Page 77 of Love Me Not
Though none of this felt like a win.
Taking my suggestion, Georgie strolled to the door, but she’d barely stepped a foot into the hall before spinning back around. “Well, dang. He’s not in there.”
I ignored the drop in my chest. If he was there, she’d have coaxed him over and at least I’d get to see him for a few minutes. Not that I needed to see him. Just, you know, I missed him. A little.
“At least the gossip has died down,” she said, returning to her chair. “The whole staff was certain you two were an official item, and now no one knows what to believe.”
Looking up from the quiz I was grading, I asked, “What are you telling people.”
“Don’t worry about me.” She held her hands up in a show of innocence. “I’m saying I don’t know. And that isn’t technically a lie. What is going on?”
“We’re just friends.” I marked a red line through the last three answers on the paper—all of them wrong. “Coworkers and friends. That’s all we ever were.”
When no reply came, I looked up from the paper again to find her watching me with narrowed eyes. “Woman, have you forgotten what I do outside of this building? I can sniff out a romance from a mile away, so two doors down in this hallway was not a challenge. You were well past just friends. What happened?”
“We’re just better as friends,” I said with a shrug, hoping I sounded convincing. “It was a mutual decision.”
Mutual in that I said we might not work and he agreed without issue or argument. Not hurtful or disappointing at all.
“You chickened out, didn’t you?”
“There was nothing to chicken out of.”
“Bull. I saw the little notes, and I saw how you looked when he was around. You were glowing.” Georgie leaned her elbows on the desk and dropped a hand over mine so I couldn’t continue grading. “You’re running scared.”
Too exhausted to argue, I leaned back in my chair. “So what if I am? You know my history. You know how this would have turned out.”
“No, I don’t. And neither do you. Lindsey, this is a classic case of lack of communication and fear of heartbreak. I’ve written it a dozen times, and read it a million. Talk to the man.”
“And say what?”
“Tell him what you’re afraid of.”
She must have spiked her morning coffee. “Not going to happen.” I brushed her hand away and went back to the quiz. “Don’t you have your own papers to grade?”
“I love you, woman, but you’re frustrating as hell. Those idiots in the past were just that—idiots. You were not the problem. You were never the problem. Trey is a good guy, and he really likes you.”
I had proof to the contrary.
“He didn’t argue,” I mumbled, head down.
“What?”
“He didn’t argue, okay?” Why couldn’t people mind their own business? “I suggested that we might not work and that was it. No discussion or argument or anything. Just done. So he clearly isn’t that interested. Can we drop it now?”
After a tense pause, she shook her head. “Hold up. You suggested that the two of you might not work, and that means it’s done? That’s not done, girlfriend.”
I think I knew whether or not I was still dating someone. “Yes, it is, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Trey doesn’t know,” Georgie whispered.
“Doesn’t know what?”
“That you think you’re not dating anymore.”
Heaven save me from the most annoying friends on the planet. I let the girls get my hopes up. No way was I doing that again.
“Let me say this very clearly. That. Ship. Has. Sailed. Not only has it sailed, it’s been torpedoed into smithereens. There is no dating. There is no me and Trey. You can whip up whatever fictional scenario you want in that overactive imagination of yours, but it will still be just that. Fictional.”