like he was just parading around his ego. I thought that we were starting to talk things through a bit last night, and it wasn’t like I didn’t want to touch him too…God, I wanted to touch him badly. But just like the last time, I felt like he wasn’t really getting it. He just expected things to be easy and surface-level, and I wanted more than that. As much as I missed him and wanted him, I knew that I needed more. I wanted him to really listen to me and to be able to trust him and know that he cared about how I felt.
I pushed the button for the elevator when I reached the front of the Cubed office building. I couldn’t think about this anymore right now. I just needed to deliver this coffee and get out of here and back to work.
When the elevator doors opened onto the main office floor, I saw Max working alongside Tim on their planning table. I remembered what it was like to lay out the 3-D models on that table. I missed this job.
There was also a new assistant hovering around Tim and watching to see and anticipate what he needed next. That must have been my new replacement. I hoped she didn’t fall for him as I did. The thought of that actually made my skin crawl with jealousy, which then proceeded to make me mad.
“Brooke!” Max said as he walked up to me and gave me a hug. “I’m glad to see you.”
Max smiled at me. I always really like him. He was a good guy and a good friend to Tim.
“You need to get out of that apron and get back up here on the planning floor,” he said. “We need you.”
The smirk in his face and the slight tilt in my head gave me an indication that he was talking about more than just tiny build planning.
“Wonderful!” Tim booms. “Coffee for everyone.”
I looked around but only saw the three of them, and there were thirty coffees.
“Lisa,” he said as he turned to his new assistant. “Can you please make sure that these coffees get delivered to all of the staff.”
“Sure,” she stammered. “But didn’t you want me to attend the—”
“Not necessary,” he interrupted as he pushed the coffee cart toward her, making sure to take three coffees of the top tier before handing it totally over.
I needed to wait for the cart to take back to the café, so I just stood there as I watched Lisa push all the coffees down the hall. I should have volunteered to help her in order to make the job go faster.
“Brooke,” Tim said as he waved for me to follow him and Max into the conference room. “Join us. We’re just about to have the initial build meeting.”
“Uh, I don’t work here anymore,” I said as I pointed to my café apron. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but I was currently on the clock for the coffee shop, and I needed that cart back. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We would still value your opinion.”
I looked over at Max, who smiled and tipped his head toward the conference room to try to coax me into coming. Since I had nothing better to do while I waited, I followed them in.
I sat down at the meeting table, and Tim laid out the plans for the tiny home community in Spokane. I had started on the project with them right before things had gone sideways between Tim and me, so I was already pretty familiar with most of it. But they had added a lot of design since the last time I had seen it. It was an impressive project, to say the least.
“What are your thoughts?” Tim said as he watched me look over the blueprints.
“It looks like you’ve already got it all laid out,” I said. “Looks great.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I want to know what your specific thoughts are. Tell me, if you were going to live inside one of these modular container homes, what would you want inside it?”
“Like design elements?” I asked.
“Yeah. I need to really get a feel for what people might want on the interior of the builds. Tell me what your likes and dislikes would be if you were going to purchase one yourself.”
“Well,” I said as I looked the designs over more closely. “I would want a lot of natural light and openings to the