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The hard edge to his voice disappeared, leaving it raw and vulnerable. I thought about pointing out that none of the things he listed actually involved sharing something personal. Maybe I hid behind my work, but he hid behind his too.
“Fine. We slept together,” I said before relaying to the worker that we’d like two coffees.
“I can’t believe you slept with her! When?” Oliver exclaimed. The barista gave us a strange look as she took my credit card. I shifted my eyes to the floor.
“Don’t sound so shocked,” I said, taking our coffees and handing him one.
“Harrison and I had a bet going to see if you’d ever bring a girl home.”
I glared at him. “Glad you two are so respectful of my privacy. You do know there are other places I can go, right?”
In reality, before Charlie it had been a while since my last date.
Oliver shook his head and flopped down into a seat at the back of the coffee shop. “I’m just glad you got out there. I was worried about your socialization.”
“Thanks for the concern, but I’m fine.”
He snorted. “Clearly not judging from the chilly temperatures up there with Lila and Charlie.”
I sipped my coffee, hating this conversation already. “We work together. It’s complicated.”
“That’s such a fucking cliché thing to say. So what if you work together? Like seventy-five percent of people meet their partners at work.”
“I think you made that stat up.”
“So what if I did. A lot of people meet at work. It’s not like you and Charlie are this anomaly.”
“I’m her boss.” I felt like a broken record. All of these excuses were the same ones I had told myself at least a hundred times. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t me that pushed her away. If she didn’t want to pursue this, there was nothing I could do about it.
“Well, what happened? If you’ve got such a strong moral compass, why did you do it?”
I gripped my cup tighter. “Look, I don’t want to talk about this, okay?”
He sucked in his bottom lip and eyed me up and down. “Shit,” he muttered.
“What?”
“She dumped you.”
“There was no dumping involved. We never had the chance to start anything."
“You look heartbroken.”
I sighed exasperatedly. “I’m not heartbroken, would you stop being so dramatic? She merely pointed out that it would be best if we acted as if nothing happened between the two of us, and I agreed with her.”
“You agreed with her while slowly dying inside.” He stuck out his bottom lip.
“You’re impossible. I’m fine, she’s fine, everything is fine.”
“I don’t know, man. She didn’t seem fine up there. She couldn’t even look at you. And why would Lila be giving you the cold shoulder if everything was fine?”
I had been wondering that same thing myself. But what could be done about it? I couldn’t outright ask Lila why she was being cold. Perhaps she just didn’t like me. She certainly wouldn’t be the first.
“Maybe it’s unrelated,” I offered. “I can be a bit abrasive at work.”
“Not surprised,” he said, chuckling. “But dude, no offense, sometimes your emotional intelligence isn’t there. You could have missed a social cue or something.”
I whipped my head up, glaring at him. “Excuse me? I’m not the social butterfly you are, but I’m not an idiot. I know what she said, and she said she didn’t want to pursue things with me.”
