Alexa sat in her office the following Tuesday with the door closed. She’d closed it for a conference call, but the call was long over. She needed some time when no one would walk by and pop their head in, time when she wouldn’t have to smile and act professional and interested. Time to studiously not think about what her long weekend would have been like if she hadn’t sent those texts. She put her head down on her desk and closed her eyes.
She wished she could throw herself into work, but the whole day had been super slow because of Memorial Day the day before. Even though she was furiously making lists of who to talk to next and doing more research for her program, it felt like busywork more than anything else. Normally, she enjoyed quiet weeks at work where she could put her head down and clear things off her plate. But this week she needed all of the chaos that she wasn’t getting.
Her phone buzzed, but she ignored it. It was probably Theo, asking if she was free, or Maddie, checking up on her, or her cousin, needing a favor, and she just couldn’t deal with anyone right now.
But even so, she pushed her phone under the curve of her arms and opened one eye to see who it was. Just in case.
Theo. The wave of disappointment hit all over again. It wasn’t like she expected Drew to text her. There had been no word from him for a week, and she hadn’t reached out to him, either. So why was she still hopeful?
She left her office without responding to Theo’s text and walked up two flights of stairs to go to the bathroom. Less of a chance she’d see people that she’d have to talk to on another floor. She splashed cold water on her face, repaired her makeup, and installed a smile on her mouth before she went back down and knocked on Theo’s door.
“You needed me?” She leaned against the doorframe and hoped this was short.
Theo looked up from his computer.
“Yeah, but this isn’t about work. You’re still coming to my birthday thing this weekend, right?”
Shit, she’d totally forgotten about Theo’s birthday. On top of everything else, she was a terrible friend.
“Of course! Wouldn’t miss it!”
Theo narrowed his eyes and beckoned her into his office.
“You forgot, didn’t you?”
She gave up and slumped into a seat in front of his desk.
“Okay, yeah, but I’m sure it’s on my calendar. It’s not like I wasn’t going to come. What’s the plan, again?” She knew she’d talked to Theo about this at some point, but it was all mixed in with her cousin’s engagement party and the grand opening next week of that new bar on Telegraph that the mayor had decided to attend.
“Now I know something is wrong with you. We’re meeting at the Royal Arms in the Mission for drinks.”
She made a face. “I hate that place.”
“Yes, I know, that’s what you said the last time we talked about it. But my buddy Nate is a part owner and is giving us a fat discount.”
“I hate your buddy Nate,” she said without any heat. She’d said that the last time, too; it was all coming back to her.
“I know. Dave will be there. He’s always had a thing for you. Maybe he can pull you out of this funk.”
She thought about denying that she was in a funk, but what was the point?
“I’ll snap out of it at some point. Just stressed about everything with my program, that’s all.” She stood up to go back to her office and stopped in the doorway. “Who all else is coming? Can I bring Maddie?”
“People you like, I swear. I invited the whole crew from the campaign. But yeah, bring Maddie if you want.”
• • •
Drew went for two long runs on the beach over Memorial Day weekend. He repeatedly reminded himself that if he’d been up in Berkeley with Alexa, he wouldn’t have been able to do that. He walked back home along the beach, checked out all of the women in bikinis, and tried and failed to make himself hit on one of them.
He went to a birthday party, one that he would have happily bailed on to be in Berkeley. He left before the blonde in the strapless dress who reminded him of Amy could put her hand on his ass again. Sunday afternoon, he almost texted Vivian, a girl he’d been sleeping with for a while in the fall, but he watched golf on the couch all afternoon instead. He was relieved to fill in for someone and be on call on Monday.
Carlos burst into Drew’s office on Wednesday afternoon.
“Hey man, my trip to Hawaii was great, thanks for asking.”
Drew looked up from his stack of files.
“You were in Hawaii?”
Carlos rolled his eyes and dropped into a chair.
“You’re such an asshole. My cousin’s wedding? I was a groomsman? I left Friday morning, which is why you had to cover for me on Friday?”
He shrugged.
“Right, sorry that your travel schedule isn’t on the top of my mind at every moment of the day. You have my apologies.” He went back to puzzling out his own handwriting in his files.
“Wow, someone is still in a shitty mood, huh?” Carlos settled into the chair. Damn it, he should have just smiled and asked him about his trip and he would have been gone after a few minutes. Now he was going to have to deal with this bullshit.
“Just busy, that’s all.”
Carlos looked at the pile of files on his desk and raised his eyebrows. Drew only did this work when he was forced into it or had nothing else to do to keep him occupied, and Carlos knew it.
“So I’m guessing from the look on your face that you didn’t go to Berkeley last weekend? Did you even try to fix it?”
Drew kept his eyes on his computer and attempted to keep his voice level.
“Leave it alone, Carlos.”
Of course he’d thought about trying to fix it. But what was the point?
Carlos stood up, thank God.
“Fine, keep brooding. But you’d better have pulled yourself together by the time we go to San Francisco this weekend.”
Drew’s head shot up. What the hell was he talking about? Why the hell would he be going to San Francisco?
Carlos laughed. At, not with him, he was pretty sure.
“The American Association of Pediatric Hospital Medicine Conference? We planned it, like, two months ago? We’re the only two junior peds from this hospital who get to go? We leave tomorrow?”
Drew laid his head down on his desk, lifted it, and banged it back down. Luckily, the files on his desk cushioned him.
“You remember now, I see.” Carlos walked to the door. “Have fun packing.”
Drew let out a sigh when he was finally alone again in his office. Great, just the place he didn’t want to go. He jumped when Carlos poked his head back in the door.
“You should call her and tell her you’ll be in town.”
Drew got up and slammed the door in Carlos’s face.
• • •
Maddie was all in for Theo’s party, especially since her on-again, off-again relationship with Chris was off, this time (she said) for good. Thank God; Alexa had never liked that guy. Maddie volunteered to be the designated driver for the night on the condition that Alexa wear whatever she ordered.
This meant that Alexa sat in Maddie’s car Saturday night in a leather jacket and a strapless black dress, wearing altogether too much eye makeup and heels at least an inch too high. Sometimes giving the reins over to Maddie wasn’t the best idea.
“Are you sure about this outfit?” she asked Maddie again, even though it was too late to change. “I have way too much cleavage with this dress, and this makeup isn’t me. Plus, this is San Francisco. All of the dudes there will be in jeans and hoodies.”
“Just because their standards are low does not mean that we should lower ours.” Maddie backed into the parking spot on a side street that they’d found after ten minutes of circling. “And why do you care about your cleavage? What happened to ‘If you’ve got them, flaunt them’?”
Alexa checked her reflection in the car mirror one last time.
“There are going to be a ton of douchebags here tonight, that’s what happened. All of those tech bros that Theo’s friend Nate knows. And the rest of the people there will be people I’ve worked with. I don’t want them to think . . .”
Maddie jumped out of the car and shut the door. Alexa knew a hint to stop talking when she heard one.
She grinned when she looked at Maddie, wearing a hot pink minidress and tall black boots. Hopefully, at least Maddie would get some action tonight. She needed to find someone good to her after that asshole Chris.
“All right, fine,” Alexa said. “Let’s do this.”