First Sight (42 page)

“Don’t worry,
Maddy
,”
Marissa
said.  “We’ll help you
read through
everything if
it didn’t save
the latest version
.”

“Okay,” I said nodding,
biting my lip and
willing the tears not to spill over. 
I knew I was just overreacting because I was tired, but it would be embarrassing to start crying here in front of
them. 
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. 
It wasn’t the end of the world—I knew I’d saved all the content, so at worst, I’d
just
be stuck
editing
it all over again.
  Still, I did not relish the idea of
redoing several
hours
worth of work
.  I was exhausted enough as it was.
 
“I’ll be right back,” I
mumbled
,
quickly
walking toward the door.  I needed a few moments
to myself
just to clear my head
.  Everyone else had gone home, so I
walked alone down the silent hallway
, past the dark offices,
and
went to sit down in
our
front lobby.

I sank into the
sofa there
and rested my head in my hands,
squeezing my eyes tightly shut.  The lights were dim
in the lobby
—the overhead lights had been turned
off
for the night and just the low night lights remained on. 
It was so completely quiet and secluded at this time of night,
I wondered if any
one
walking
by
would even see me here. 
A few tears
spilled
down my cheeks,
and I took
a
deep breath, trying to stop myself from crying. 
I couldn’t believe that I’d been working on my huge deadline for hours and hadn’t bothered to back up my files. 
After all the work we’d put into the project, I was going to be the one who messed it up for everyone else.

“
Maddy
?”

I jumped at the sound of Travis’s voice and wondered ho
w long
he
’d been
standing
there.
 
I looked up and saw him
at the entrance to the lobby.
His dark eyes
gazed at me with worry
, and I felt bad for
having left
him in my office
to try to
fix
my computer. 
I wondered if he and
Marissa
thought it was rude of me to
just get
up and leave. 
Hopefully
they realized that
I was just blowing off some steam
and needed a few minutes alone
. 
Travis
didn’t look upset
now
though, just worried.  He stood there a moment,
hesitating
before coming
toward me.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, standing up.
  I brushed a stray tear off my cheek, hoping he didn’t notice.

He walked closer, looking
down at me with concern
.  “Were you crying?”

“I’m just stressed out,
” I said, wiping
away the moisture beneath my eyes
with my fingertips
.

“Come here,” he said soothingly, enveloping me in his arms. 
I leaned against his chest and
felt his
strong arms around me, his
hand brush
ing
against my hair
.
  I relaxed into him
,
feeling the warmth of his embrace and
breathing in
his
scent
. 
This wa
s the closest we’d been all day
.
 
I knew i
t was silly, but I felt better when I was with him. 
It was l
ike the other things
just
didn’t matter
as
much.
  We
stood silently
for
a few m
inutes, neither of us
moving or
saying a word
, simply content to be together.

Travis
started to
gently stroke my back. 
“I was able to retri
e
ve the file
on your computer
, so you’re
all set
.”

“Oh thank God
!” I said, feeling relief wash over me.
 
“I’m s
orry I left
you there
,” I said, resting my cheek against his chest
and
taking
a deep breath
.
“
I
just needed a minute
alone
.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” he said
softl
y,
lowering his head so that
his mouth
was
hovering near my ear.

“
I’m glad that you stayed late
tonight
to help us
,
”
I said softly.

“Of course,” he
replied
,
nuzzl
ing
against me.  “You know, this is the first time we’ve really been alone all week.”

“I know, I was
just
thinking earlier today
that w
e’ve been so busy, we’ve barely gotten
to spend
any time together.”

“We’ll do something this weekend,” he assured me. 
“After this whole project is over.”

“
That sounds good to me,” I said softly, not wanting to move from his
arms
.  Eventually
,
I pulled back and looked up at him.  He gazed down at me without saying a word, searching my eyes to make certain that I was okay.  Eventually he bent down
,
and his lips tenderly met mine.
 
Our kiss was all too brief, but
as we separated,
Travis reached out and took my hand so that we could head back upstairs.  His warm fingers clasped tightly around mine, and I smiled as I
looked up into his dark eyes.

“Shall we go finish, then?”
he
asked.
  “
Marissa
is probably wondering what happened to us.”

“Yeah, let’s
go
.
  It’s been a long day, and I am so ready to get out of here.”

“You want to stay at my place tonight? 
It’s
closer,” he added, with a twinkle in his eye.

I smiled up at him.  “Tempting, but I think I need to just go home after today. 
Rain check?”

“Definitely,” he said, bringing my hand up and brushing his lips against it.  Then
,
ha
nd in hand,
we walked together through the silent lobby and
back
upstairs
to my office
.

The next day
, we celebrated finalizing our first quarterly publication with lunch at the burger place Travis and I had been to earlier in the week.  Although it was only Thursday, with all the crazy hours we’d been putting in,
lunch together fel
t like ages ago now. 
W
e had stayed until midnight last night
, with Travis dropping Marissa and me off
at our respective apartments
around 12:30 this morning.  He’d given me a quick kiss goodbye in the car but hadn’t come up as we were both exhausted
by
that point.  I was very much looking forward to a quiet weekend with Travis
.  It was one thing seeing him
in
the office every day, but it wasn’t
exactly quality time to
gether with the others around.

Marissa had emailed everything to Jennifer before we left last night
. 
She’d been more than pleased with the work we’d done, and everything was off at the publisher’s now
and finally out of our hands
.
  The relief was palpable in the air, and
the light-hearted atmosphere at our table made
it fe
el
more like a Friday afternoon than
a typical Thursday
.
  A couple of the web develop
ers who’d been updating the web
site for publication were celebrating at a table near us, but I was seated as usual with Travis, Marissa, and Elizabeth.

Travis had his arm casually slung around my shoulders, and I realized that it was the first time that our team had eaten lunch together since Travis and I had started dating.  His fingertips absently caressed the skin on my
arm
, and I snuggled closer to him as we relaxed and finished eating.

“You two look so cute together
,” Marissa said, pausing in
the
midst of popping a
f
rench
fry in her mouth.

“I have to agree,” Elizabeth said with a smile.

“And we have you to thank, right?” Travis teased.

“Well, sort of,” Marissa said, looking thoughtful.

I grabbed a fry a
nd tossed it in her direction.

“Hey!” she protested.
  “What was that for?”

“We have you to thank,” I scoffed playfully.

“Hey, Elizabeth and I have been planning this for months,” Marissa said.

“Elizabeth, too?”
Travis asked, confused.

“Oh, they were both more than happy to discuss it with me,” I said with a grin.
  “Some more so than others,” letting my eyes come to a rest on Marissa.

“Well, hey, it all worked out,” Travis
quipped
, leaning down to give me a quick kiss on the lips.

“Oh
,
you two,” Marissa said, jokingly rolling her eyes.  “All lovey-dovey….”

“What’s up
,
guys?” Jeff asked, stopping by our table on his way out.

“Hey man,” Travis said, reaching over to shake his hand.  “You guys headed out?”

“Yeah,
I
gotta
get back to fix some
broken link on the website—it’s always something, right?
  We should’ve gone
out to happy hour
instead
so
that
we cou
ld’ve had a
few drinks
.”

“I’m not above drinking during the lunch hour,”
Travis
joked.

“
Maddy
and I are meeting a friend of ours for dinner, so we’ll be sure to have plenty of drinks then to make up for it,” Marissa teased.

“A friend, huh?”
Travis said eyeing me with a twinkle is his brown eyes.  “Anyone I should be worried about?”

“Not unless you’re worried about
Marissa and
Emily,” I said
with a laugh
.

“I’m always worried about Marissa.”

“Well, on that note, I’ll catch up with you all later,” Jeff said, waving goodbye as he headed out the door.

“I heard that,” Marissa said, playfully
raising her eyebrows at
Travis.

“How
are things going with Rob
?” Elizabeth asked, effectively changing the subject.

“Ugh, don’t ask,” Marissa
groaned
.

Elizabeth and I exchanged glances.  “What happened?” I asked, confused.

Marissa proceeded to
start telling us a
bout her latest date with Rob
, which hadn’t gone exactly as she hoped.
 
Travis caught my eye and grinned, and I knew that some things would never change. 
We’d probably be sitting here a year from now listening to
Marissa tell us
another story about another guy she’d just started
dating
, no doubt simultaneously complaining about some fault she’d found with her latest suitor
.
 
She’d yet to find her
so-called
perfect guy, although it definitely wasn’t for lack of trying.  She seemed to have more dates than anyone I knew, but
she
was also quick to judge.