Chapter 10

Lilith!” came Aubrey’s excited squeal as she ran into my office and plopped down onto the seat before my desk. Normally, I’d be quite annoyed, but today I felt all right. “You’ll never guess what happened!”
“Not until you tell me, no,” I agreed as I typed away and scanned the data for issues. “Make it quick, though. I have to leave for an appointment in ten minutes.”
“I got invited to Fashion Week in South Korea!” she shrieked, jumping around in her seat
“Oh, wow, that’s wonderful.” I smiled at her. “The getaway you’ve been looking for, right?”
She smacked her hands on the table. “Yes, and I’m taking all my friends with me.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun!”
“It will be!” she cheered. “You’re coming with me!”
I blinked at her, trying to register what she said.
“Aubrey, I’m not—”
“Please?” She rose from her seat and reached across my desk to grab my hands. “You never take a break from work except on the weekends. It’ll be fun. And South Korea’s amazing with so many other conventions happening, you don’t have to attend Fashion Week entirely.”
“Well.” I sighed, but she was right. I’d always wanted to travel but had never even left the country. South Korea sounded like a nice place to go to. My life had always been consumed with just working and then heading home to sleep. “There’s a wedding I have to attend next weekend.”
“Barry Halls, right? Mom and Dad are going, too. We’ll be back by next Thursday!”
I calculated it in my head. Today was Wednesday, which meant we’d be leaving tomorrow. I wished she’d given me a bit more notice, but I knew it must’ve been a hassle for her to mentally accept the invitation to begin with, considering her history.
“What time are we leaving?”
“Six a.m. tomorrow.”
“All right.” I mulled it over. “Give me until tonight to let you know?”
“Since it’s a miracle you’re even considering my offer, I’ll let you have this.” She giggled, skipped out happily, and I smiled after her.
After my brief meeting, I’d become focused on work when my phone went off. I glanced at it quickly but momentarily freaked out at the name. It was Marcus.
"Lunch?"
I looked at the time. It had flown by so fast I hadn’t even noticed. But honestly, I didn’t feel like meeting him. I didn’t know why. Something about last night was nagging at me. No, not the kiss, but the restaurant. And how Cristo was the one to drag me out of there.
As great a guy as Marcus was, I couldn’t help but feel like we’d started things too soon with that kiss. I felt like too much of a coward to really do anything about it. I was dreading him coming to my office if I said I couldn’t make it.
If I thought about it, I really couldn’t because I had to leave with Aubrey tomorrow. Yes! I had to wrap things up today by 6 p.m. and inform Lyra about my absence!
“Lyra!”
I found myself at the coffee shop anyway, my eye on the verge of twitching.
“I mean, you’re leaving pretty suddenly,” Marcus said with a tentative sip of his coffee.
“Yes, it was a last-minute thing.” I nodded and bit into my sandwich a little too forcefully. “Aubrey just burst into my office about forty-five minutes ago and announced it.”
“You know she can’t force you to go, right?”
I blinked at him questioningly, a bit confused. Did I give off the impression I didn’t want to go?
“I…she isn’t?”
“I’m just saying.” He began to sound defensive and waved his hand around. “Your job’s pretty time consuming, so if you were to leave for a week, then—”
“I have a substitute.” I was starting to sound defensive, too.
“What if she doesn’t do as well as you?”
“It’s just paperwork.”
“Clients?”
“Three clients a month, and I’ve got my second one to attend to after South Korea.”
“You just never know—”
“I think I know how to do my job pretty well, Marcus.” I cut him off. “So what is this really about?”
There were alarms ringing in my head, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on them just yet.
“I just…think we kind of left things hanging last night?” He shrugged.
“I said we should take it slow.”
“How slow?”
“Really slow.” I sounded almost robotic at this point. My body had become frozen in place, back straightened, and shoulders squared. My mouth was the only thing that was moving.
Silence stretched between us. Awkward, filled with invisible questions wrapping around me like a cage. They coiled around my throat warningly, ready to constrict me at any given moment.
I didn’t need this right now.
“That…doesn’t clear up much.” He sighed, deflating in his seat as he reached for his coffee.
Silence again.
A minute…
Another minute…
“I don’t know if…last night should’ve happened.”
“Too soon?”
My tongue was like lead in my mouth.
“I’m not sure.” I finally choked out. “Which is why I need to get away for a bit. Be with the girls. It’s been a while since I’ve had this chance.”
He nodded and straightened, pushing the slice of apple pie toward me.
“If that’s how it is, then you should go.”
Well, now I didn’t want the pie.
Something irked me about the way he said it. Like he was giving me permission. But I knew I was overthinking this. I’d yet to recover from how abusive Mark was. I just needed to remind myself that Marcus wasn’t the same guy. He just needed answers, that’s all. He was only nervous about what happened and felt as lost as I did. Now that we’d communicated, it—
“I hope things won’t be too awkward when you come back,” he said. “I’d like to hang out like this more without that getting in the way.”
“We can pretend it never happened…for now?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Cool.”
“Okay.”
“Hmm.”
Silence once again.
“I should head back,” I announced and rose to my feet. The untouched apple pie stared at me sadly.
I’ll come back for you, lil’ guy, I promise.
The park called me toward it once again. Talking with Marcus had taken a lot out of me for some reason. I still had time to kill and needed to recharge before I headed back.
Walking around, I searched in yearning for my spot by the pond.
The pond Cristo claimed was my favorite. I chuckled at the memory. I didn’t know about it being my favorite, but it sure was peaceful there compared to the rest of the park since it was more toward the center rather than the outskirts.
I finally found it and led myself to the seat across from it, wobbling on the grass in my heels. Halfway there, I kicked them off in frustration and walked barefoot with a shoe in each hand. I could hear Cristo’s laughter in my head as if he had been watching me.
“Ugh.” I groaned as the nausea ran up my throat. Why was I thinking about him?
Sitting down, I stared at the pond blankly, wondering where the ducks had gone. I could hear their faint cries from somewhere in the distance, but that was it.
The breeze was soft, carrying with it the light chatter of people on the streets and the birds in the air. The sky was cloudy and looked grayer than before. Some of the trees were already turning orange. Fall was coming.
It was peaceful.
Maybe being alone is best for me, I decided internally. Yet, for some reason, I wasn’t entirely convinced.