Adria's Choice

Chapter 8

Since that discovery, Lexie became like a best friend to me, and we sometimes hung out with Andrew together. For some reason, he and I just disliked (maybe even hated) each other but we never mentioned it to Lexie. He was always all over her, pulling her chair back for her, and even offering to carry her bag. I saw the lovesick face he'd get whenever Lexie would smile at him. He was so pathetic! Although in some small way, the part that wasn't filled with unreasonable jealousy, I did pity him because Lexie never seemed to notice his feelings for her.

After a particularly busy season at work, I didn't get to see Lexie for almost a month. She'd been hanging out with Andrew every weekend, and I tried to ignore the feelings that came up just knowing that. Every time I would feel that way, I just worked harder. I never wanted to explore my feelings, afraid of what I would find.

Since we were also co-workers, Karyl and I still ate lunch together every day. One day, she was all ecstatic about this new romantic restaurant John brought her to the other night. The next day she'd start feeling pathetic because John hadn't talked to her yet about getting married.

"Just give it time," I said, in between bites of cheesy macaroni at Contis.

She gave me her (patent-pending) evil glare. "We've been together for four years, and he has never brought it up!"

Well, that did sound troubling. I ignored her glare. "Why don't you bring it up, then? Maybe he's just, you know, waiting for you to say something."

She rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up dramatically. "Because I don't want to sound like the nagging bitch who's trying to trap him into marriage!"

That was Karyl for you, never running out of dramatics. Sometimes, I'd just tell her that if she ever wanted to quit her job, she'd make a great actress. No kidding.

Despite my attempts to calm her down, we had to end our lunch break with separate slices of cake; blueberry for her, chocolate (of course), for me.

That afternoon, I wasn't able to knock the topic off my mind, and I decided to talk to John sometime that week. But the man himself suddenly texted me. Can we talk? Meet me tonight?

I almost turned my chair around to report him to Karyl, thinking he sent me a message intended for another girl. I knew for a fact that his texts to Karyl usually started with "My love" so this wasn't intended for her. But despite my highly suspicious nature brought about by Tom's stupidity, I decided to give him a chance.

What's up and where? I texted back, wondering if he'd suddenly panic and pretend he hadn't sent it.

My phone beeped again. Starbucks two blocks outside your office. Lexie's coming, too.

Well, this was certainly interesting. I was just about to tell Karyl when my phone beeped again.

And for the love of God, Adria, don't tell Karyl!

Even though he couldn't see me, he certainly knew me well enough that this was something I would have blabbed to Karyl immediately. At five, I managed to escape Karyl's questioning look, when I said she should just go home ahead of me because I wasn't finished with work yet. To make it believable, I immediately pulled up one of the drafts I saved earlier. I actually finished it and already sent it to our boss, but I wanted to make it look like I really couldn't go home yet. She tried to make me change my mind, saying John had a work function he couldn't get out of and she didn't want to go home alone.

I swiveled around in my chair and faced her. "This is due tonight, K, you know that. Why don't you just continue that nude painting of John you've been planning on giving to him for your anniversary?" I tried very hard not to grimace. I once walked in on her doing said painting, but thank God John wasn't there. She winked at me and said she could paint it from memory. I mimed vomiting and she just chucked her paintbrush at me.