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It wasn’t as though I could go anywhere tonight beyond the room, so there was no reason to hurry away. When we got home, I’d leave them alone.
Tonight, I got to enjoy the peace in my head, and the people by my side.
* * *
Sunday morning, we checked out, grabbed breakfast, and headed home. I tried to get Megan to sit up front with Nigel, but she insisted that my legs were longer, and she refused tostealmy spot, in her words.
The drive home was as fun as the drive there had been, and I couldn’t find the desire to fight it.
When they dropped me off at my place, I felt weird walking in alone. This was the way it had been for years, and the way it would be for many more. It wasn’t as though I’d go with them, back to either of their places. It wasn’t like I was going to insert myself into their lives long term.
Megan promised to call me, and tried to tell herdon’t worry about it, but the words didn’t come.
I stepped into my empty apartment, and let the solitude sink in around me. The quiet that had always been my savior.
Tonight, it left a ringing in my ears and sent tension coiling through me.
I should call Katherine back, accept the stripper job, and prepare for the week ahead of finding work—both short and long term. Instead, I spent the next few hours unpacking, doing laundry, and psyching myself up to do what I needed.
Okay. I was going to do this. No more hesitating. Grab my phone. Pull up recent numbers.
Click on Nigel’s name and type out a text that saidhey, do you think I could swing by your offices tomorrow morning? Get that tour you offered?
I sent it before the smart part of me could stop me. What kind of idiot was I?
Totally. Nigel’s reply came quickly.If you want to come by at about ten, I can give you the grand tour and we can go get Megan for lunch after.
Sounds awesome. I’ll be there. Stupid for me to reply, but I’d done it. There was no taking it back.
It was okay. Nigel was a business contact. He worked in the industry I wanted to be in and had for years. He could introduce me to people. It wasn’t like a tour of his work place, or even lunch, was going to end in sex. Or late-night conversations about loneliness. Or laughing at the dark humor around tattoos. Or laughing about nude boxing.
Nope. It didn’t have to involve any of those things, and as long as I resolved right now to keep tomorrow professional, everything would be fine.
23
nigel
Iwas bummed when Landon insisted on going home last night, but what else was he going to do?
I was giddy that Megan insisted on going tomyhome.
And arriving at work on Monday morning, I was ready to do a little soul—err, bug—crushing with my work. When I logged into my machine, there were a string of messages from Fallyn, detailing an exploit she’d found.
Give me some time to read through.
Wasn’t ignoring you.
We took the weekend off.
Wait. Game was offline. Wereyouworking?
I fired the replies off in rapid succession, then finished settling in for the day. There was no telling if she’d reply now, or in six hours. It depended on how late she’d been up last night.
You mean they let you people have weekends off? ;) I can’t fathom. Lucky bastard. Fallyn was online.
I smiled in the empty office.You dug your own grave by making your own schedule. You could always still work for me.
One, who wants to live in Utah? And two, I’m happy in my little goth coffin in my self-inflicted grave. The exploit is something I found when we were working last week. I haven’t had a chance to verify it yet, Fallyn wrote.
