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She rolled to her side, covering her face with her hands. “No,” she said, her voice muffled.
I sort of panicked then, searching behind her head for blood, looking at her arms and legs to see if they were intact. “Are you bleeding? Did you break something?”
She shook her head, her hands still covering her face. “I’m fine. I just kind of want to die right now.”
I smiled then, feeling relieved she was okay and finding her embarrassment more endearing than anything else. “Come on,” I said, nudging her, feeling the warmth of her skin under my hand and trying to focus on something else. “Let’s get you up.”
She reluctantly pulled her hands from her face and then placed one in mine. I helped her to stand. Once upright, she let go quickly, adjusted her red dress, and then pulled the bottom of the skirt down—a movement I had to basically force my gaze from. I purposefully looked at Nadia and Shane, only to find that neither of them had any idea what had just transpired. They hadn't even noticed Mila falling off her chair.
“Uh … thanks,” Mila said, looking mostly recovered from her fall, except for the color of her face, which nearly matched her dress. “I’ll just be …” She didn’t finish the sentence; she just nodded toward the exit and stalked off that way.
The next week, a picture of Dave and his butt chin showed up on her desk, and that was that. I keep telling myself it’s all for the best, but it feels more like I’m making up excuses. Even though as far as time for romantic relationships goes, I couldn’t be in a worse position.
“Well,” Shane says, bringing me out of my memory. “Maybe you can make up for all that in Hawaii.”
“That’s a work trip,” I say, giving him a side-eye glare.
“And then a wedding,” he says.
“Of course,” I say, rolling up the cuffs of my shirt, hoping it might feel a little cooler.
“You’re welcome, by the way.”
“For?”
“For my winning idea to test the app before the wedding.”
I side-eye him again. “Yes, thanks for that,” I say, even though it was really Vik who convinced me to do it.
I wasn’t considering it until I talked to Vik the morning after I’d had drinks with Shane, and he was making his last-ditch effort to get me to his wedding. Even when Vik proposed a similar idea, my first instinct was to say no, but then he said the words that made me second-guess it all:“You could take Mila with you, since she needs to be there too. Test it out like a couple on vacation.”
Like a couple on vacation.
My mouth had literally gone dry when he said it. The idea went from not so great to having some merit. A lot of merit, actually. My brain had immediately started coming up with an entire checklist of reasons to go. It’s true that testing it in a touristy spot is a good idea, and also true that we both could attend the wedding that way.
My brain also couldn’t help but conjure up pictures of Mila and me on a tropical island … together. Well, Mila and me and a bunch of other tourists. But I started to envision us doing the tourist thing together, getting a chance to spend time with one another. In a friendly, totally platonic way, of course.
That’s what I keep telling myself. But maybe subconsciously I want to spend time with her so I can burst the bubble that is Mila. Maybe knowing her more will make me want her less. Somehow, I doubt that. It will probably make it worse, and then where will I be? She’s got a boyfriend, and I’m basically in a relationship with my job, with no end in sight.
I need to stop thinking about it because regardless of how I feel, this is a work trip, and Mila’s got butt-chin Dave. Also, when I told her about the testing before the wedding plan, she wasn’t thrilled about it. I thought she’d be happy she now has a way to attend Nadia’s wedding, but she didn’t seem excited at all. I then thought maybe it was because of Dave and how he might feel about the whole thing, but she stamped that out. So then, does that leave me? … Am I the reason?
Whatever it is, what’s done is done. Plane tickets have been purchased, hotel rooms and a rental car have all been reserved using the app. So far, so good. Great, even. Not a glitch or an issue in sight. It needs to stay that way.
“Should we grab a beer?” Shane asks once the tailor has come over and made the necessary tweaks Shane wants. I’m not sure what he needs fixed. Everything looks great. Then again, expensive suits and weddings are not my forte. As I mentioned, I’ve only been in a couple of them, and I’ve never been married myself. I haven’t even been close to it. My last long-term relationship was eight years ago, and there’s been nothing since. Well, except for this long-term thing I’m in with AppInnovate. Which, from an outside perspective, is probably a bit toxic. A lot of love/hate going on between the both of us.
I’ve been working too much. Which is evident by the fact that I’m thinking about my company like it’s an actual person.
“I can’t,” I tell Shane, giving myself one last look in the mirror. Just being here is a stretch for me right now. I’ve got to get back to my dysfunctional relationship.
“Yeah, okay,” he says with a half-smile. “I knew I was pushing it.”
“Once I get GlobeTrotter off the ground, I’ll have more time.”
“You said that when you were working on TourSpotter,” he says, a mocking smile on his lips. Then his smile drops, and he gives me a fake serious look. “It’s like your work is coming between us. Am I nothing to you anymore?”
“Uh, I believe I became chopped liver the moment you set eyes on Nadia.”
“Yeah, you’re second best now, buddy. Sorry.”
