The Memory of Fate (Book 4)

15. Lectured

Patrick

The next morning, when my alarm went off to start getting ready for work, I realized that staying up so late was a mistake. I probably would have been fine if I had gone to sleep right after Bennett went back to his bedroom, but I heard him leave the apartment. I didn't know where he was going, but it definitely wasn't to bed, like he had told me. I couldn't help but feel like I just ruined the tiny bit of friendship that might have started between us.

Leave it to me to mess everything up on my first night here.

Walking out of my bedroom, I found Theresa sitting on the couch to put her shoes on. "Hey, how was your night?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Fine." I paused. "You haven't talked to Bennett yet, have you?"

She shook her head. "No, he must have been gone before I got up. Why?"

"I think he's mad at me." I don't know why I admitted that to her. I barely even knew her.

She scoffed, standing up. "You didn't hit on him again, did you?"

"No! I don't know what I did. But he left around two last night and I never heard him come back. He seemed pretty upset."

Theresa sighed, slinging her purse over her shoulder. "There's a lot you don't know about him. Hell, there's a lot I don't know about him either. Just give him time."

"I guess." I was so bad with talking to people about things. But maybe giving him space would be the right thing for both of us right now. I didn't want him to hate me, but I didn't know how to fix it either.

Just as Theresa went to pull open the door to leave, it opened and Bennett walked in. He looked like he barely slept at all either, and didn't look at either of us as he headed straight for the bathroom. Seconds later, I heard the shower turn on.

I sighed. "That's where I was headed," I muttered.

Theresa chuckled. "Yeah, good luck with that. I'll see you later."

*

I ended up being slightly late for work. I didn't blame Bennett. We both had places we needed to be this morning and I was the one throwing myself into the middle of his morning routine. Hopefully we could fix that soon, though, so it didn't happen again.

I don't even think Bennett noticed me. He barely looked at me all morning. Was he really that upset that I touched him last night? I didn't see what the big deal was. It was just my hands on his waist. I would have done that to anyone in that situation.

For the rest of the day, I couldn't concentrate on work. There was one conversation with a client that I think ended with her angerly hanging up on me, but I honestly couldn't remember why or, admittedly, which client it was.

On my lunch break, Joey came over to me, sitting down across from me at the small table in the break room. "Hey," he said. "You doing okay? Regina Marks came down to my office earlier. She got a call from one of the clients you talked to this morning...?"

I sighed, putting my head in my hands. When the big boss gets involved, nothing good could happen. "Just fire me, Joey. I obviously can't handle this job."

"I'm not going to fire you." I lifted my head back up and looked at him. "I just want to check in, that's all. You're still new here. There's a bit of a learning curve."

"Oh."

It was weird, how easy he was looking over my mistake. I was grateful. I needed this job. I probably wouldn't be able to find another one any time soon. And if I wanted to keep this apartment - with Bennett - then I needed to keep my job.

"I'm sorry," I said, shaking my head. "I wan't focusing this morning."

"Are you sure you're okay, Pat? I know it was your first night at that new place, but..." He sighed. "Did you sleep at all last night?"

I shook my head again. "Couldn't get my brain to stop. I think I pissed off my roommate."

Joey laughed. "Day one, Pat. You never would have survived college if you can't even handle adult roommates. Teenage roommates - terrible." He shook his head. "Anyway, I need you to step it up a bit more at work. You need to focus when you're here, okay? We can't afford to be losing clients and, honestly, this got you on Regina's radar now. I won't be able to save your job a second time. So whatever is going on between you and your roommate, I'd suggest you fix it so that you can sleep at night, okay?"

"I don't need you to lecture me about that," I said, standing up. "I'm planning on fixing whatever happened between me and Bennett. I can't handle him being mad at me."

He stayed quiet as I tossed out the rest of my lunch. Then, just as I was about to leave the break room, he spoke. "You like him. Romantically. Don't you?"

I stopped in the doorway, turning to face him. "No. Of course not. Why would you think that?"

Before he could come up with an answer, I walked out of the room.

Just because I found Bennett attractive doesn't mean I had feelings for him. Joey had no right to accuse me of that, especially after lecturing me about my work. Yeah, I messed up this morning and I obviously did something to upset Bennett. That didn't mean I liked him.