flashes to remind me of the person he once was.
Maybe…maybe it’s time that I start remembering that.
I’m neck-deep in my fourth day of isolation, laying across my couch and playing games on my phone, when there’s a knock on my door. It startles me, reminding me abruptly that there is still a world out there, and I scramble off the couch to open it.
I grin broadly when I see that it’s Bella and George.
“Hey!” I say cheerfully. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We’ve both finished work for the day, and we thought we’d come to visit,” Bella says. “Are you seriously still in your pajamas?”
“Well, I wasn’t going anywhere,” I say dismissively with a shrug, stepping back so the two of them could enter. “I’ve just been lounging around all day.”
“You must be bored stupid,” George says with a snort.
“Ugh, tell me about it,” I sigh dramatically, slumping down on the couch again. “I just want to go back to work already, but I can’t.”
“You got a new job?” Bella asks curiously.
“I didn’t lose my old job,” I respond, frowning at her.
Bella and George glance at each other, startled, before turning back to me.
“We sort of…thought that you’d use this time to look for another job, and quit the one with Jason,” Bella says.
I stare at them. I hate to say it, but, for some reason, that thought didn’t even occur to me during this week, not once. I’ve just spent the last few days mulling over my relationship with Jason.
“Are you serious?” George asks incredulously, already seeing the truth in my expression. “After all those complaints, you didn’t take the perfect opportunity to find another job?”
“Shut up,” I grumble. “I just had a lot on my mind, alright!”
“Apparently,” Bella says dryly. “Does that mean you want to go back to work with Jason?”
“I don’t want to,” I protest immediately before pausing. “But…the job itself isn’t too bad. The pay is good, and the work is hard.”
“You just have to put up with seeing Jason every day,” George points out.
“And trying not to jump him again,” Bella points out with a hint of glee.
I regret ever telling them, over the weekend, what had happened between Jason and me. For some reason, they thought it was utterly hilarious.
“Yeah, laugh it up,” I say with a scowl. “Laugh at my misfortune. Look, Jason and I are rational adults. I’m sure we can work it out.”
“A week ago, you didn’t want to work it out at all,” Bella says.
“I’ve just…had some thoughts,” I say before huffing. “Look, maybe I’ve been a little too hard on him. He isn’t the same person he was in college, and he has been trying to make it up to me. I don’t want to be his friend or anything, but maybe we can actually manage to work together.”
“That’s really mature of you, Opal,” George says. “But can you do it?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“When you first got this job, you said that you’d try and work with him, but you couldn’t really manage it,” Bella says. “Maybe it’s better to cut your losses.”
“I know you don’t like to lose,” George continues. “But sometimes you just need to step back for the better of everyone.”
It feels like they’re ganging up on me, which is very unfair. Obviously, they’ve given this some thought before approaching me as a united front. On some level, I’m warmed by how much they care. But part of me is also annoyed that they think they know what’s best for me.
Likely the opposite of what they were hoping to achieve, their negativity strengthens my stubborn desire to see this through, to give it the two months that Jason and I had agreed on before I make any more decisions.
“Look, I still have to think things over,” I say. “I’ll make a promise; if this happens again, if I have to take more time off because I just can’t cope with working with Jason, I’ll leave for good. I just want to give it one more shot. No other job I get is ever going to be as good as this.”
It was the truth. The money and work I get with Jason is unlike anywhere else I’ll be able to get hired. Nothing will be as good as this job, even if it means not having to stare at Jason all day.
And my friends know it, too. Bella’s face twists, frustrated that she can’t deny that. George just sighs.
“Fine. I’ll hold you to