Page 52 of Too Good to Be True

She watched him get in and start the engine, yet she still hadn’t moved. A few minutes ago, she’d been eager to escape. Now she felt conflicted. As he backed out of the parking space, she considered flagging him down and telling him the truth.

She went so far as to raise her right hand, but he wasn’t looking at her. She tried to get his attention again when he started to drive away, but he didn’t even glance in her direction. She stood there, in the dark, and watched him pull out of the parking lot and drive away.

Placing her hand over her now-full stomach, she thought she’d never felt emptier.

Thirteen

Stacy dreaded going to work on Monday. After what had happened at Jared’s party, she wasn’t ready to face Nick. However, she still had a job to do, so she donned her professional mask as she entered the office building.

She expected to find Nick seated at her desk, but instead, she found a note scribbled in Fran’s handwriting.

Nick is meeting with the marketing manager for the next few days. Please see Eric to set up some additional training for the IT employees. Fran

Stacy felt a mixture of relief and disappointment at the news.

Throughout the weekend, she’d given a lot of thought to what had (and hadn’t) transpired between Nick and her. She felt bad about the way they’d parted, and she wanted to clear the air. She’d considered calling him over the weekend, but since he was still living with Fran, she didn’t think that was a wise choice. She wasn’t sure if he’d told his aunt about the time they’d spent together outside of work, and she didn’t want to make an awkward situation even worse.

She’d decided to talk to him today, but now, she might not get the chance.

Sighing, she picked up her desk phone and dialed Eric’s extension.

“Hello there,” he said.

“Hi, Eric. It’s Stacy.”

He chuckled. “I know. It says so right on the phone display.”

Eric had a contagious laugh, and she joined in. “Right. Anyway, Fran asked me to call you about some training for the IT staff. Do you have time to talk about it now?”

“There’s someone in my office. Can you come up in five minutes?”

“Sure. See you…in a few.” She’d almost said, “See you then,” but had caught herself. You’re being ridiculous. Nobody outside of the book club has any idea what book you’re reading.

Five minutes later, she walked down the hall to Eric’s office, holding her leather-bound notepad and favorite purple pen. Eric was a senior IT specialist, so he had an office instead of a cubicle. His door was open, but when she poked her head in, she saw he wasn’t alone.

Two sets of eyes landed on her, and both men spoke at once.

“Hey, Stace,” said Eric.

“Good morning,” said Nick. He was standing in front of Eric’s desk, and Eric was leaning back in his chair, smiling.

Hitching her thumb over her shoulder, she said, “Sorry to interrupt. I’ll come back later.”

“That’s okay,” said Nick. “I was just leaving. Talk to you later, buddy.”

Buddy? Since when have these two become so chummy?

Nick brushed past her on his way out and shot her an indecipherable look. Is he angry? Hurt? Both?

“Maybe you should shut the door so we don’t get interrupted,” Eric said.

She did so and then sat down in the chair across from him. She was dying to know what he and Nick had been talking about, especially since it didn’t seem like they’d been discussing business. Instead, she opened her notepad and said, “So, what kind of training do you need?”

He smiled again, and she thought, not for the first time, how good looking he was, albeit in a very different way from Nick. Not that she should be thinking about either of them like that, but she was only human.

“Some of our employees could use a business writing class. They’re super smart when it comes to technology, but they can’t write an email to save their lives!”

She laughed. “Your department isn’t the only one who could use that kind of training.” She’d read enough interoffice communications over the years to know that not everyone was adept at using proper grammar and punctuation.