by Mia Ford
“Why don’t we try this again and go get some food somewhere?”
“I like that idea,” he said. “I was starting to think about eating out of the park trashcan, I’m so hungry.”
“You are gross,” I said, standing up and shaking my head.
“Oh yeah?”
He stood up and started chasing after me, growling as I ran away. I giggled loudly, shrieking as he caught me in his arms and turned me toward him. I looked deep in his eyes and smiled, leaning in and kissing him on the lips. He was exactly what I needed.
Chapter 10
Nathan
It was only Tuesday, but I felt like I was going insane not having Amanda by my side. I had just seen her on Sunday, and now, I was sitting at work with her running through my mind. I had texted her several times that day, sending cute messages back and forth, but it just wasn’t enough for me. I had never been this wrapped up in a girl before, and I was starting to feel the repercussions from it. Even when I was with my ex, I didn’t crave to be with her, to see her, to touch her, but with Amanda, I did all the damn time. I wondered if this was how Jordan felt about Lindsey because if it was, I needed some pointers on how to function in day to day life.
Spending time with Amanda had become my favorite thing to do. I was always thinking about ways to see her sooner. It was an interesting feeling to be that close to someone, that attached to someone, even though I’d only known her a short while. It felt like we had forever to get to know one another, and instead of that being a daunting thought, I was excited about the prospect. I didn’t give a shit about giving up my dating life or spending my free time with her instead of out with the boys. I wanted to plan my days around our meetings. Lying in bed, talking all night long, and making love whenever we wanted to. You would think as the owner of a major corporation, I would be able to do those things, but instead, I was sitting in a meeting at work, not listening to anything they had to say.
Work had become a bother to me, and the meetings were hard to get through. The one I was currently in was something about internal marketing we were going to be doing. It was pointless for me to be there since I had already signed off on everything, but it was expected of me to be there and be present. Well, I was there, but I definitely wasn’t present. I looked down at my phone and smiled as a text popped up from Amanda. She had sent me a picture of herself making a funny face. I sent her a message back saying I was in a meeting, with about ten skulls after it. We conversed back and forth for a minute, and then I put my phone down.
There were people at the front of the room doing a presentation, but their voices had faded to the background as I stared out the window at nothing in particular. Thoughts of Amanda ran through my head, and I started planning out our next date. I wanted to take her somewhere out of the city, somewhere we could relax without worrying about running into people like Sarah. As I made a checklist in my head, I was pulled back into the room.
“Hey,” John whispered. “You still in there?”
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “Sorry.”
“At least try to pay attention,” he said. “These people worked really hard on this, and they are looking for your approval. You don’t even look like you’re inside of your body.”
I pulled myself up in the chair and tried to focus in on the rest of the meeting. John was right. Whether I liked it or not, I was leading these people, and they were looking to me for input and guidance. I might not have liked it at that moment, but that was the way I built the company. When the meeting was over, I talked with the group for a little while and gave them the sign off on the project. They all seemed excited that their hard work was being noticed. I knew I needed to at least try to be present for these people. I went back to my office and sat down behind the computer, opening up my email. Before I could answer anyone back, though, John walked in, sitting down in front of my desk.
“Where is my secretary?” I asked.
“She went to lunch,” John said. “Why do I know that, but you don’t?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, rubbing my face.
“What is going on with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me,” I said. “Everything is right with me, and I can’t get it out of my head.”
“Would you like to try explaining that to me without speaking in riddles?”
“I can’t stop thinking about Amanda,” I blurted out. “I’ve fallen head over heels in love with her.”
Normally, after telling your best friend that you fell in love with a girl, you would be greeted with applause and happy comments. However, as I sat there waiting for John’s response, his face went from concerned to unhappy. It was the same face he gave me when he told me about my ex, and I didn’t like what was happening at all. Why was it that I couldn’t have my best friend be there and happy for me, and what was so bad about me being in love? I shifted in my chair and tapped on the desk, grabbing his attention.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking himself back into reality. “I’m happy for you. I am.”
“But…”
“But I want you to be careful,” he said. “I don’t have a good feeling about her. I have been thinking about that since I met her at the party, but I didn’t want to say anything because you looked so damn happy.”
I sat there for a minute, trying to soak his words into my head. I felt like I was having deja vu, especially since this whole scenario had happened with my ex. How could he feel that way about the only two women I had ever fallen in love with? Sure, he was right about my ex, so right that sometimes it stung, but what were the odds that I found another woman that was the same exact way, and John caught on to it? It was impossible.
“You might have been right once, but you won’t be right again,” I said with a slight chuckle. “You are freaking out about my love life more than I am. Amanda is an amazing girl, and you haven’t said more than two polite words to her in your life. How in the world could you come up with that conclusion after watching me with her for a few hours? Do you have these feelings about all of your friend’s girlfriends?”
“She is your girlfriend now?”
“Yes, she is my girlfriend now,” I said. “Why is it so hard for everyone to believe that I just might be happy with one girl? I let go of all the shit from the past. Now that I have, my best friend has become some kind of relationship Buddha. You really should open up a shop and start doing psychic work.”
“I’m serious,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m not trying to ruin anything for you. I want you to be happy. What would it do for me if you were unhappy? Yes, I might have only spent a few minutes with her, but that was enough for me to know that there was something off about her.”
“Maybe there is something off about you, John,” I said, irritated. “This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. I know Amanda better than you think I do, and there is nothing wrong with her or our relationship.”
“You’ve known the girl five seconds,” he said. “How can you know anything about her in that little bit of time? Do you really think she would stop and go, ‘Hey I’m using you.’ Come on, man. Open your eyes, and at least think about what I am saying. If I’m wrong, then great, but I really think you are being blind right now.”
“And I think that you are being paranoid as hell,” I said. “Look, we both have a ton of work to get done. I don’t have time for this right now.”
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” he said, standing up. “I am just trying to be a good friend. You told me you never wanted me to hold back on any of this ever again, and I’m not. I came to you to tell you what I thought. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
I looked up at him and sighed, watching him leave the office and walk down the hall. I got up and walked over to the door, slamming it shut. John had taken something perfect in my life for the first time ever and ripped the rug right out from under me. The last thing I needed was for someone to start putting those kinds of thoughts in my head. I felt com
pletely pissed, not even knowing what to do with myself. I couldn’t talk to Amanda about it, she would forever feel weird around John, and I really had no one else to confide in. I had a hard time believing that she would be that close to Jordan and Lindsey, and he wouldn’t tell me if something odd was going on.
I walked over to the window and looked out over the city, trying to calm myself down. It wasn’t often that I got mad, but when I did, it completely clouded my judgement. John’s warnings were doing exactly what he wanted them to do, plant a seed of doubt in my mind so that everything started looking suspicious with Amanda. I was not going to let that happen. I cared about her way too much for someone else to affect us like that. I knew that John didn’t mean to be malicious, he was just looking out for me, but he was being irrational. It might be out of his character to act that way, but people really had a good way of surprising me when I least expected it.
I walked back over to my desk and picked up my cell phone. I scrolled through the messages from Amanda, and it helped to ease the stress. I wanted to see her, to find solace in her arms and words. I scrolled down to her number and pressed send, pulling the phone to my ear.
“Hey,” she said, answering on the second ring. “Shouldn’t you be working?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I should be, but this cute little vixen keeps running through my mind, distracting me from my work.”
“You should tell her you have a girlfriend.” She giggled.
“Can I come by tonight and see you?” I asked. “I really want a kiss.”
“Aww, I do too, but I’m doing things for the wedding with Lindsey tonight and tomorrow night,” she said. “We can get together on Thursday night, though. I really miss you, and when this wedding is done, I will have all my nights reserved just for you.”
“Alright,” I said with a sigh. “Thursday night, it is.”
“Okay, baby,” she said. “I have to go. We are going in to see the planner. Call me later.”
“I will,” I said. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said.
I hung up the phone and set it on the desk, staring down at it. I was disappointed, but I understood. She was Lindsey’s right-hand man for this wedding, and she was determined to make it a special day for her. That was commendable and showed that she was a good friend. Still, John’s words were rattling around in my brain, and I wanted to see Amanda face to face to make me feel better about it. I would just have to deal with waiting until Thursday, hopefully dodging anything to do with John for a couple of days.
Chapter 11
Amanda
“Wait, what do you mean?” Lindsey asked with anger boiling in her tone. “I want you to repeat yourself, but slowly.”
“We don’t have your catering list on file anywhere,” the girl behind the counter said. “There is no way that we could put it together under such short notice. I’m sorry about this, but there is nothing I can do here; my hands are completely tied. You say you put in the order, but there is neither a file in the cabinet or a record of it in the computer. Did you pay a deposit?”
“Of course, I did,” Lindsey yelled. “My wedding is looming here, and you are telling me that you have no way to feed my guests?”
I put my hand on Lindsey’s shoulder, trying to calm her down. She was livid, angrier than I remember seeing her in a very long time. Neither of us could wrap our heads around why something like this would happen. We had spent hours and hours with these people, finalizing the perfect menu for Lindsey’s big day. Even the event planner was under the assumption that everything was on track and there wouldn’t be any issues. All we had to do was come down and sign off on it before all the food was ordered. There was no way anyone else could pull this together in that short amount of time. I completely understood why Lindsey was so mad.
We stood there for over an hour, arguing with the people at the catering company. The girl turned the monitor around on the screen and typed everything in just as Lindsey spoke it, but still, there was no record of her order. We were completely perplexed.
“I need you to call the manager,” Lindsey said. “Mary is the one we worked with, and she was personally handling this because it was a multi-thousand-dollar order.”
“We can’t call her,” the girl said. “She gave explicit instructions that she didn’t want to be bothered on her day off.”
“No, that is not acceptable,” Lindsey said. “By signing a contract with you people, I gave explicit instructions to not screw up my wedding day, but you are going back on the deal.”
“Do you have the contract?” the girl asked.
“No, it’s in my binders back at the house,” Lindsey said. “I shouldn’t have to have the contract. You should have it. How does something like this just completely disappear? I know it didn’t grow legs and walk out of your store.”
“I’m going to go in the back and check again,” the girl said, obviously not knowing what to do at that point.
When she walked away, Lindsey threw her arms up in the air and looked at me. I smiled sympathetically and shook my head. She paced back and forth for a few minutes before walking over to the desk and setting her purse down. She crept quietly around the desk, and I watched with wide eyes. She grabbed a binder that was labeled as the “Employee Book” and flipped it open. There was a tab at the back for phone numbers, so she went there, found Mary’s number, and pulled out her cell phone. She typed the number in her phone and put the binder away.
“I guess I will have to do this myself,” she said, shrugging as the phone rang in her ear. “Hello? Mary? This is Lindsey. I am standing in your catering store, and we have a huge problem.”
I looked up as the girl came back to the front, stopping and listening to her conversation. Her eyes got really big for a moment, and then she walked back into the back. I kind of felt bad for the girl. She wasn’t even working there when Lindsey set everything up. Still, it was the catering company’s job to make sure everything was being handled.
“Fine,” Lindsey said, hanging up the phone and turning to me. “She will be here in a little bit. I just can’t fucking believe this.”
I watched as she sat down in the waiting area, pulled out her phone, and texted furiously. I could only assume she was texting Jordan, letting him know what was going on. I felt terrible for her that she had to deal with all of this when her wedding was coming up so quickly. There was nothing I could do, though, and yelling at the girl at the front was obviously not helping the situation. When Mary finally got there, Lindsey had worked herself up into a complete meltdown. She was so upset that she had to walk outside to cool off and collect herself. I figured I should probably handle this.
“What happened?” Mary asked.
“They say they have no record of the order,” I explained. “Not even a paper trail.”
Mary turned and walked into the back, immediately talking loudly to the girls back there. I turned and paced, trying not to listen to what she was saying. When she came back, she took in a deep breath and straightened her jacket.
“There is a record,” she said. “It’s on my desk. The order wasn’t supposed to be given until tomorrow, but they screwed up.”
“So, what do we do now?” Lindsey was calmer as she walked back in.
“I will personally make sure that your food is ordered as specified,” Mary said. “The food company will extend this courtesy since it is such a large order. I will also now be catering your wedding with a fifty percent discount due to all the trouble that you have been put through. I am glad you came in and caught this mistake, and I am terribly sorry that you had to go through all of this. It is not like us to make a mistake of this proportion. We are known for our excellent service and quality products. You have my deepest apologies.”
“Thank you,” Lindsey said. “I really appreciate you doing all of this. I am sorry that it got so mixed up, but you coming in on your day off and straightening things out for me makes up for that. It shows me that I can trust t
hat I will have everything in order on my wedding day.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “And feel free to call in as much as you want to ease your mind. I will send you an email with the invoice after I have placed the order, which I am going to do once we are done. Again, I am terribly sorry for this misunderstanding.”
I could tell that Lindsey was happy with this, and she nodded her head and turned to leave. We walked down the street to the Irish pub and pulled ourselves up to the bar. We decided to get a drink to celebrate the fact that everything was pretty much put together and ready to go for her wedding. It had been a long year planning, worrying, and freaking out over all the details, but the caterer was the last thing. Luckily, it was also the only thing that we had a near disaster on. As I sipped my beer, my phone started to buzz on the countertop. I looked down and smiled, seeing Nathan’s face pop up on the screen. He knew I was handling wedding stuff and normally didn’t call when I was out with Lindsey.
“Hey,” I said, picking up the phone.
“Hey,” he said. “Are you busy?”
“I’m just getting a celebratory drink with Lindsey,” I said. “We finalized the last thing for the wedding.”
“And it was almost a disaster,” Lindsey yelled in the background.
“That’s great,” he said. “Listen, I desperately want to see you. I have a proposition for you. Is there any way that you could meet me at my house?”
