Boss I Love to Hate An Office Romance - Mia Kayla Page 0,12
you know,” Ava said.
“I hate you.” I knew Ava was right, but I didn’t want to own up to that fact.
“Well, it is. You wanted Jeff to be friends with everyone. You wanted him to get along with everyone. Now, look. After jamming him in our throats for years, he and Tim got close.”
I pushed at my temple, finally feeling a brain freeze coming on, but it did nothing to all the thoughts running through my brain.
Why did Ava always have to be my voice of reason?
Then, it hit me. I lifted my head from the carton. “Did they double date? Have Tim and Carrie met the new girl?”
Ice filled my veins. That would be the ultimate betrayal and mean the termination of our friendship.
Ava’s silence only confirmed it, and I left the ice cream carton on the kitchen counter to mope again.
“This is grounds for quitting her wedding.” I was being absolutely serious now. Dead serious. I didn’t care that we were weeks away from her wedding and that we had eight years of friendship behind us.
“Sonia …” I could hear the pity in her tone. “Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not sure if they double dated.”
“Who cares?” I stabbed the spoon into the ice cream. “She’s still invited. After all I’ve done for that little wench. I introduced Carrie to Tim. How could she?” I paced my apartment back and forth and forth and back. It didn’t take me that long to get from one side of the room to the other, given it was only seven hundred square feet from end to end. My bedroom wasn’t even a room, more like a closet, but it was in downtown Chicago, so I was proud of my closet.
“Sonia, you have to pretend you’re okay. For fuck’s sake, save face.”
I could tell she was losing patience with me.
Once again, I found myself on the couch, facedown this time, like I was dead or dying. Maybe it would be better if I were.
“Listen to me.” Her stern, authoritative tone pushed through. “Do you want him to think you are not over him? Do you? Even if you are not, he’s moved on. Pretend that you have, too.”
I shook my head against the cushions, feeling the microfiber against my cheeks. “Oh, yeah, so easy,” I huffed. “So, what do you want me to do? Get the finest guy alive to go with me? Show up to her wedding and pretend he’s my boyfriend and that we’re madly in love and I’ve moved on?” The laugh that roared out of me was like one from a rated-R Halloween movie, one that could raise people from the dead.
“Yes.”
Her response had me shooting up from the couch.
“Yes? Okay, yeah, right.”
She must think I was nuts. No, she was the nuts one. I was merely being sarcastic.
“It’s either that or let him know that you’re still pining over him. He broke your heart, and you’re going to make him regret it. It’s the sweetest type of revenge. Been there. Done that.”
I blinked and peered over at my ice cream melting on the counter. Damn it. That was my only pint.
I vacantly stared hard at the now-mushy puddle that was supposed to be my solace. I felt like my life was mush.
Why is life so unfair?
“Are you listening to me?” Ava’s voice heightened.
You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
“Fine.” I sighed, resigned. “Say I even consider this plan. Where do I find the finest guy alive? Tinder?” An evil laugh escaped me.
“Hell if I know. Chris has a beer gut the size of Illinois. I’m a personality type of girl. Good-looking guys? I wouldn’t even know where to look.”
A slow migraine crept up from my neck to my temples. “I don’t know.”
I wasn’t sure about this. Any of this. There were so many obstacles to overcome.
1. Find a good-looking man.
2. Be secure enough to approach said good-looking man.
3. Propose this absurd arrangement to this stranger because, hell knows, I know no one who was model fine.
Why will a perfectly good-looking stranger even want to do this?
I can buy you dinner.
Like that would work.
Most grown men could buy their own dinner. If not, then I wouldn’t want to be taking them as my so-called date. It was weird, picking up a grown-ass man from his mother’s home.
“You’re doing this,” she insisted, pulling out all her positivity. “We can make this happen, so commit to the plan. Now, we have to start looking.”