First Sight (41 page)

“Yes,” I said slowly, a smile twitching at my lips.
 
“It’s that obvious, huh?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head
with a laugh
.  “I’ve just
known
for a while that Travis was interested in you.
 
That combined with the fact that y
ou guys were always spending so much time together; it seemed inevitable.
”

“That’s what I’ve been telling her for months,” Marissa interjected with a grin.  “Of course
,
Maddy
wouldn’t listen to me.”

“I guess I was never…sure
,
” I
said,
frown
ing slightly, as I tried to find the right words.
  “You know, sure about how he felt
, sure about dating a coworker.  We just needed to work things out on our own.”  I pointedly raised my eyebrows in Marissa’s direction.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, nonchalantly waving her hand.

“I can tell that he’s crazy about you,”
Elizabeth
said kindly.
 
I felt a
n unexpected
flush of pleasure wash over me.  It somehow made it feel even more real when other people talked about Travis to me—like I hadn’t just imagined last weekend
or his feelings for me
.
  This was really happening.

“I think you
might be
right,” I
said, unable to stop the smile from spreading over my face
.
  “Anyway,” I said, trying to steer the conversation back to the task at hand.  “What do you think of the layout?”

Elizabeth walked over and took a closer look.  “I think it looks great, guys.  I love the new graphic elements you’ve incorporated.”

“It definitely looks more modern and fresh,” I agreed.  I glanced up at the clock on the wall.  “Yikes, I’m supposed to have a quick meeting with Jennifer in a few minutes.  I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

My meeting ended up taking longer than expected as Jennifer had a few last minute changes
, so it was
5
:
3
0 before I walked back
to
my
desk
. 
Marissa
was still there working
, and from her exasperated expression, probably would be for a while.
 
I plopped down into my chair and spun around toward her.
 
“It’s going to take me hours to type
all this,” I groane
d, holding up my yellow notepad filled with pages of scrawled instructions.

“Are those her edits?  Why is she just giving them to you now?”

“I have
no
idea,” I replied, feeling exasperated.  Jennifer had been in the office over the weekend.  She didn’t need to wait until the last minute to provide all these additional changes.

“I’ll be here
all night
,
too. 
Elizabeth
gave me the last of the sections she was editing
, so I’m inserting them into the master document right now. 
But
I still need to add the
remaining
parts from you and Travis.”

“Did
Elizabeth
leave?” I asked.

“Yeah,
she finished the updates to the website, and her sections were done
.  Her husband’s coming home tonight—he was
away
on some business trip or something.”

“So that’s why she was so dressed up today!” I said, laughing.

“You noticed, too?”
Marissa
grinned.

“Yeah, I thought maybe it was your influence.”

“Well, I like to think so,” she said jokingly.

“You like to think what?” a male voice asked.  I looked up
,
and my heart skipped a beat
to see Travis
casually leaning
against
the door,
arms crossed,
eyes crinkling in a smile.

“She likes to think she has good fashion sense,” I explained.

“Oh, but I do.”

“So, what do you think?” Travis said jokingly, gesturing to his button-down shirt and khakis.

“I’ll leave that one up to
Maddy
,” she said with a smile.

“All right,” I interrupted
.  “
I’ll be sure to carefully
note my opinions on Travis’s
wardrobe
from now on
.”  I glanced over at him and rolled my eyes slightly.  He shot me back a killer smile, and I
couldn’t help but smile back
, before turning my attention to
Marissa
.  “But
I really need to get
started on this
so I’m not here all night.”

“
You’re right
,”
Marissa
agreed
with a sigh
.  “Let’s finish this
and get the heck out of here
.”

“That’s
actually
why I
stopped by
,
” Travis said.  “
Since we’
re
all
going to be stuck here for a
while
, d
o you guys want to order a pizza?”

“
That sounds good,” I said.  “I’m
starting to get hungry.”

“What kind do you like?”
Marissa
asked.
 
“I could go for the veggie lovers.” 
She pulled out a menu from her drawer and
passed it around for us to see
.

After deciding on what to get, w
e placed the order
and then
went
back to work. 
I’d gotten through
a few more pages of
my notes when
Travis came walking in
a short time
later carrying two large pizzas.  My mouth watered as the aroma filled the room.  I glanced down at
my watch an
d realized that it was already 6:30
.  I’d been frantically typing up my notes for the past hour and was only
part
way done.  I needed to finish
typing up
Jennifer’s changes
and then read through the entire document
one last time
.  I sighed as I hit the
disk
icon on my screen
to save my work
.
 
I leaned over to grab my purse from under my desk and pulled out my wallet.  Opening it, I realized that I didn’t have any change, so I
took out a $20 bill.

“Aren’t
you eating anything,
Maddy
?”
Marissa
asked.  She and Travis
were seated
at the small table in our office.  Someone had grabbed a few paper plates and napkins, and the two of them were already digging in.

“Yeah, I’m coming. 
Here’s some money for the pizza,” I said, handing the
twenty
to Travis.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, waving my hand away.

I shrugged, too stressed out to argue.
  I sa
t
down
at the table
, rubbing my temples, and
Marissa
slid a paper plate over to me.

“Do you want a diet coke?”
Marissa
asked.  “I’m going to grab one from the vending machine.”

“I don’t have any change,” I said, picking up a slice of cheese pizza.

“I’ll get you a drink,” Travis
offered
, standing up.  “You want a diet coke too,
Marissa
?”

“Yeah, thanks,” she said,
handing him some quarters.

“Thanks, Travi
s,” I said, looking up to give him a weary smile
.

His deep brown eyes stared into mine
for a moment
as he gazed down at me.
 
“No problem,” he said with an easy smile, before turning to walk away.

“He’s so sweet!”
Marissa
gushed
as he walked out the door.

“He’s still right there,” I said, amused
that she couldn’t even wait until he was gone before talking about him.
 
I was
certain
that he caught what
Marissa
had said, and
sure enough,
I heard his laughter trailing down the hallway behind hi
m.

Travis came back a few minutes later
balancing three cans of soda in his hands—t
wo diet cokes and a
regular
coke for himself. 
Marissa
had
quickly eaten
one slice of pizza
and
gone back to her desk
to
resume
working, but I was still sitting
at the table
.
  Travis plopped down next to me,
popping open my can and sliding it over to me.
 
“You look stressed”
he
said,
reaching over to rub
the back of my neck
as I took a sip
.

“That’s
probably
because I am
,
”
I said
with a small laugh
.

“
This is crazy
,”
Marissa
muttered to herself in the background.
  Travis and
I
both looked up, but she kept working without
so
much as a glance at us.

“How late do you think you’ll be here?” he asked.

“A couple more hours.
  After I finish typing
up the edits
for my section
, I’ve
still
got to help
Marissa
proof
everything
.”

“I’m about through with my section.  I’ll
come
help you guys when I’m done.”

Two
hours later
,
we were all still in the office. 
“I’m never going to finish this,” I groaned.  It was almost 9:00, and I was reading over my document. 
I’d finally typed up my notes from earlier, but
now
I wanted to double-check everything before
we sent it to Jennifer
.
  Travis was over at
Marissa
’s desk, helping he
r to proof the layout.

I
saw
a duplicate word
, and started
repeatedly hitting
the
backspace
key
, erasing each letter
.  Suddenly my
computer
screen froze up. 
I
kept
tapping at my keyboard in frustration
, but a loud beep was the only response that I got from the computer.
 
“Damn it,” I said aloud.

“What’s wrong?”
Marissa
and Travis asked in unison, looking up at me.

“My computer just froze.
”

As I continued to
try various keystrokes and
click
s of
my mouse
,
my computer
responded to each attempt with another loud beep
.  “Ugh,” I
muttered
in frustration.

Travis walked over to my desk a
nd tried pressing a few keys, but m
y screen stayed frozen.  “Maybe you should reboot,” he said.

“I don’t know if it saved the latest version,” I said, shaking my head in frustration. 
Tears started to well in my eyes as I thought about having to start proofing my work from the very beginning of the document. 
I was so exhausted that I just wanted to go home, and at this rate
I’d
be
stuck
here all night
.

“It should have
autosaved
the latest draft,” Travis said calmly.
  “Do you
want me to try rebooting it?”

“
I guess so
,” I said sullenly.  I stood up and let Travis sit down
in my chair
.
  He started trying a few
different
things on my computer.