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Okay, I will admit it, at least to myself. I’m devastated.
I wish I could be Rochelle’s man. Her Manster, as somebody called it.
I’m more like a monster. Lonely. Prickly. Stupid. Weird. A freak.
I shake it off and get back to my project. I’m deep into it as my colleagues start leaving the office for the evening.
I’ll stay.
There’s nothing for me out there.
Nothing except heartbreak.
My desk phone begins to ring. Startled, I stare at it a moment before picking it up on the sixth ring. “Hello?”
“Alaric? This is Carson.”
“Car-Carson? Like my boss Carson?”
He chuckles lightly. “They call me the boss, yeah. Listen, I noticed that you’re here late. I want you to go home. You have a life, you know.”
No, I don’t.
“Yes, you do. Seriously. We can’t have you burning out before you’ve even been here a month. Go home. Come back fresh tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir. Good night, sir.”
“Call me Carson. And good night to you, too, Alaric.”
I hang up. But I don’t go home. I turn off the overhead light and keep working by the light of my screen.
My phone rings again. I pick it up but don’t answer.
“Go home, Alaric,” Carson says without identifying himself. “Now.”
“How—”
“Rochelle asked me to tell you that she’s waiting for you.”
My jaw drops. Rochelle called my boss?
“She called earlier in the day and asked permission to come to the office to see you. I had to tell her that we really don’t allow non-employees in, but I said I’d try to send you home at a decent hour. It’s well past that now.”
“Rochelle?” I repeat like a fucking idiot.
“She said she was your girlfriend.” There’s a pause, while my brain spins around she said she was your girlfriend—a thing I’ve dreamed about having. A person deeply longed for. Carson speaks again. “If she’s not, and she’s harassing you, I’ve got your back on that. Really. Just say the word.”
“I love her,” I whisper.
“Well, good,” Carson says. “Love is vital. Everybody needs it. Go see her. She says she’s really sorry, she didn’t mean to make you feel bad, and she loves you like crazy no matter what.”
She said that?
“Direct quotes,” Carson explains. “If you love her, go see her.”
“I do.”
“Get outta here, then!” I can actually hear the smile in his voice.
