AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So,…” I said when she said,
“I was think…”
Then I said, “How’re you feeling?”
“Shitty,” she said.
Conversation didn’t flow, we struggled to find the words to talk to each other.
“Maybe I should give you some space to feel better?” I suggested.
I had no idea what I meant exactly, or maybe I did.
She was quiet for a bit and then she said, “Maybe that’s a good idea.”
I put down the phone with a strangely flat feeling in my stomach.
When Summer and I got back to the hotel room, there was a note from Evie saying there was a crisis back at the office and that she’d left to go fix it. She’d see me back in San Francisco.
“She just left?” Summer said, staring at me.
“I know this client, they can be very difficult,” I said in Evie’s defense. I was relieved, I couldn’t deny it. She had given both of us a way out of a tricky situation. We could have a bit of a think about how to handle this. At least, that was what I thought.
Chapter 13
Evie
Is it a break up if you were never together?
This is the question that bothers me over the next few days. Ever since that phone call and the flight back to San Francisco, I am plagued by thoughts of it being all over between us. There can be no denying the awkwardness of that phone conversation we’d had on the last day. He did not want to be talking to me, I could hear it. He was freaked out by what had happened, no other way of putting it.
I couldn’t call him out on it as he was my boss. I had nothing to gain from challenging him or upsetting him. I wanted to keep my job but it was increasingly looking like that was not going to happen. I had feelings for Tate Sagarro, I might as well admit it. Even if I was going to hide it.
Fortunately, he had a conference in Reno the rest of the week and we could avoid each other, communicating via text messages. I did go to Summer’s swimmeet as I’d promised her the week before. Just because things between her father and I were weird did not mean that I had to push her away.
“You came!” She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.
“You were amazing!”
I told the nanny to take the night off, that I would give Summer her dinner and spend the night.
“Are you sure?” The nanny was an au pair from Sweden who’d been travelling around the US until she ran out of money. She had a tempestuous relationship with the drummer of a moderately successful band and they were always breaking up and getting back together. Whenever I wanted to feel good about my being single, I asked her about her relationship with Tank, as the boyfriend was called.
“They’re playing at Los Lamas tonight,” Annika said. “I’d love to see them.”
“It’s fine, really.” It was too, I liked spending time with Summer. We would watch Real Housewives, eat junk food and I’d spend the night in the guest room. As I put her to bed that night, making sure she brushed her teeth the full two minutes, she asked me suddenly, “Did you and Dad have a fight?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You haven’t been around all week and when I asked him about it, Dad was all weird about it.”
“Like how?” I wanted to hear what she’d say.
“I don’t know, like, weird,” she shrugged.
“I guess we did, yeah,” I said. It was a kind of fight. The kind where nobody yelled or used bad language, but it was still bad between you.
“I bet it’s all his fault,” Summer said. “You’re just too nice.”
