had time, had a few drinks and reminisced about our childhoods. If I was honest, part of the reason I even bothered was because Chad felt like a connection to something easier in my life, to my Dad. He was part of a time when I was just a kid, when things weren’t so complicated.
But I’d never intended to pretend to be him.
I was pretty sure pretending to be someone you were not never worked out well at all.
I imagined beautiful El typing that one sad little word back to a guy she thought she had a connection with: Okay. And then I tried as hard as I could not to imagine her being sad, being disappointed.
My own disappointment at the revelation that she still wanted to see him, even after everything that had happened between us was enough.
I swallowed some beer and let my mind go to the dark places I’d keep it from visiting in the daylight. Was El the kind of woman who would play two men off one another? Was she not the sweet, kind, adorable woman I’d built her into in my mind?
I scrubbed a hand over my face, settling deeper into the comforting pressure of my chair. At least it loved me.
My phone dinged again in my hand, and my stomach lurched. Was she still hoping Chad would change his mind? I didn’t think I could take it.
But it wasn’t El.
Mom: You were wonderful tonight. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done to help me realize my dream, honey.
Well, that was nice. I started to type a reply, but Mom wasn’t done.
Mom: Also, Dalton told me you were kissing El, and I wanted to tell you that I’m behind that match three hundred percent, and so is her mother. It’s about time you let someone in.
Great. That was what I needed. My mother in the middle of it all.
Me: It was a good night, Mom. Get some sleep. We’ll need to talk to Jacques tomorrow about increasing production.
Mom: You’re not going to talk to me about El, are you?
Me: No.
Mom: Okay. Love you, little Boss.
I’d always hated the nickname she and Dad had given me when I was small. I’d been a little bit bossy, evidently, as a kid. Not to mention inflexible, determined, and downright high-strung. It was how I’d managed to be successful, I thought. But now I wondered if easy-going guys like Chad were always destined to win before guys like me who had trouble letting down their guards.
Mom, I was sure, was up in the apartment above the Cunning Ham, enjoying a celebratory glass of her own wine and missing my dad fiercely. Thinking about it helped me put things in perspective.
I’d show El such a fantastic time on our date, she wouldn’t think about Chad again. We had a connection. I was sure of it.
***
The week flew by, between everything happening at West Wines, not the least of which was that I’d been interviewing accountants to replace El.
We didn’t see each other much during the week, but El did stop by Thursday to return what she referred to as West Wines property.
“This girl out here wants to give you a stapler,” Pauline blasted through the intercom into my office as I finished up with a candidate to replace El.
I had no idea what she was talking about, and I was pretty sure she’d hit the wrong button again and announced that throughout the building, not just to me.
I was in the middle of an interview.
Smiling an apology at the disheveled man in the too-big suit who would not be replacing El, but whom I still needed to be polite to, I pressed my own intercom button. “Just have her leave them with you.”
“She wants to see you. It’s that El girl. The one you fired?”
I cringed. “I did not fire El, Pauline. She’s leaving us for a job she prefers.”
“Whatever. She’s coming in.”
The door opened before I could respond, and El took two steps inside before glancing around, her face morphing into an expression of horror as she realized I was mid-interview.
“Oh no,” she said, holding up a stapler, a ruler, and a pack of Post-It notes. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were in a meeting.”
Besides the sloppy wanna-be accountant in the chair across from me, there were strips of partially assembled quilt strewn across every surface in my office. I’d given up on trying to keep Pauline’s new hobby from encroaching on my workspace, deciding