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“Nobody. Just some guy from high school.”
“Then he’s not nobody.”
“It doesn’t matter who he is. If he knows me, we can’t take this assignment.” Sadie pushed away from the desk and put her head in her hands. “Sorry, I have a sudden headache.”
“Sadie?” I wanted to brush back her hair and make sure she was okay, but I waited, not sure what to do.
“Everything okay over there?” Wendy asked from behind us, her voice full of sympathetic interest.
Sadie’s back stiffened.
I turned and glared at Wendy. “I will tell Marcel you’re the mystery bathroom clogger from the first floor if you don’t stick your earbuds in right now and let her be.”
Wendy huffed in offense. “How dare you? I’m never even on the first floor.”
“That’s what a guilty person would say.”
Sadie put her hand out in a ‘calm down, killer’ gesture and sat up. “No, it’s fine, Wendy. I was a little shocked is all.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Sadie twisted a strand of her hair around her finger, looking pensive. “It’s just… I never expected to see my evil long-lost twin on here. We were separated at birth, but we found each other last year on Ancestry.com.”
Wendy rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry I asked. Never mind me.” She turned back around in a huff and hunched over her computer. Her credibility in the gossip chain had definitely taken a hit after the alien-boyfriend rumors backfired on her.
“Take a walk with me?” I whispered. I moved to log out of everything, but Sadie shook her head.
“Wait. I have to respond to him first.” She thought for a minute and typed out:
Hey.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Now he can’t say I’m ignoring him.”
We logged out and went for a walk.
Chapter 21 – Sadie
Once the shock wore off, I realized just how stupid my overreaction had been. Denver kept looking at me with genuine concern while we strolled down the hallway. I didn’t deserve his concern. The whole point of pushing someone away was for them tostay away. But not Denver.
You would think I could make myself unlikeable enough for the job. Especially with all my experience in it. I did not make a good first impression. Or a second. Sometimes the third one was rough. That was when real conversations happened, and people realized my give-a-crap-o-meter was set a little differently than theirs.
Some of it was how I was wired. But some of it was thanks to people like YesMan, otherwise known as Kellen Tucker. He wasn’t the only one who had gifted me with trust issues, but he sure hadn’t helped. I had successfully avoided seeing him or any of my former friends from high school for, like, seven years. Now? I had to run into him now?
We stopped at the end of the hallway and looked out the window to the parking lot below. “Beautiful view,” I said sarcastically.
Denver slid between me and the window and did a thinking-man pose, showing off his profile. “It is now.”
“Ugh, you’re ridiculous.” I went to push him out of the way and instantly regretted it. He didn’t budge one bit, and now my palms were pressed against his abs. His very fine abs. Not that I was evaluating them. I let go and took a step back, avoiding his gaze.
“Do you want anything?” Denver asked, gesturing to the vending machines in the alcove to our right. Even the vending machines here had not escaped the GoWithFriends touch. They sold tropical juice blends instead of Coke, and cauliflower chips in smiley-faced packages instead of Lays. Yeah, we were pretty much guaranteed privacy over on this end of the floor.
I shook my head. “Let’s just go see Marcel and get this over with.”
“I’m your partner, Sadie. I deserve a heads up. Who is this guy?”
“He was a bad friend.”
