Authors: Michelle Escamilla
I had caught a glimpse of the time and found that I was running right on schedule. I needed pick up my
pace if I was going to grab some coffee; Ava was going to need a cup also after having taken an extra day
off. I grabbed my phone and dialed her up to see what her poison was going to be this morning.
“Ava, you read MY mind! I was actually going to head there as well and ask what I could get you! Great
minds! Since you are already there, I will take a blonde roast with enough room for cream. I have some
creamer at the office, so you don’t have to do it there. Thank you very much!”
“Well… I was kind of thinking, since you are moving soon and all… maybe enjoy the luxuries of the hotel
room? I know that you get to experience them daily, but…” I couldn’t believe I was inviting myself up to
his room.
“I don’t mind that idea at all! I just didn’t want to seem like I can’t wait to be inside you so soon! I
thought I would float the idea of taking you out and then trying to get you back to my room, but shit, if
you want to come here and just be here, I am more than fine with that idea!” He was chuckling.
“Well, that is exactly what I want to do. I will get off work around 5 or 5:30, just depending on how many
emails I have to return since I missed Friday.” I bummed myself out thinking about how many emails
awaited my return to the office.
“Yeah?” He asked quietly.
“I’m really excited for this evening.” I almost said in a whisper, but not sure why since I was the only one
in the car.
The drive into work was rather smooth for a Monday on the highway. It was going to be a good day; at
least that was what I kept telling myself the whole drive. I just had to make it through the day and then I
could enjoy a hot and steamy night with a just as hot and steamy man.
“Well, I give you one day off and you come back towork a whole new woman! What happened to you
this weekend?” I said winking to her as I grabbed my coffee. “Walk and talk I need to go to the break
room to get my creamer.” I motioned with my head to follow me.
“A few girls I went to college with, they called me up on Friday night and asked me to go out. I was
looking forward to a weekend where I just stayed inmy pajamas, but I ended up going anyway and that
was the best decision ever!” Ava squealed. “I met this guy!”
“Ryleigh, he’s just incredible! He and I hit it off and just made me melt!” You could tell she was still on
cloud nine. “We spent every day together. I thought that guys had that rule about calling someone right
away, but he didn’t play that stupid game and called me Saturday afternoon to meet for dinner.”
I laughed at her; I haven’t seen her like this in a while. She had a bad breakup right as she took on this
job and I felt horrible because she has just had a couple dates here and there. This guy really must have
swept her off her feet.
“Sounds good. I have so much to do today; I don’t think I am even going to be leaving my desk for
lunch.” I said turning on my computer. This was going to be a very long day, especially if I wanted to get
out of here on time.
“What’s up?” I asked looking up from my desk.
“Thanks for always listening. I’ve always had some sort of gossip or drama and you always take a second
to actually listen.” With that she was headed back to her desk. She really was someone I was really glad
that I had working for me, other women in the office always seemed to be catty.
I sat at my desk for the next few hours just working on returning emails and phone calls. I had made a
note to myself to figure out why none of the calls were forwarded to my phone over the weekend. I was
a person who understood basic programs on the computer and could land accounting deals, when it
came to advanced technology I looked like an idiot.
I had received a file on our latest project and thought that this would be closed by the end of the week. I
found that I was really confident in my job; However, in my marriage, my whatever was going on with
Caleb, I found that I was less confident in. I needed to figure out what was going on, I needed to let
Caleb know.
“Court, I don’t know what we’re going to do. We are going to try and work things out, but I just don’t
know if I feel that fire and passion for him anymore.” I felt my stomach drop as I said the actual words, I
had been thinking for the last week.
“Okay.” She paused, obviously not wanting to discuss this any further, which was fine by me, I wasn’t
sure I wanted to talk about it anymore. “Well, I actually called for another reason, you ready?” She said
getting a bit more excited.
“No, but it will be fun and quick. We both sat downand actually talked about the wedding we both
wanted and we both actually didn’t want anything big, fancy or expensive. We just wanted to have some
fun and be in a place that is filled with fun!”
“I am totally in! I love Vegas!” I shrieked. A weekend in a town full of fun, where you could get drunk by
the pool and spend the night in a club and your mind totally leaves everything behind.
“Well you better because you are my maid of honor! I’m just bummed that I won’t be able to drink while
I am there! Oh well, I can live vicariously through you and feed you all my drinks on top the ones you will
already have!” She laughed and then she suddenly stopped. “So who are you going to bring?” I couldn’t
tell if she was serious or being a smartass.
“Ryleigh, because right now I’m so livid with Liam and his little shenanigans and I don’t know if I can
spend a weekend with him around during what is supposed to be a good time. I’m just being honest
right now with you.”
“Well, I can’t bring Caleb! There will be all sorts of pictures and so I can come home and show Liam my
fun time in Vegas for our friend’s wedding and this one is of me and Caleb, a guy that I am fucking, and
this one is of me and the newlyweds while Caleb is kissing my cheek. Yeah, that will go over really well.”
I sighed. “So. When is the big day?”
“We want to do it in the next two weeks. Now, before you say that I am rushing it, I don’t want to look
super huge in my wedding pictures so that is why we are going to do it sooner than later. I am already
looking like I am getting a pooch and people start showing around 3 months.” Courtney said as she
started crunching on something.
“We are going to book a room out at the Aria. I have never been to that one and Jason was set up there
during a conference and said he wouldn’t go to another one. He loved it!” I could hear Jason in the
background talking but couldn’t make out what he said. “Jason says that Liam is welcome but to know
that if he screws up in the next couple weeks that this offer is off the table and does not want to see his
face.” Court said crunching.
“Deal. I’m going to see if he can go, first, then Iwill book the flights. He is on the plane to New York now,
so I’ll talk to him when he lands. It should be about 5 our time. I am so excited for this!” Just then I heard
a tap at my door and saw Ava with a big toothy grin. “Hey Court, I need to go. I will call you this
evening.”
“Ava is an amazing woman. I don’t usually pick up women in a bar but she just stood out above
everyone else. I couldn’t just let her get away.” He said in his deep voice. That made her smile bigger
than I have ever seen, it even warmed my heart.
“Well you two have a great lunch! Brantley it was so nice to meet you.” I didn’t want to sound like I
wanted this to rush, but I had to finish up my proposal so I could get everything else that was on my
desk done so I could be with Caleb.
I managed to work on my proposal in the time that Ava was gone. It was so nice to get my head out of
the clouds, the home life and everything else that was going on. My work seemed to be my sanity today.
My phone had buzzed a text message.
“Well dig in, I need to go say goodbye to Brantleyand then I have a few more emails to take care of for
Mr. Rogers.” She laughed. “I always laugh about his name. Anyway, he sent an email asking that I make
sure your schedule is open for next week so he can view the proposal that he sent you on Friday. Would
it be okay if I scheduled it for next Tuesday? You have a conference call on Monday morning and I don’t
want to cramp your schedule.”
“That would be perfect. Can you just Cc me on the email so I can mark it down as a reminder? Thanks
again for lunch. I will get some cash this evening and pay you back tomorrow, if that’s okay?” I quickly
started digging into the fries.
“Don’t worry about it. This was on me.” Ava quickly left my office to say her goodbyes to Brantley. My
phone buzzed as I took a bite of my chicken. My fingers were covered in the sauce but managed to hit
the message with my knuckle.