Accidentally Amy(56)
After putting in a few hours on the benefits paperwork, Izzy plugged in her phone and went to bed. As she laid her head on a throw pillow from the sofa and covered herself with just the sheet (because she didn’t want to clean the puke, dammit), she figured that if he decided to nut-up and text her overnight, she didn’t even want to know. On a random side note, she really wished she could vent about him to her best friend, Blake.
Blake
“What the fuck are you looking at?” Blake glared at the cats, who were huddled together on the couch and staring at him as if disapproving of his behavior. Well, okay, Goodyear technically couldn’t be staring, but both of their faces were turned toward him like they were judging him.
He was sitting at his desk, sipping a scotch neat-as he had been since he’d arrived home - while trying to figure out what to do next. He couldn’t tell Izzy. He couldn’t. And it wasn’t like he was choosing his job or career over her. It was just the principle of the thing. But internally, the struggle was real. His feelings for Izzy tugged hard on his values.
And at the moment, he wasn’t sure which one was winning. Ignoring her all day was killing him nearly as much as the knowledge that her job would end tomorrow. Because he knew Izzy. He felt like he was almost a part of her. He knew what she was probably feeling at the moment, with him being distant, and it was killing him to do that to her.
But he couldn’t in good conscience do the whole banter thing, laughing with her like everything was fine while knowing what was in store for her.
He sighed and stared into his glass. It was almost midnight, and he was still clueless. Because if he continued to avoid her until after she was terminated, it’s not like she wouldn’t know that he’d known. She would know, and odds were good that she’d be very pissed that he hadn’t warned her or at the very least responded to her messages.
So what was his plan? Wait until he knew she’d left the building with her severance agreement, then text whaddup? All he knew for certain was that he missed her so fucking much. It’d only been 24 hours, yet he was dying to see her face and smell her hair and listen to her fucking awesome takes on the world.
Fuck it. Izzy was more important than his job, God help him. Blake picked up his phone and sent her a text: I really need to talk to you before work tomorrow and it’s important.
Chapter 19
Izzy
The buzz of her phone woke her up, though she’d been in the lightest of sleeps since turning in. She looked over at it in the darkness, and - it was him.
She sat up and swiped through the lock screen. Blake: I really need to talk to you before work tomorrow and it’s important.
Wonderful. Izzy turned off the phone and set it back on the nightstand, the knot in her stomach getting tighter. In her experience, people never said I need to talk to you when they wanted to discuss good things. She had no idea what had happened, but she was fairly certain they were over.
Why else would he behave that way?
They were texting buddies – he’d made fun of her multiple times for saying that – yet he wasn’t texting her anymore.
She blinked fast, trying to push back the sad disappointment that surely was going to knock her on her ass.
She’d respond to him because she wasn’t a jerk, but not tonight and probably not before work in the morning. If he could ignore her for hours, she could do the same.
And if she was getting dumped, it’d be on her timeline, dammit.
Only when her alarm went off at six a.m., she saw that he had sent three more texts.
2 am: Please call me first thing in the morning.
4:15 am: I’m already up, so you can call whenever.
5:30 am: It’s important, Iz.
Duuuude. She felt the Iz in the very core of her heart. He’d ignored her all day yesterday, and now he casually dropped that nickname? Screw him.
She silenced her phone and dumped it into the bottom her purse when she went to grab clean underwear out of the laundry basket. She didn’t really need to have the phone handy since Blake was the only person who texted her, right? She showered and got ready for work, and pretty much felt miserable the entire time.
She was pathetic.
But when she got to Ellis and stepped into the elevator, she realized that she wanted to text him. To hear what he had to say and give him a chance. Blake had always been a good person – a good friend, so she supposed he’d earned her trust and patience. There was no reason to assume the worst.
Even though she felt like it was inevitable. She rifled through her bag until she found her phone. She tried to keep things light by texting: What’s up, broseph? You get tired of ghosting me and need an Izzy fix? She kept her phone in her hand, expecting a quick response.
What she hadn’t expected, though, was for Pam to be standing outside of her office when she got off the elevator, pacing like she was waiting for Izzy’s arrival. “Hey, Pam. Did you have a good weekend?”
Pam frowned before saying, “Honestly, no. Can I talk to you in your office?”
Blake
Blake pulled his phone out of his pocket as he exited the conference room.
Izzy: What’s up, broseph? You get tired of ghosting me and need an Izzy fix?
Holy shit - she’d responded. He felt his pulse kick up as he clicked on her contact info and hit the button to call her. It went directly to voicemail. Shit.
He glanced at his watch - 9:30 - and realized he was probably too late. The plan was to speak with all the affected employees first thing in the morning. Noting that Izzy was a part of the human resources team, he assumed that she would have been the first one spoken to.