Page 44 of Loving the CEO

“He’s moving into her house.”

I drew in a deep breath, but my heart didn’t shatter the way I’d expected to. Actually, I was angrier that Walter didn’t have enough respect for me to tell me he loved someone else. Why couldn’t he have been man enough to do that? Why did I even care now? I should just chalk it up to one of life’s lessons.

I smiled, looking around. Being here, in this house, was good for me. Leo was good for me. Always had been.

“I need to come get my stuff,” I said.

“Yes. And sign the papers to get out of the rent contract. But maybe that can be arranged over email. And I could pack your stuff.”

“No, it’s fine. I... I should do it. Um... when is he moving?”

“Tomorrow, but you have until the end of the month.”

“Wow, that’s really soon. Right, I’ll book tickets.” I paused a moment. “Actually, let me check the prices.”

I took off the gloves and grabbed my phone, bringing up my favorite flight page. I put in flexible dates for the next two weeks so it would show me the cheapest version.

“Hey, look, if I come Saturday—”

“This Saturday?”

“Yeah. In the morning. It’s a great price.” Since today was Thursday, it was a miracle that the cheapest one was two days away.

“Then book it, girl.”

I hesitated, wondering if I was truly ready. But would I ever be? It was best to just get it over with.

“All right, it’s booked.”

“I can’t wait to see you. Now, on another topic, how open are you to dating?"

"Zero minus infinity," I replied.

"Not even to cut your teeth? You’ll have to get out on the dating market eventually."

"As you pointed out, it's been two weeks."

"But you haven't gotten laid in months."

I bit the inside of my cheek, considering this. I couldn't imagine going out on a date, but I had to push myself out of my comfort zone. "What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Ha! That's all I needed. I know a really cute, decent guy. I’ll set something up for Saturday night. Listen, I can't talk a lot right now because my stupid boss still needs me to do my stupid work."

I laughed. "Sure. Call me whenever you've got some free time."

"Will do. Don't break your back cleaning, okay? Or if you do, ask that hunk of man to give you a massage. Then I won't have to bother with setting you up at all."

"Debbie!" I chastised. Why did she have to keep putting ideas in my head?

"I'm gone. Bye!"

After she hung up, I put on some loud music. I had a system for deep cleaning, and it would help clear my mind of our phone conversation as well. I didn't have all the supplies I needed, though, which meant I had to jump over a few of my usual steps. That was quite okay, considering the place wasn't in need of it anyway.

There was something very soothing about the repetitive work of scrubbing. I even liked the smell of the supplies. It was like they took away the bad energy or something.

I was so far into my cleaning mood that I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings until I heard the front door close. I froze, immediately taking off one glove to pause the music app on my phone.

"Leo?" I asked.

---