Page 26 of How Dare You
“That’s because Allie’s a good friend. She’s probably not much of a gossip,” I hedge.
“Allie’s obsessed with Devon,” Bradley asserts. “If she thought Devon was interested in you, she’d be picking my brain about you constantly.”
I add another ring to my stack. “She’s never asked about me?”
He considers for a while before pulling his lips into a frown. “Well, yeah, but I always thought she was just being friendly.”
Abandoning my stack to the coffee table, I join him on the couch. “Let me fill you in on something Allie and I talked about this morning after Devon left Turbine. If she’s not into me, then her friends will have some explaining to do pretty soon.”
Chapter 11
Devon
4:45 – Barre class
5:45 – Shower @ Gym
6:15 – Taco Tuesday
8:00 – Catch up on emails
- From Devon’s schedule, August 20th
“Let’s do a no phones dinner,” Allie suggests, sliding into a round booth at our favorite Mexican place. Bea agrees, happy to switch her phone off completely. She’s on it less than any person I know, partially because she stays off social media.
It’s hard to say if the suggestion was intended to keep me from working or to keep my pink-haired roommate from texting her ex. It took her less than a day to give him her new number, and he keeps finding excuses to text her. He lived there too. He shouldn’t have to ask where the vacuum is.
“Sounds fair,” I say, ignoring the tinge of anxiety that pulls at my chest as I put my phone away without checking the six texts from a client whose floors were installed this morning. An hour and a half of Taco Tuesday shouldn’t hurt anything.
Allie manages to wait until we are in the car on the way home before bringing up her latest favorite subject, the idea of me taking a break from work. “You plan a vacation yet?” she asks as I slide into the backseat of Bea’s car. She insisted on picking everyone up and being designated driver tonight since the rest of us needed to ‘blow off some steam.’
“Not quite,” I laugh, clicking my seatbelt into place in the seat behind Bea.
Sadie sits sideways in the passenger seat, facing me as best she can without her seatbelt choking her. “Have you at least admitted to yourself that you need a real break?”
“What I need is to keep running Friday West, but thanks for your concern.” They mean well, so I keep my irritation from affecting my voice.
“Dev, it’s been literal years since you took a vacation,” Allie says, making an inconveniently good point.
Bea makes quick eye contact with me in her rearview mirror as she’s backing out of her space. “As the only other person working at Friday West, I feel qualified to say that you need a damn vacation.” Her words cut through my defenses, if only just a bit. Bea generally minds her business and leaves everyone else to mind theirs as well, so it’s rare to get such a pointed observation from her.
“Tell me more about that,” I say.
Her answer comes quickly, like she’s been waiting for the opportunity to say it. “You’re doubling work. We finish a presentation, and you spend the next two days reviewing and tightening it up, and I rarely see any differences when it comes time to present.”
“Hmm.” Coming from a measure twice, cut once family, the idea of leaving my work without an extra pass is deeply concerning.
“And you have shit boundaries with our clients,” she continues. This is feeling increasingly like an intervention. “You respond within fifteen minutes at all hours of the day, so they learn that it’s okay to expect that from you. It’s not healthy.”
That is something I could stand to work on. “Going on vacation won’t teach them not to expect that from me.”
“It would be a good start,” Allie adds.
When Bea drives past the turn to Sadie and my house, my suspicions grow.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
Sadie’s eyes widen a little, then she smiles exaggeratedly. “We’re going for a little drive in the desert, that’s all,” she says, the words sounding rehearsed.