First Sight (29 page)

“Sure, I’ll talk to you later.”

Jeff started
telling Travis about some hockey game he’d watched last night
, and they gestured for me to go ahead of them.  I said goodbye
,
but
a
s I walked away, I could feel Travis’s gaze on me all the way down the hallway.

Marissa
was still on t
he phone
when I got back to my office
, apparently telling her sister about
the guy she had met
at the coffee shop
yesterday. 
I sat down
and had just logged back into my computer
when
I
realized my lunch was still sitting
on top of my desk
. 
I
grabbed
it
and
walked to the
break
room to stash
it
in the fridge
.  The boxes of bagels and donuts on the table were almost empty, and everyone had gone back to their offices
already
.  I was just opening the fridge door
when I heard someone else walk in behind me.

“Hi
Elizabeth
,” I said, smiling, as I turned to see who it was.

“Good morning!” she said happily.  She came over to put her boxed meal in the freezer and gave me a
knowing
look.

“What’s up?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Oh, you know,” she said with a wave of her hand.  “It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?
”
  I looked at her skeptically.
 
“
Come on.  Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I just think it was nice of Travis to drive you home last night.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly
, trying to figure out
why she was acting just like
Marissa
had
yesterday
.
  “That was nice of him to drive
Marissa
and me home.”

“I noticed you two were there together at the bar before
Marissa
and I
came in,” she hinted.

It was starting to dawn on me that she
and
Marissa
seemed to be conspiring to get
Travis and me
together
.
 
They were both dropping an awful lot of not-so-subtle hints, and
last night at the bar
it sounded like
Elizabeth
had even been talking to Travis about it. 
Just what I
needed—
some
office gossip
that I had a crush on my coworker.  A coworker
on the same team as me
, nonetheless.

“Right, well…
Marissa
was running late, so I headed over
to the bar
by myself
,
”
I said slowly.
I felt myself flushing slightly and wondered why I was
so
embarrassed.  That was exactly what
had
happened.  Yes, I had ended up at the bar alone with Travis
for a while
, but it’s not like I’d planned it that way.  We were
all
meeting
at the bar after work.
  They were the ones running late.

“You know he really likes you, right?”
Elizabeth
said gently.

“Travis?” I asked, perhaps a bit too loudly. 
“No,” I said in a more hushed tone. 
I paused,
wondering if
I
had
just
heard someone
i
n the hallway. 
Listening closely for a
nother
moment
, I
chastised myself, deciding that I was just being silly.  So what if I said his name?  Travis and I worked on the same project together.  Certainly I could be talking about work with
Elizabeth
.
  And so what if someone had been listening?  They shouldn’t be eavesdropping out in the hallway to begin with.

Elizabeth
’s voice drew me back to the present. 
“Yeah, I thought you knew,” she said
.

“Well, we’re friends,” I said
quietly
, feeling puzzled.  “He’s nice to everybody.”

“Look, I probably shouldn’t have said anything.  You two are just always so cute together, and I know he’s interested in you.  I don’t think he’d necessarily
say
anything since you work together,
but I thought you might want to know
.”

I was staring at her,
trying to register what she was saying as her words slowly clicked into place
. 
Had
Travis
told her this himself?
  That didn’t seem very likely. 
And what did she mean that she thought I would want to know?  Was it that obvious that I liked him, too?
 
As I
tried to make sense of my muddle
d
thoughts
, I noticed that
Elizabeth
was starting to look a little uncomfortable, and I realized that I still hadn’t answered her.

“I don’t know if I could
date someone
that I work with,
”
I said hesitantly, not really wanting to discuss it any more with her.

“I understand.  H
ey, there’s always Gym Guy,” she said slyly.

I laughed out loud remembering
Marissa
’s date from a couple of months ago. 
I shook my head, s
tarting to walk out, but paused in the doorway
and called back to her,
“He’s not my type at all
—
a
total dumb jock.”

She smiled, thinking about Gym Guy or Travis, I wasn’t sure. 
I stepped out of the break room and
was startled
when I saw that
Travis
himself
was just then
slipping
into his office
down the hall
.
  Had he heard our conversation? 
Probably not.
  I had said his name rather loudly, but
he couldn’t have heard anything else unless he’d been standing right outside the door
. 
And if he had been
standing
there, certainly he would have walked in to say hello.
  I brushed it off and walked
down the hall into my own office
, s
ettling in to finish writing a review of the retreat we’d gone on—not typical of what we usually covered, but Jennifer wanted to add it to the website under “Outdoor Adventures.”

The morning passed quickly and soon it was
almost
time for lunch. 
I sent a
quick
email
to
Elizabeth
,
Marissa
, and Travis, asking if they wanted to eat
soon
. 
Elizabeth
responded
right away
saying that she’d
be there
in
ten
minutes.  Even though she was sitting in the very same office as me,
Marissa
hit “Reply-All,” saying
, “Yes, I’m famished!”
 
I didn’t get a response from Travis, but I figure
d that
he might be meeting and not at his desk.
 
Marissa
ran out to the deli downstairs to get a sandwich, saying that she’d meet me in the lunchroom. 
I’d already seen
Elizabeth
walk
ing
by to heat up her lunch, so after a few minutes
,
I
headed
to the break room.  As I
walk
ed down the hallway, Travis rounded the corner, carrying
a bag from the deli.

“Hey Trav
i
s,” I said, smiling
when I saw him.  “Are you going to
eat
with us?”

His dark eyes met mine, and
as I looked
up
at him,
I thought that he
seemed
upset about something.  His face was hard and his mouth pressed together in a tight line.  This was probably the first time I’d eve
r
seen him looking
unhappy
—he was always in such a good mood.

“No, not today,” he said
coolly
, walking right past me.  I stopped in amazement and turned around to
watch him as he
continu
ed
down the hallway. 
Why hadn’t he stopped to
talk
to me? 
He headed
straight to his office without speaking to anyone else.  What was going on?

Elizabeth
was pulling her food out of the microwave as I walked into the
break
room.  “
Hey
Elizabeth
, i
s Travis okay?” I asked.  “He’s eating lunch by himself in his office.”

“He seemed a little quiet ea
rlier,” she said with a shrug.

“Yeah, he kind of blew me off in the hallway just now.”

“
H
e’s
probably
just stressed out about this project.  This is the first
publication
that we’ve ha
d since he started working here—we have a lot of tight deadlines coming up.
”

“
Yeah, I guess
,” I said
, still musing about what could be bothering him.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,”
Elizabeth
said, sitting down at the table.  She pulled the plastic wrap off her meal
,
a
nd steam rose up into the air.  The scent of marinara sauce wafted over to me, and I felt a wave of hunger.

“
Okay,” I said, turning to grab my lunch from the refrigerator.
 
“
I
just
thought
maybe
he was mad at me or something.”

“Who’s mad at you?”
Marissa
asked from the doorway.  She stood there looking back and forth between
Elizabeth
and me.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said
,
walking over to the vending machine
and
sliding a few quarters in for a soda.  The can rumbled down as it dropped
,
and I
pull
ed out
my
d
iet
c
oke
.

“All right,”
Marissa
said slowly, sounding a little miffed that I hadn’t included her in the conversation.  She walked
ove
r to the table
carrying her brown paper bag from the deli
and sat down
. 
Before long
t
he three of us
were
talk
ing
and laugh
ing, and the rest of our lunch hour passed quickly.  Try as I might though, fo
r some reason I couldn’t get the uneasy feeling out of the back of my mind that something
had happened with
Travis.

***

I left work right at 5:00
that night
and headed over to my Pilates class at the gym. 
I’d started taking
Pilates
classes a year ago and loved them.  It was so relaxing to come to class
after being stuck at my desk all day.
 
Nothing felt better than to
just stretch and let
all
my tension out. 
Emily
was
me
e
t
ing
me for class
today, and I waved
when I spotted her
in black yoga
pants and
black and pink top
.

“Hi
Maddy
!
”
she called out as she walked over, giving me a quick hug.  “
How are you
?”

“Good,” I said.  “God, I haven’t seen you in ages.”