whole.”
“You might be waiting a while. It would have to eat thirty-something other floors first. Maybe you should sit in the basement instead. It would be a lot faster.”
Libby snu ed and chuckled at the same time before burying her head in the nape of Reagan’s neck. “I’m so selfish. Even in my own demise, I would take a few thousand people with me,” she wailed before starting to cry again.
“That’s being a little dramatic, don’t you think? One person’s opinion is not worth falling apart over. Especially when they won’t even put their name on it.”
“Stop being so nice to me. I don’t deserve it. You do remember what that person said is true, right?” Libby sat up
and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “We’re not really in a relationship. I’m paying you to be my girlfriend. How am I not an exploitive fake?”
“Okay, but that wasn’t really the accusation,” Reagan countered, not wanting to address the arrangement portion of their connection.
“But they’re right. I hadn’t tried to serve anyone but straight people. In, like, five years I think we’ve helped maybe a handful of guys find each other, and those were people we already knew. They were more like favors for friends.” Libby shut her eyes so tight it looked painful. “How can I pretend that I hadn’t been proactively looking to be inclusive until I started dating you?”
Reagan nodded. “Okay, and you need to own that. You didn’t think about all the di erent sorts of people out there looking for love, but now you are. And it’s never too late to improve, right? Where would we be if people never humbled themselves and used whatever power they have to improve the world around them after realizing they’d been a bit myopic?” She paused. “Do you want my advice?”
“I think that’s kind of obvious since you’re the first person I called,” she joked before blowing her nose with toilet paper. “The only person I called.”
At the sight of Libby’s smile breaking through swollen lips, Reagan’s stomach unclenched. “I’m glad you did because I don’t feel exploited in the least.”
Libby cringed. “It was never my intent to use you,” she whispered, her words thick and heavy as they struggled out of her throat. “There was our agreement, of course, but I didn’t pick you to make some kind of salacious spectacle. If I ever made you feel that way . . .” Fat tears ran down her slim cheeks. “I’m so sorry, and you’re a hundred percent free to back out at any time. No penalties or anything, and I’m happy to put that in writing.”
Reagan chuckled and pulled Libby into her arms, inhaling the sweet scent of her perfume. “I don’t want out,” she confessed, her heart hammering uncontrollably in her chest.
“I want the opposite of out, and I’m kind of shocked you don’t see that. Actually . . .” she leaned back to get a good look at her eyes, a dazzling green compared to how red the whites were. Jumping o a cli without a failsafe, Reagan confessed what had taken her a little while to put together.
“I like you. And it has nothing to do with pretending for your job.”
Libby’s eyes widened. “I. . .” Gathering her breath as if she was about to run headlong into a cement barrier, she continued. “I really like you too. Like . . . a lot.”
Willingly, Reagan surrendered to the unknown. She leaned forward as she contemplated the meaning of Libby’s words. No, her words didn’t spur her forward. It was everything she wasn’t saying. It was the new emotion seizing her pretty eyes. Nothing like the sorrow she’d been overcome with when Reagan first plopped down next to her.
It was hope and desire and trepidation. It was the look of a woman about to plunge into the unknown right along with her.“Reagan,” Libby whispered as she narrowed the space between them. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she confessed as her eyes darted between Reagan’s eyes and her lips. “I have absolutely no idea—”
“What are you all doing in here?”
