Page 20 of Return on Love

“You’ll have to talk to him. You know that, right? Don’t even think of chickening out of this. And it’s okay if you’re rude. Just get it out of your system.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll clarify things tomorrow and give him a piece of my mind.”

“Promise?”

I roll my eyes. Lily knows me too well and I hope I can do it when the time comes. I'm done running away from confrontations. I’ve had just about enough. “Anyway, forget this. I’ll handle it. You tell. How’s Don?”

“Good, so far. I’m trying to familiarize him with the cone so he doesn’t freak out after the surgery. It’s a minor one, or so the vet says. I’m actually in two minds about it now. I mean, I’ll be depriving the poor doggo of any chance of having a family. Like forever. Should I even do it?”

“I know. It’s a tough one. But d’ya think he’ll ever have a family?”

“I was thinking, y’know. What if I marry in a year and settle in the suburbs? Have a house with a garden. I can then have a Mrs. Don, and they can have cute little baby Dons who will play with cute little baby Lilies.”

I can’t stop my laughter. “You know what? Forget the surgery. You were never comfortable with it. Go with your gut. Who knows? Maybe your dream will come true in a year.”

“You’re making fun of me?”

“A little,” I chuckle. “But I’m also serious. Do what’s best for Don. I wish I was there for you right now. But I’ll see you both in a few weeks.”

My anger resurfaces soon after I put the phone down. How dare Weber and Ryan not tell me about the meeting? And have the audacity to tell Lily I didn't go. Hello! No one even told me. Did he even have the codathon? Or did he meet my boss to complain about me? It was possible. He had done that when he met the professor to excuse himself from being my partner in our grad school project. Oh, how I hate that guy.

The problem is that I need this deal. I cannot let Weber hand it over to someone else. That’d certainly lead me right outside the firm with a pink slip in hand. I stamp my foot and look at my bed with all the dresses that I’d rejected. You know what? I’ll wear the same dress I’d worn on Monday. Let it irritate him. I don’t care. In fact, that’s what I’m gunning for.

The next morning, as I click-clack my way to the office, I contemplate calling Weber for an explanation. Then decide against it. I can’t show my boss that I don’t have things under control. I’m not about to be that girl running to her mom to spill the tea on someone not playing fair. Gotta figure out why Ryan pulled that move over my head. I need a face-to-face. Let him puke if he wants to.

The morning doesn’t seem to go quickly enough. I can’t focus on anything. Nora comes in to say hi, but I just nod. Has Ryan set her up to befriend me and spy on me? Gabriel walks in a few hours later and sits opposite me.

I give him a questioning look. Did he know about the meeting, I wonder. Is he, too, Ryan’s spy?

“We were to meet today,” he says, looking at me with raised eyebrows. “You wanted to discuss the business plan and the assumptions we’ve used for our predictions. If it’s not a good time, I can swing by later.”

I shake my head. Of course. How dumb of me to forget. I had set up the meeting last evening because I wanted to understand their financial model better before I met Ryan. The man seems to hold too much sway over my thoughts, and I don’t like it one bit. I’m becoming paranoid because of him.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. Let’s do it.” I open the Excel file on my laptop and turn the screen a little so we can both look at it and open the worksheet labeled ‘Assumptions’. I’ve made detailed notes about the clarifications I need. “Your user base growth has been low in the past year. How have you taken this high percentage increase for the next five years?”

“We plan to launch this new game, and as you can see,” he moves to a different worksheet with past data. “Every time we launch a new game, it gives our user base a major heave, and all our previous games get a boost.”

“So your strategy is to keep launching at a faster pace?”

He nods. “Yeah, one of our strategies.”

We discuss some other assumptions, but my brain keeps going in and out of focus. I want to ask him about the meeting, but I’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth. I don’t want him to tell Ryan that I know he met Weber secretly. Without me. I want to catch His Highness off guard.

“Where was the codathon?” I ask, once we’re done.

Gabriel looks at me, a little astonished. “LA, of course. We’d emailed your office about it quite a few days back.”

I nod. I can’t figure out if I’m being played by Ryan, Weber, or both. “When’ll Ryan be back?”

He glances at his watch. “Around 2:30. That’s the time he’s scheduled a meeting with the coders for a debrief about the codathon. I think after that, he’s meeting with you.”

I nod. He has graced me with a cool thirty minutes of his time. I was earlier wondering why he isn’t spending more time with me, assuming he needs the funds. Now, of course, I know the answer. He has easy access to my boss, so why bother with the underling? Anyway, thirty minutes will be enough to get to the heart of the matter.

But my thirty minutes never come. I get a message from Gabriel that the flight got delayed, and they all decided not to show their face in office. Almost everyone leaves the office early. It's Friday, other people have lives outside work too. I’m collecting my things when Nora pops in.

“Any plans for the weekend?”

I shake my head. “Nothing yet.”

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