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The last line of the job description read:Nonnegotiables: dark donut-dealing deeds, fondness for philodendra, and awesome alliteration abilities.
What.
I reread the whole listing. The rest of the ad sounded extremely normal: medical consultant to help communicate and verify the health benefits of human connection. It was definitely for an app, it was definitely legit, and with that last line, it was definitely Davis.
He... wanted me?
No way. I didn’t deserve this. Like he’d said, I’d judged him as privileged and careless and obnoxious from the moment I’d met him. Which maybe wasn’t his best moment.
It obviously wasn’t mine. That was another reason I didn’t deserve another chance after what I’d done. I’d made a mistake—several mistakes. Too many and too much to be forgiven.
I looked up and found Natalie staring at me, eyes round with concern. “You’ve been squeaking,” she said.
“Have I?”
“What is it?”
I showed her the job listing, and she squeaked too. “Are you going to apply?”
“No.” Obviously this was more than a job application. “Yes—no. I don’t deserve another chance.”
“Yeah, you did mess up.”
I pursed my lips at my sister. “Thanks for reminding me.”
She held up a hand, clearly not finished. “He obviously knows that. But if one mistake is all it takes to end your relationship, then it wasn’t much of a relationship in the first place.”
“It was a pretty big mistake.”
“Granted. But if he didn’t think he could forgive you for that mistake, he wouldn’t have created the job listing.”
“I’ve hurt him too much.”
Natalie raised an eyebrow. “And he’s never hurt you?”
“I deserved that.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “You deserved to have him pick a fight with you multiple times when you were just being nice?”
I opened my mouth to argue back, but then I remembered all the times he’d done that. It was a big reason why I hadn’t wanted to work with him. Maybe we were past it. Maybe. “But I have to be—I have to be perfect.”
Why did that sound so weak when I said it out loud?
“Do you?” Natalie’s sad smile looked more like a grimace. “Are you willing to forgive him for being less than perfect?”
I tried to give the question serious thought, but it was less than a second before I was nodding. “But—what I did was so, so wrong. I know better than that. He can’t ignore it.”
“Forgiving isn’t the same as ignoring. And isn’t that his call?”
I looked back at the job listing. He did seem to be making a judgement call here.
That still wasn’t a promise of smooth sailing. Natalie had just mentioned all those times Davis had brought up Adam to start an argument. He’d ended up being right, but that didn’t make it less annoying. Yes, he wanted something between us—hopefully more than just the job—but could he handle being close? Or would he pick another fight? “I don’t know.”
“You have to apply. How can you not? Maybe it won’t work out, but you’ve been obsessing over this guy for months.”
“I have not.”
Natalie nailed me with a sarcastic, lip-pursed stare. “Do you remember the first thing you said to me two months ago when I asked how your trip to San Francisco was?”
