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There was one guy, Frederick, who’d caught Lenna’s eye for other reasons, too. He wrote a lot of gossip stories about TikTok stars. They’d chatted in the break room, and Lenna had gotten a nice, gentle vibe. Frederick wore blazers and belts while the other guys rolled in wearing sweats. He never drank coffee, only packets of hot chocolate, and the one time he noticed Lenna reorganizing the messy stacks of coffee cups, he thanked her. He carried around books of poetry, said he wrote some, too. He reminded her of someone her mother might choose for her. Someone literary and thoughtful. Someone who also might have spent hours on a library couch as a child, inhaling novels.
About a week before, Lenna had told Rhiannon about her crush in a roundabout way. Casually, like it didn’t meantoomuch. “Huh,” Rhiannon had said. “Yeah, I guess I can see that.” It felt like she’d given her blessing.
“Hey, watch out,” called a voice.
Lenna shot up. Staring at her from the bar was that woman they’d seen the day of Lenna’s interview. Gillian.
Today, Gillian wore a short black dress and blocky silver heels. One hand cupped a lowball glass. The other pointed at Lenna’s feet. “You’re spilling your wine,” Gillian said.
Lenna looked down. She’d been so lost in thought that her glass had tilted. Wine splashed on her red suede ballet flat. “Shit.” The shoes had been a splurge.
“It’s okay.” Gillian snatched a bottle of club soda from behind the bar and a cocktail napkin. “This should help.”
She leaned down and blotted the splotches on Lenna’s shoe. Soon enough, the stains were gone. “Wow,” Lenna said. “Thank you.”
“Club soda is a miracle.”
They stood back up. Gillian smiled sheepishly. She didn’t actually seem that creepy up close. Certainly not the way Rhiannon portrayed her.
“You’re Lenna, right?”
“Yeah,” Lenna said. “And it’s…Gillian?”
“That’s right.” Then Gillian saluted her. “Anyway. See ya later. Happy summer.” She wended through the crowd.
Lenna felt a hand on her shoulder. “Hey.” Here was Rhiannon, finally. “Sorry that took so long. And, ugh, sorry this party is so lame.”
“No worries.” Lenna took in Rhiannon’s flushed cheeks and darting gaze. Her hands were still wet from the sink. “You all right?”
Rhiannon’s mouth twitched. She eyed Lenna’s wine. “Can I have a sip of that, actually?”
Lenna gave her the glass and watched as Rhiannon drained it. She laughed. “Do you want your own?”
Rhiannon placed it on the bar and shook her head. Her gaze was going in every direction. But then her eyes narrowed. “Why’sshehere?” She was looking at Gillian, who had moved to a vacated bistro table in the corner and was typing something on her phone.
“Oh,” Lenna started. “Uh, I don’t…”
“This is a party forouroffice. Not the whole building.”
Lenna chewed on her pinkie nail. Did it matter? She pointed to the writers. “So hey. Mind if we talk to them? I want to network.”
Rhiannon scanned the group. “I can’t even be near Philip right now. That guy is dead to me.”
“What did he do?”
Rhiannon just shook her head and muttered something underher breath. She was like this, Lenna had noticed. Black or white. You were everything to her, or you were absolutely nothing.
Then Rhiannon turned to Lenna pleadingly. “Can we just go? Max is coming over. I think he has a thing for me. I swear he can’t take a hint.”
“Max has a thing for you?” Lenna looked at the guy in question. Max was tall and had wavy hair. He was definitely the most handsome person in the office. “And that’sbad?”
“He’s not my type. I swear, all I did was have a nice conversation with him, maybe laugh at a joke that was legitimately funny…little did I know it would turn into this.” She rolled her eyes.
Lenna was always so puzzled about Rhiannon’s aversion to romance. Her friend attracted people wherever she went. She always said friendship was more important to her. Lessmessy.
“Seriously, let’s get the hell out of here before he gets down on one knee,” Rhiannon pressed. “Otherwise, I’m going to make you plan the wedding.”
“Um…” Lenna glanced longingly at the group of writers. She hadn’t seen Frederick before, but now he had joined the group, presumably from the bar. Her stomach swooped at the sight of him.
