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“He’s not,” Tyler says. “He had every right to call me, and he was entirely reasonable about the whole thing. More reasonable than I would have been in his position, I think. One of the contractors turned up with the samples of the pebbles for the garden as we had arranged. He chose one and a couple of hours later, the contractor returned with a truck full of them and dumped them all in his current garden. He wouldn’t listen when Malcolm tried to tell him it was the wrong site, that the place they were for isn’t even built yet he was just choosing them so I could get them quicker when the time came.”
“Oh God, that sounds awfully messy,” I say with a laugh.
“Oh, it was,” Tyler says. “I hope your time was spent a lot better than mine.”
“It was,” I say. “Your sister and her friends and your parents are all so nice. And who could resist little Mia?”
“She’s the best isn’t she,” he says.
I smile and nod my head. It’s obvious he adores Mia. It makes me wonder why he doesn’t want his own children, but I know I have had far too much to drink to even broach that subject right now and so I let it go. I suppose it’s different being the favorite uncle and getting to do all the fun stuff and then hand the kids back when the more serious stuff comes into play.
13
SUMMER
It’s the Monday after the barbecue and Tyler and I are back at work. We are having our lunch break. Instead of going out for lunch, Tyler slipped out earlier to grab us some sandwiches and we’re eating them in his office. We finish eating and Tyler stands up.
“I’m going to the breakroom to grab a coffee. Do you want one?” he asks.
“Yes please,” I say.
While he’s gone, I sit and scroll through my Twitter feed on my cell phone. I jump slightly when Tyler’s cell phone goes off, the sound of an incoming message, and the vibration through his desk scaring me for a second. The cell phone is right on the edge of the desk and as it vibrates, it moves closer to the edge, and I can see that it’s going to fall so I reach out and pick it up to stop it from falling off the desk.
“What the hell are you doing?” Tyler demands from behind me.
He sounds super pissed off and I put both cell phones down and turn to face him. He isn’t looking at me, he’s looking at his cell phone. He crosses the office and sits down, putting the coffees on the desk and snatching the cell phone up.
“Excuse me?” I say, pissed off myself because of the way he has spoken to me.
“What were you doing with my cell phone?” he asks. The anger seems to be gone from his voice now, but he’s still looking at me with a pissed off expression on his face.
“I was stopping it from vibrating itself onto the floor,” I say. “It went off and the vibration sent it skittering across the desk. Why? What did you think I was doing?”
“Reading my messages,” Tyler says with a shrug.
“Reading your messages? Why the hell would I want to do that? And what is so bad in there that this is your reaction?” I demand.
“There’s nothing bad in there, I just need to know that I can trust you. I don’t like the idea of being spied on, that's all. I mean you understand, don’t you?” Tyler says.
“Oh, I understand alright,” I say. “Don’t worry. Next time, I’ll let it fall on the floor and break.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Tyler says.
“I couldn’t give a fuck what you meant,” I say. “I’m not going to get accused of spying on you again, so if it happens again, the cell phone falls.” I reach out and pick up my coffee and my own cell phone and I stand up. “Thanks for the coffee. I’d best get back to my work.”
“Summer wait,” Tyler says before I’m even halfway across his office. I ignore him and I hear him getting up behind me. He rushes across the room and gets between me and the door. “Please. I overreacted and I’m sorry. I know you aren’t like that. I just… yeah… I’m sorry. Don’t leave. Please.”
He looks like he really means it and my heart melts. I suppose I get it. If it had been the other way around, I might have assumed the same thing myself and if I thought he was going through my cell phone, I might have reacted in much the same way.
“Ok,” I say softly.
Tyler seems to sag slightly like the relief has deflated him momentarily. He puts his hands on my face, one on each cheek and kisses me. I kiss him back for a moment and then I pull back.
“Ok, that’s enough,” I smile. “This kind of thing is very much not a work Summer thing.”
Tyler looks confused and I laugh.
“Forget it,” I say. “I just mean if we keep kissing, we’re going to get carried away and that’s a big no-no for us here in the office remember.”
