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At the same time, nowhere on her strategy was the note to tell her friends and family what had happened. Not yet, anyway. Lauren liked to keep things to herself for a while, because it took her a long time to process them in such a way that she could then make sense of them and talk about them.
Every time she closed her eyes for longer than a blink, she saw Mark weeping. She saw the toppled cubicle dividers. She saw the fish bowl conference rooms.
She had received several texts from people today. At least thirty or forty from former employees of Simple Solutions. They’d all lost their jobs, so Lauren wasn’t the only one. Still, that didn’t make it sting any less.
Cass, Joy, Bessie, and Bea had texted her, and as she sat at the table and lifted her first and only glass of Prosecco to her lips, another message came in. This one bore Cherry’s name, and it said,How does this dress look for Cass’s wedding? I’ve asked a few other people, but I really trust your opinion.
Lauren smiled as the picture came in, and Cherry looked stunning in a bright red dress that hugged all of her curves. She was six or seven years older than Lauren, and she and Jed Forrester had no children either. Lauren had seen how blissfully happy they were, and she’d started to see that she didn’t need to be a mother to be filled with joy.
She told Cherry,You look like a million bucks. Wear that for sure.
Cass won’t be outshined?
Not at all.
With this talk, Lauren remembered the wedding. She’d been fine to attend alone before, but now the thought made her shoulders sag and her heart sink to her feet.
Joy said you’re in Sweet Water Falls?Cherry asked.Want to do lunch tomorrow or are you leaving? Too busy at work?
Lauren didn’t answer, because she didn’t have a flight booked, nor would she be sleeping in her house. She’d taken out a room at the resort here, on the highest floor they’d give her, so she could witness the Gulf as far as her eyes could see.
She picked up her black gel pen and wrote on her strategy outline.Get a date to Cass’s wedding.
The words swam in her vision, and she blinked and went to her phone. Now, to find a date.
She scrolled through her contacts, stalling very early in the alphabet.
The B’s, in fact.
Blake Williams.
Her heartbeat stalled. Could she ask him to be her date? Would he be there anyway? He was one of Harrison’s good friends.
Without planning or strategically outlining her message, her fingers flew across the screen.Hey, Blake. It’s Lauren Keller. Do you have a date to Cass’s and Harrison’s wedding? If not, I’d love to hang on your arm for the evening. No strings attached.
Without even reading over it again, she sent the message. She felt wild, impulsive, and oh-so-desperate. But if she could keep the news of her company’s failure, her lost job, and her complete and utter humiliation off her friends’ radar until after the wedding, she would.
She didn’t want Cass worried about her on her honeymoon. She didn’t want Bessie texting her every evening. She didn’t want Joy to look at her with mournful eyes.
And she absolutely didn’t want to attend the wedding alone.
She checked her phone, but Blake hadn’t texted back. An hour passed, and Lauren had her food boxed and she took it up to her room.
He still hadn’t answered, and she wondered if she’d shocked him into silence with her invitation. They hadn’t exactly been on the best of speaking terms prior to this. The last time they’d truly talked, he’d offered her a job, and she’d laughed and told him no.
“A job,” she whispered to herself, wondering if Blake could possibly A) be willing to let her hang on his arm at the wedding and B) still have a job opening.
She wouldn’t know until he texted back, and her phone stayed stubbornly silent all the way until she went to bed, and Lauren disliked the unsettled feeling of having something on her list that she’d started but which hadn’t been finished.
3
Just forget about what I said, Lauren typed out the next morning. Blake still hadn’t answered, and her annoyance with his lack of communication reminded her of why she’d not gone out with him in the first place. Or rather, she had agreed to a date, and he’d never shown up.
She sent that text and started typing another.I was just in a bad place last night, and—
Her phone rang in the middle of the next word, and she nearly dropped it at the sight of Blake’s name on the screen. Her throat narrowed again, and she got transported back to the twelfth floor.
The phone rang again, a shrill tone that made her blink. She flew into motion and swiped on the call. She then lifted her device to her ear in slow motion. “Hello?”
