Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
I’m at the door to Mel’s apartment within seconds and knocking on the door.
Like last time, I hear the sound of what must be Mel’s footsteps coming to answer. She’s doing what good friends do—protecting her friend—only nothing will keep me from making amends with my love tonight. She deserves to hear the explanation for what happened, and I’m going to give it to her. And nothing, no one, is going to stop me.
Sure enough, Mel opens the door, a grim, frowning expression on her face.
“Well, look who it is,” she says like a mother whose child has just come home three hours after curfew. “I have to say, I didn’t expect you to show up.”
“It’s not what you think, Mel—”
“Oh, no? Your other date for tonight cancel on you?”
“There was no other date for tonight,” I reply firmly. “I’m not some player or whatever you think I am. Whatever you think happened did not happen, okay? Where’s Ali? I need to explain—”
“There’s no way I’m letting you talk to her, dude,” Mel scoffs, stone-faced, clearly enjoying her power in this situation. “You already fucked her up once. If you think I’m going to let you do it again, you’re crazy.”
“It was all just a big mistake, Mel, okay?”
“You’re damn right it was!?” she snaps back.
“No, I mean an actual mistake!” I have to stop myself from yelling at her I’m so passionate right now. “I was going to surprise her. I got tied up at work and lost my fucking phone in the concrete!”
“Stop with the bullshit, Zander.”
“Look, just get her out here, okay?” I am on the verge of breaking down and pleading. My heart is aching. I’ve never felt like this before. My need for Ali is all I can feel right now. If I don’t see her soon, I’m going to lose control. “Just get her out here so I can explain it all. I promise I’m not lying. You’ll see. You’ll both see!”
“Absolutely not,” Mel replies. “She was crying earlier, Zander. I just got her calmed down. If you saw that, you’d understand why I’m not bringing her out here to risk putting her through that again—”
“It’s okay, Mel.” Ali emerges from behind Mel, and something inside me leaps for joy. I want to dash past Mel and throw my arms around her, but I force myself to stay where I am. Ali focuses her eyes on me, and if looks could kill… “A mistake, huh?”
“Yes!” I reply. “Ali, I knew that things were complicated for you working at my company – that my guys would be constantly hitting on you—”
“Like Brian you mean?” She’s scowling. There’s something in her eyes.
“Brian? Wait, has Brian been hitting on you?”
She scoffs out a laugh and folds her arms over her chest. “Don’t play stupid and act like you don’t know.”
“I don’t.”
Mel laughs. “Come on, Zander. We know Brian and you are old pals.”
“Yeah, so? What’s that have to do with anything?”
“Everything! You and Brian are friends, so when he was hitting on Ali and wouldn’t stop, you just fired her instead of telling your old buddy to back off!”
Now I get it. Where all of this is coming from.
I turn my eyes away from Mel, look past her, and focus on Ali with every ounce of truth and honesty in me.
“Ali, listen to me,” I say. “None of that could be further from the truth.”
Her expression remains stoic, but I see a hint of something shift behind her eyes. I can tell she’s been crying, and that pains me. What could have been something incredible and sweet for her today ended up hurting her, and I feel awful about that.
All I can do now is try and speak my truth and hope she accepts it.
“Y-you mean that?” she asks.
“Of course I do,” I reply. “Ali, I didn’t want you working somewhere you would constantly be uncomfortable at, so I got you a job at my buddy’s IT company with a much bigger staff and a much bigger HR department. You’d have more to do, get more experience, and wouldn’t have to deal with…guys like the guys who work for me.”
Ali looks back at me, still hesitant.
“So what happened?”
“I was going to surprise you,” I begin to explain, taking a cautious step forward. “Kind of silly really, but you’d come into work and think you’d been fired, and then I’d surprise you with this bigger and better job. But I had this catastrophe at the dig sit I had to personally attend to, and my phone—”
“You dropped your phone in concrete?”
I shrug, drop my arms to my sides. “Yeah. Exactly.”
I can’t help but laugh at just how ridiculous it all sounds, and if I was anybody else, I wouldn’t blame Ali for not believing me. All I can do is hope that because I’m me, she trusts me enough to know that I would never lie to her.