been to before. I didn’t really care where I met her, though. I just needed to get out and she was the only person I wanted to see.
Thirty minutes later, I walked into a modern bistro with a few rustic elements blended in here and there. The atmosphere was lively and friendly, and when I saw Ember waving at me from the patio, I already felt the tension bleeding out of me.
I was here. I was fine. I’d come face to face with Jaxon after he’d left me there naked and vulnerable, and I’d come out the other side with my dignity mostly intact.
My friend’s smile disappeared when I got closer to the table, her eyes narrowing to slits as her gaze flitted over me. Already on her feet when I stopped in front of her, she pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.
“Work or Jaxon?” she asked once we were both seated.
“Both.” I took the carafe of wine she’d ordered, filled a glass with the tangy white, and took a giant gulp. I’d need a mint and some perfume before I went back to the office, but as long as I didn’t turn up wasted, I wasn’t breaking any rules.
Ember’s nose twitched. “What do you mean ‘both’?”
“I mean Jaxon came into work today. My work, which also happens to be his place of work.” I took another mouthful of wine while her eyes went wide, nodding as her rapid blinking told me she was getting it. “Yep. In a cruel twist of fate, it turns out that he’s a pilot for my airline.”
For once, my friend was so shocked that she was speechless but it didn’t last long. “How did you not know that?”
“We didn’t really talk about work, much more than asking what the other did for a living on our first day. When he said he was a pilot, I guess I just assumed he didn’t fly commercially. He sure as hell doesn’t look like the rest of our pilots.”
“He never asked where you worked?”
I shook my head. “I told him I was a senior consultant in human resources and the conversation went in a totally different direction after that. In fact, he made a comment about my relationship with Will a few minutes later and I blew up at him.”
“It never came up again?” she asked, eyes still wide. “How?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, even though she was right. I felt like a total idiot for not having asked him about it again. “I think maybe because the conversation about our careers ended the way it did? Jaxon promised he wouldn’t ask about Will or say anything about my relationship with him again. That promise was the only reason I agreed to spend more time with him. We steered so far clear of that subject that I think, even if it was subconsciously, the job thing just ended up in the same category.”
“Did he keep his promise?”
“Mostly.” A waitress came to take our order, and I asked for the first thing I saw when my eyes landed on the menu in front of me.
Ember ordered the smoked salmon salad too, then motioned for me to continue when the waitress left.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We talked about it eventually, but we never went back to the job thing. There were so many other things to talk about and it didn’t seem important. Our last day, he mentioned something about how his work would be calling him back soon. It reminded me that I still didn’t know, and I was about to ask, but he beat me to it. Instead of asking about work though, he asked about my brother.”
“Wait.” She frowned, her pursed lips moving from side to side. “Your last day? That was when you phoned me and said you were in town alone.”
“Yep.” I tapped the side of my nose. “When I got back, he suggested we live in the moment for the night and not talk about leaving or anything else that was painful. And again, the job thing was linked to the conversation about my brother.”
“So you just never got around to talking about it,” she finished for me. “It makes sense, I guess. If you clicked with him the way you did, I suppose there were never any awkward silences to fill with small talk about the real life you were taking a break from.”
“Exactly.” I released a breath through my nose. “In hindsight, it was stupid. As soon as he told