Page 69 of Too Good to Be True
It was as good advice as any. Deciding she’d disrupted Jenna’s morning enough, she said, “Thanks for listening.”
“Anytime. Keep me posted, okay? Love you.”
“Love you too.”
After they hung up, Stacy finished her coffee and tried letting Jenna’s advice sink in. If only she were more carefree, life would be so much easier. Then she realized she’d forgotten to tell Jenna about Eric. She was wondering if it was too early to call him when her phone rang.
“Hello, Eric.”
“Good morning. I hope it’s not too early.”
“No. I’ve been up for a while.”
“I was just calling to confirm our date for tonight.”
She hadn’t had time to come up with her excuse for canceling, and now she scrambled for what to say.
“Are you still there?”
“Yes. Sorry.”
“Is everything okay?”
Why did he have to be so nice? Of course, if he weren’t, she wouldn’t have agreed to go out with him in the first place. “I have to tell you something, and it isn’t easy.”
“You’re canceling, aren’t you? There’s someone else.”
Her eyes went wide. Had he guessed about her and Nick?
“I had a feeling.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Whoever he is, he’s one lucky bastard.”
She let out a strangled laugh. She felt partially relieved, but mostly concerned that he knew. Better him than someone else at the office, like Britney.
“When I told Nick I was thinking of asking you out, he mentioned that you were sort of seeing someone, but he wasn’t sure how serious it was. I decided to take a chance anyway, and when you said yes, well…”
“You talked to Nick about this?” She could hardly get the words out, she was so shocked.
“Yeah. I brought it up when he was in my office yesterday. I wanted another man’s opinion, and since he was there… Are you mad? Because he didn’t tell me the guy’s name.”
Thank goodness for that. Still, she wasn’t sure how to feel about this discovery. Nick had obviously tried to dissuade Eric from asking her out, and she wasn’t sure whether she found his actions deceitful or felt flattered he’d gone to such lengths. Either way, it was quite a revelation.
“I’m not mad. You just caught me off guard, that’s all.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t want you to feel bad since I already sort of knew.”
What would he think if he really knew? “Thanks, Eric. I appreciate that.”
“Well, I guess I’ll see you at work, then. Have a good weekend, Stace.”
“You too.”
After they hung up, she went over to the coffee pot and refilled her mug. She suddenly felt exhausted and wanted the extra caffeine. She sipped the coffee while she stood at the kitchen sink and stared out at the backyard.
Last night’s rain had given way to sunshine and blue skies. The grass looked greener, and the daffodils were swaying in the light breeze. The resident chickadees and robins were busy; the robins pecking the ground for worms and the chickadees hopping from branch to branch.
