Playing It Safe(89)

I’ll do it tomorrow. Isn’t that what Sabrina’s always saying anyway? Everything looks better tomorrow, or some shit like that. God, you would think that I would have that memorized by now. I catch myself sighing again and stop. Tomorrow it is.





CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

I stare blankly at the calendar on the desk in my office, counting off the days since I screwed myself over with Alex with the nub of an eraser on my chewed-up pencil.

Ten days have gone by since I spoke to Sabrina about it and told myself that I’d be contacting him the next day. Not because I don’t want to either. But I figure if he hasn’t tried once at this point, why bother?

Does that make me a chickenshit?

Most definitely.

The only good thing to come from this is that I’ve lost about five pounds, so my ass can fit more comfortably in my jeans. Not that I have anyone to impress, but it’s a start.

I’ve barely gotten any work accomplished this week. This makes me feel more like an * because that means that Lisette has had to really pick up the slack for my being a basket case. All I’ve been doing is drinking coffee and waiting until it’s five o’clock when I can get back home and crawl into my hole to hide until the next day.

Ugh, I know. It’s pathetic.

So here I am, staring at the calendar, when Lisette pops her head into my office at quarter to five with a funny look on her face.

“We need to get going,” she says dryly.

I keep my eyes on the calendar. “Get going where?”

“Did you even look at your calendar?” she asks with a sigh.

“You’re joking, right? What does it look like I’m doing right now?”

“I mean the one in that machine to your right that lights up when you actually turn it on.”

I point my thumb to the computer sitting on my desk. “This thing? Nope, haven’t gotten a chance to.”

“Because you’re so busy,” she mumbles.

“Whatever.”

She comes to stand right in front of my desk and crosses her arms. Her toe tapping on the carpet starts a second later. I look up at her and roll my eyes, pushing my chair away from the desk at the same time.

“Fine, where are we going?” I ask while grabbing my purse.

“The gallery.”

My ass falls back down on the chair. “Um, no, I don’t think so.”

“He’s not going to be there, Julia.”

“How do you know?”

“Oh my God,” she says, walking around the desk and grabbing my arm. “Because we have a meeting with the new gallery assistant that he hired, not with Alex, so let’s go. If you’d checked your calendar, you would have known this already.”

Pulling me up to standing—although, let the record show I let her—she starts to drag me like a child. I yank my arm out of her grasp and smooth down my skirt. “There’s no need to get physical, thank you very much. I can walk all by myself.”

“Good, I’m so glad to hear it. Now, let’s go.”

“Okay, jeez!”

The ride over in Lisette’s car takes all of ten minutes, and before I know it she’s parking the car in front of the building. We walk to the door and open it, and I’m expecting to see Sarah perched at her desk, but she’s nowhere to be found. As a matter of fact, there isn’t a single soul or sound in the entire place.

“Where is everybody?” I whisper to Lisette.

She shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know.”

She walks ahead of me toward the back offices but makes a quick left toward the actual gallery portion and then a quick right into the alcove.

What I see in front of me makes me take a couple of steps backward. Lisette turns around and grabs my arm again to get me to stop, dragging me back into the room to face the music, so to speak. Because sitting at a candlelit table for two is Alex with Sarah behind him, her hands planted on his shoulders as if to keep him right where he is.

“Sit down,” Lisette commands.

I shake my head.

She gets all up in my grill right then, and in a deathly quiet voice she says, “If you don’t sit down and do this, I will never speak to you again. I swear on Santa Bárbara that I will quit working for you if you don’t do this for me right now.”


I scrunch my eyes together at her threat, which for all intents and purposes sounds as serious as a heart attack. So I relent and plant my ass down on the chair opposite Alex, who looks as thrilled as I am to be here.

“Yay!” Sarah says from behind Alex. She lets go of his shoulders and claps her hands together softly. “Now, the two of you are going to have a civilized dinner, which we’ve already taken care of, and talk this thing out.” She leans her head down to Alex’s ear, but we can all hear her when she says, “Because you know I’m kind of tired of seeing you so grumpy.”

Before they both walk out of the alcove, Lisette lifts the covers off our plates to reveal a juicy steak with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables on the side. Meanwhile, Sarah pours us each a glass of red wine with a huge smile on her face. My stomach starts yelling at me to dig in, but on principle alone I cross my arms and decide not to. Alex, on the other hand, picks up his fork and knife and gets right to it. I decide to grab my wineglass and start drinking instead.