me.
7
Boston
* * *
Despite having lost a favorite shirt over the course of the evening, I went to bed feeling oddly happy. It had been a rollercoaster of a day. I’d resigned myself to saying goodbye to El—not that she would actually want me (or allow me) to actually say goodbye to her when she left West Wines. But in my mind, I’d begun to try to get used to the idea of not having her around.
It was strange. Up until the wine festival, I’d seen her at work now and then. I’d always thought she was attractive. But it was the texting, I decided, that had pushed that moderate attraction over the edge into something new, something different. The texts she sent me—well, okay, the texts she sent Chad—were honest and open, and I felt like I got an insight into the real El. The Isabel Watson she kept hidden most of the time, or covered up with too many words and a moderate amount of flailing around. They let me see the real her, and even though she didn’t know it was me, the ones I sent back allowed me the freedom to be the real me.
Still, I knew I needed to quit. It wasn’t fair to let her believe Chad was interested. And it was unfair to Chad to paint him as anything other than the good-looking, somewhat shallow guy he actually was.
I would stop. I decided this as I dragged myself from bed and prepared for yet another day of running my dad’s business and then helping my mother get hers set up for opening this weekend. The bright spot in what was sure to be a very long day was El. I’d see her at Mom’s, and there would be more training.
With that in mind, I chose an older shirt, one I wouldn’t mind sacrificing to the wine gods if El managed to toss another glass at me.
I forced myself straight to my office—no detours through accounting. That ship had sailed.
Pauline was already in when I arrived, and her desk was covered with an assortment of fabric squares. She looked up as she heard me coming toward her, and waved a fierce looking set of shears in the air. As I got closer, I saw that there was fabric on every available surface, including the floor all around her chair, and a woman’s voice rang through the air around where she sat.
You'll sew the squares into three rows, and then sew the rows together. Placement is key here!
Pauline nodded furiously at this, a look of intense concentration on her face.
“Good morning, Pauline,” I said, stopping to look around me as I stood in front of my secretary in the most awake state I’d seen her in a long time.
“Shhh,” she hissed, waving the shears at me. “She’s talking.” She pointed the scissors at the computer monitor now, and I glanced at it to see a woman similarly surrounded by tiny fabric squares.
It’s important to set up your pattern before you start stitching. But don’t worry too much, the fun of it is in the randomness!
“Random,” Pauline muttered, rising and pushing past me into my office. I followed her to find a huge square piece of fabric spread on the floor. “Needed more space,” she said, potentially to me, though she didn’t look at me as she spoke. “Crappy office out there barely has any floor space.”
“Um, Pauline?” I ventured, still wary of the shears she held.
She glanced up, her brow wrinkling as if she was noticing my presence for the first time.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“Quilting,” she said, offering no more explanation as to why the entire area inside and around my office had suddenly become her personal craft space.
“Well, at some point today I might need to close my door,” I said, nodding to where piles of fabric were currently blocking it.
She sighed dramatically but did not pick up any of the mess.
It was my turn to sigh, and so I turned and went to my desk, which was thankfully free of quilting paraphernalia.
I had a lot to do. I needed to focus. But as I set my phone down on my desk, my mind went back to El. I picked the phone up again. Maybe just a good morning text. That wouldn’t hurt anything, right? Even Chad might say good morning.
Me: Good morning, El! Happy day after giving notice.
Beautiful Accountant: Thank you! So far, so good. Haven’t seen the wicked boss of West