Blogger Girl (21 page)

He shook his head. “No, I’m good. You going to Starbucks?”

Avoiding eye contact with Daneen, I said, “It appears that way.” I walked over to my chair and put on my jacket before facing them again. Nicholas was looking at me with a confused expression.

“Will you be able to carry them yourself? Want company?” he asked.

Daneen and I both looked at Nicholas. She appeared equally startled by his offer to join me. He probably didn’t like the idea of dating the office gopher.

Recovering quicker than me, Daneen said, “That would defeat the purpose, Nicholas. We asked her to go so we could work.” She grabbed him by the elbow and started leading him into Rob’s office.

“Thanks for the offer,” I said to their backs.

As I walked the three blocks to the closest Starbucks, I clenched my teeth and let my high heeled pumps roughly hit the pavement with each brisk step. I fantasized about punching Daneen in her non-existent gut and tripping her so that she fell and her pointy chin hit the floor and bled all over the carpet.

By the time I walked into Starbucks and took my place in line, I was out of breath and my feet hurt. I let the air out of my cheeks and, one at a time, slipped my feet out of my pumps for relief. I instinctively reached into my bag for
Cut on the Bias
since reading always had a calming effect, but put it back since that particular book was unlikely to do the trick. I was unaccustomed to waiting in line without the distraction of a book and so I counted how many girls ahead of me were taller.
All of them.
I ordered two Venti coffees for Rob and Daneen and a skinny vanilla latte with whip for me. I had my hand outstretched to pay the barista when I asked for a blueberry scone at the last minute. Careful not to spill the coffees, I walked back slowly and enjoyed the spring air.

I placed the cardboard tray on Rob’s desk and handed him the change. I removed my latte and the scone and said, “Here you go.”

“Thanks Kim. You’re the best,” Rob said.

I rolled my eyes.

Daneen took a sip of her coffee and snarled. Batting her eyelashes at me innocently, she said, “Is there any milk or sugar?”

Don’t say anything you’ll regret. Don’t say anything you’ll regret.
I silently counted to five.

“I’ll get it,” Nicholas said. He stood up. “I have to use the bathroom anyway.”

I followed him out into the hallway. Once outside, I said, “Do you really have to use the bathroom?”

Nicholas nodded. “Yeah.”

“Cuz I can get the stupid milk and sugar.” I didn’t need him to come to my rescue.

“It’s not a problem.” He smiled. “I need to stretch my legs and give my eyes a rest anyway. Been looking at those documents for too long.”

“Just go to the bathroom. I can handle it.” I turned on my heel and began walking to the pantry.

“Kim!” Nicholas said, catching up to me.

I stopped walking. “What?” My heart was beating quickly for no apparent reason.

Frowning, he said, “Are you okay?”

I sighed. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t have to wait on us you know.”

I shrugged. “You do your job and I’ll do mine.”

Narrowing his eyes, he said, “C’mon now.”

“You’re right,” I whispered. It wasn’t his fault I’d been relegated to coffee girl.

Placing his hand on my shoulder, he said, “You sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine.” I smiled. “Stop by my desk on your way back, I have something for you.”

He eyed me suspiciously. “What is it?”

“You’ll see when you stop by. Now go pee before you have an accident.”

Laughing, he said, “I’m going!”

I grabbed a few individual containers of milk and half and half and a few packets of sugar, Equal, Sweet ‘n Low and Splenda from the pantry and tossed them on Rob’s desk without making eye contact with Rob or Daneen and walked back to my desk where Nicholas was waiting.

I handed him the blueberry scone. “I know you said you didn’t want anything but it felt wrong to get something for everyone but you.”

“I was actually thinking I could use something sweet. You’re the best.” He touched his finger to my chin and smiled. “Thank you.”

I loved and hated in equal measure that despite seeing him in the throes of passion in the double digits, he still made me blush shamelessly. “You’re welcome. Enjoy.” Motioning towards Rob’s office, I said, “And get back in there before Daneen comes looking for you. I’ve had about enough of her for one day.”

Nicholas shook his head and gave me an amused smile. “She’s not that…”

I could not bear the idea of him defending her.
Again
. So, holding my hand up, I said, “Shh…Go!” I flashed a wide grin to signify I was joking.
Even though I wasn’t.

THE THREE OF THEM SPENT
the next few hours in Rob’s office, only leaving to go to the bathroom. I kept busy attaching backup to Rob’s client’s bills, but that only took me a little over an hour. I used the rest of the time to organize my review schedule. Only three books were in the queue before
Cut on the Bias
. I was dying to know how Jacqueline and Pierre were going to hook up. I knew they would eventually –
hello, it was chick lit
– but I could not predict
how
it would happen.

Since I figured Nicholas would be tied up with work into the wee hours and I hadn’t made any other plans, I decided it was a good night to go to the gym and run a few errands. When I glanced at the clock and saw it was past five, I thought about asking Rob if I could head out early since I didn’t have anything to do. He’d always been cool with it in the past unless he was expecting something to come in that would require my assistance. Under normal circumstances, it would be a no-brainer, but I was reluctant to ask while Daneen was in there because she’d probably come up with some brilliant assignment for me to do, like cook a five course meal so
the lawyers
could work without being interrupted for dinner. And then maybe she’d comment to Nicholas later about how I led such a charmed life, what with having no real career to speak of. I decided the measly thirty extra minutes of freedom were not worth the bother. Twitter was a great time-sucker and so I began scrolling through my updates, stopping when one caught my eye from
We Love Books
calling for bloggers for a future blog tour of
Cut on the Bias
. Although I could liken my desire to organize Hannah’s blog tour with my desire to stick my head in a toilet bowl, I couldn’t help feeling slighted since Candy coordinated almost all of her client’s chick lit blog tours through
Pastel is the New Black
. Considering it had taken me so long to agree to even read the book, I couldn’t really blame her. I only hoped that some of the participating bloggers would find more fault with
Cut on the Bias
than I had so far. I glanced at my watch and groaned when I saw that I had barely managed to kill ten minutes.

I checked my phone when I remembered that Bridget’s “appointment” with Jonathan was that day, but there were no text messages. I wondered if maybe they were still together.
Only one way to find out!

I sent her a text. “How’d it go?” and stood up to go to the bathroom. I didn’t actually have to go but figured it was another good way to waste some time and I still had twenty-three minutes before the day was officially over. (Twenty-seven minutes if I wanted to avoid the clock-watchers’ rush to the elevator at exactly 5:30.) Before I could put one foot in front of the other to walk around the corner, my phone rang. I kept walking and, smiling into the phone, said, “Hey! How was your
appointment
?”

“It was good! Jonathan was really helpful.”

Entering the bathroom, I repeated, “Really helpful, huh?” I bent down and checked the stalls for feet. “How so?”

“He gave me lots of advice for expanding my business. I told him I’ve been inundated with clients, which is great but I’m having trouble keeping up, and he suggested I consider hiring an assistant to help manage the administrative side of things. He also mentioned something about branding myself as a designer for the creative types, like authors and photographers since they already take up much of my portfolio. He thought if I focused on a particular industry, it might help me control my workload until I can afford to hire an assistant.” Bridget took a loud breath. “I’m babbling, I know.”

Laughing, I said, “You’re just excited. That’s a good thing.”

He’s so smart, Kim!”

I placed the phone in the crook of my neck and checked out my outfit from all angles in the mirror. “Yeah, I know. It’s a shame the way he fries his brain with all that pot. And his lungs with all that nicotine.”

“Commandment number seven, ‘thou shalt not judge!’”

“Um, that would be ‘thou shalt not commit adultery.’”

“Whatever. Thou shalt not throw one’s superior knowledge of the commandments in her best friend’s face.”

Laughing, I said, “Okay! Thou shalt stop post haste.” We both knew I didn’t call to discuss Jonathan’s high intelligence quotient anyway. “So?”

“So?”

Groaning, I said, “C’mon Bridge! What happened?”

When Bridget didn’t say anything, I felt my stomach drop. What if I was wrong? What if I’d set her up for failure? Jonathan was the first guy Bridget had been excited about in more than a year and if I was responsible for getting her hopes up only to have them crushed, I’d never forgive my…

Interrupting my worries, Bridget finally said, “I think you were right.” Her voice was calm and steady.

Tired of standing, I walked into one of the stalls, threw some toilet paper on the toilet seat and sat down.

“Sparks were flying, Kim,” she continued.

“Yeah? Did something happen?” I suddenly had a vision of them going at it doggie style in Jonathan’s black and white tiled bathroom and shuddered.

“No. Nothing happened. But I felt it. We were laughing constantly and every so often, we’d lock eyes and there would be this awkward silence until one of us looked away. And I felt this warmth in my belly whenever that happened.” She paused. “I don’t know Kim. I think he likes me too.”

“I told you so!” The two of them as a couple felt a bit incestuous to me but she sounded so happy that I’d learn to live with it.

“Anyway, we set up another appointment for Friday because he said he has more to show me.”

“If he brings out the Astroglide, run in the opposite direction. Been there, done that. Just sayin…”

“Kim!”

Chuckling, I said, “Sorry. Keep me posted okay?”

“Of course.”

After we hung up, I headed back to my desk to close up shop since it was almost 5:30. I exited out of all of the applications on my computer and was about to log off when my phone rang. I glanced at the face of my phone to see who was calling.
Interesting.
“Hey.”

“What’s up?”

“Not much. What’s up with you?” It could not be a coincidence that Jonathan happened to call me the very same day he had an appointment with Bridget where sparks were apparently flying.

“Not much. I haven’t spoken to you since the reunion and wanted to see how you were. How’s purple is the new green?” He laughed in acknowledgement that he butchered the name of my blog again.

Not bothering to correct him this time, I said, “It’s fine.” I saw
Cut on the Bias
peeking out of my pocketbook. “It’s great.”

Jonathan coughed. “So, um, how’s that guy from the reunion? Nick?”

“Nicholas,” I corrected, remembering Nicholas’ aversion to being called Nick. “He’s good. Why?”

Jonathan coughed again. “Nothing. He seemed like a decent guy. You guys dating?”

“Yeah.” Dating seemed like a reasonable description for what we were doing. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together.”

“Cool.”

“Why? Wondering why I haven’t called you in a while?” I teased.

When Jonathan choked out another cough, I remembered Bridget and instantly felt my face heat up. I realized my rapport with Jonathan would have to change drastically if a romance developed between him and my best friend. Recovering, I said, “Joking!”

Quickly changing the subject, Jonathan said, “I hung out with Bridget today.”

Playing dumb, I said, “Yeah? How’d that go?”

“Fine. Good.”

An awkward silence filled the air. Was I supposed to offer my permission for him to date her? Was he asking for my permission? Was he even interested in dating Bridget or was his brain too fried up on marijuana to even recognize her interest?

“Does she date?” When he coughed again, it became clear that it was a nervous tick and not a result of too much nicotine in his lungs.

I wasn’t sure how to answer. The truthful answer at least with respect to the last 400 or so days was that “no, she didn’t date,” but that might suggest she wasn’t interested in dating
him
. “She’s not dating anyone right now,” I said. Then I added, “No one special at least,” so as to not paint her as a desperate hermit. Somewhat enjoying his obvious discomfort with the topic of conversation, I said, “Why do you ask?” I resisted the urge to laugh out loud.

“Curious, that’s all. I’ve never heard her talk about guys. She’s not a lesbian, is she?”

Unable to restrain myself any longer, I chuckled into the phone. “Most definitely not. Bridget is definitely straight, despite Hannah's attempt to convince our classmates of the contrary.”

“Okay,” Jonathan said, letting out a sigh that sounded a lot like relief.

There was no way I was going to blatantly offer him my blessing to date her, nor was I going to out her interest in him without her permission. The conversation was becoming painfully awkward, though, so I searched my brain for a way to slickly give Jonathan the heads up. I recalled my conversation with Bridget from earlier and a bell rang in my brain. “When Bridget likes a guy, she tends to giggle a lot. And she has trouble maintaining eye contact for too long before looking away. Oh and when she really likes a guy, she’s not always upfront about it. Sometimes she comes up with excuses to spend time with him hoping he’ll get the hint.”
Please get the hint Jonathan.