Page 10 of We'll Meet Again

Tessa rolled her eyes before getting up to top off her wine glass. As she did, she looked out the window at the building across the street. “We should have him ‘round for dinner sometime.”

Billie nearly choked on her bite of pizza. “Have you heard nothing I just said?”

“Aye, I’ve heard it all,” Tessa said. “And it sounds like the poor thing could use a friend. He’s over there all alone in a whole new place.”

“No one put a gun to his head,” Billie scoffed. “He chose this.”

She got to her feet and joined her flatmate at the window, looking out. Just then, the curtain of Ethan’s apartment moved back and he appeared in the window. Billie gave a squeak of surprise and ducked, nearly spilling her wine in the process, but Tessa didn’t move. To Billie’s horror, she actually waved. Exasperated, Billie tugged her flatmate down to her sub-window sill level.

“Watch it, Bills, if I spill this, I’m turning you in for alcohol abuse,” Tessa said.

Billie smirked in spite of herself. “Don’t wave at him, he’ll think we’re friendly.”

“Speak for yourself, I’m very friendly,” Tessa shot back. She shifted her weight to sit cross-legged on the floor. She took a sip of wine. “Besides, I still don’t think Ethan’s your problem.”

“I know, I know,” Billie said, rolling her eyes. “You want me to deal with Tony.”

“Of course I do,” Tessa said. “You’ve never let a man talk down to you in your whole life, why should he be any different?”

Billie sighed, sinking to the floor and tucking her legs beneath her. Tessa made a good point, but the difference seemed obvious. Tony was Billie’s boss. If she fronted off with him, she could lose her job. And he already didn’t seem to think of her as a necessary part of the team, so he likely would have no qualms about firing her if she made a fuss.

“You deserve to feel valued at work,” Tessa said, as if reading Billie’s mind. “And you deserve to make your feelings known. Just because he’s your boss doesn’t mean he gets to treat you like shit.”

Billie smiled. Tessa was right. Annoyed as she was by Ethan’s arrival - and that nagging feeling that she knew him from somewhere, but she refused to admit that, even to Tessa - her true battle was with Tony. Ethan would take to the pitch tomorrow, and she wouldn’t have to worry about him again. But Tony, she dealt with on a daily basis, and she needed to assert herself. If she wanted his respect, she was going to have to earn it, and that meant not allowing him to bulldoze over her like he had been. She took a deep breath.

“Alright,” she said. “I’ll speak to him first thing tomorrow.”

“Atta girl!” Tessa praised. “Cheers to that!”

They clinked glasses and drank. Tessa went to get another slice of pizza. Billie remained on the floor a moment, going over in her head the things she wanted to say to Tony. Obviously, she couldn’t just say he made her feel like shit - it would need to be more professional than that. Words like “undervalued” and “primary job duties” came to mind, especially since nowhere in the original job description did it say that she would have to show new players around.

When she stood up, she stole a glance over to Ethan’s building. He was still standing in his window, but that wasn’t what made Billie spit out the wine she had sipped. It was that he was shirtless. If she thought he looked fit in his sweatshirt, that was nothing compared to when it was off. Even from across the street, she could see his broad shoulders, large biceps, and six pack abs. He waved to her in that bashful way of his, which only made him all the more endearing. With a frown, she yanked the curtains shut.

“So,” she said to Tessa. “What film are we watching tonight?”

Tessa’s current project was a series of articles about feminism in classic film, so once a week, they watched a movie from before 1960 and Tessa would analyze it and review it through a period-accurate lens first, and then from a modern viewpoint.

“Spellboundfrom 1945,” Tessa said, wiggling her fingers the way people did around campfires in the movies. “Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring the lovely Ingrid Bergman.” She looked over Billie’s flushed face. “You saw Ethan with his shirt off, didn’t you?”

“Don’t,” Billie said firmly, and took her seat on the couch. “We’re not going to talk about it.”

“He’s quite the ride, isn’t he?” Tessa teased.

“Tess!” Billie groaned.

“I’m just saying!”

Rolling her eyes, Billie switched on the TV.

Chapter 4

Billietookadeepbreath. All she had to do was knock. Raise her fist and rap her knuckles against the wood. But the door loomed before her like the gates of Mordor. Something sinister was behind it, and she was merely a small creature, hardly capable of changing the world around her. Frodo Baggins had, but Hobbits were fiction. This was her real life.

Didn’t that make it all the more imperative that she act?

She knocked.

“Come in!” called an impatient voice from the other side.