Page 11 of So Not My Type

“You’ll be sitting right next to me until we get through this.” Sophie jerked her finger towards a vacant space next to Sophie’s with nothing but a monitor and docking station.

Sophie’s space wasn’t messy, per se. It felt more lived in. Seasoned, almost. The half wall had an oversized Sasquatch mug stuffed with pens and highlighters shoved up against it. A faded rainbow mouse pad held the mouse. Stacks of Post-it notepaper and several notepads scattered the desk. In the corner, a tiny-framed photo of Sophie, a pretty blond woman, and a kid.

Ella glanced at her own space. The area felt too sanitized, even a little sad. “Where will I sit after training?”

“No idea. Not up to me.”

Je-sus. It was not like she asked Sophie for her blood type. The snark was at skyscraper level, and it wasn’t even 7:30 yet.

“Gonna grab coffee.” Sophie walked away without an invitation for Ella to join. Not that she needed one. Ella was just fine sitting here in the creepy open space, with strange radiator sounds and the jarring electric buzz of fluorescent lighting,thank you very much. The second Sophie rounded the corner, Ella grabbed her purse mirror and checked her teeth.

Opening her laptop, she logged into the software she’d be using, and tried hard to remember all the passwords. Yesterday, the IT guy had put the fear of the technology god into her that she had to memorize her passwords, but she had multiple different logins on several platforms. She’d finally settled on “IcanDoThis#90days.” She wouldn’t forget that one.

“You getting all set up?” Sophie stirred the coffee, then chucked the stir stick into the wastebasket a good ten feet away.

“Impressive.”

Sophie’s lip bounced as she lifted the corner of her mouth. Oh boy. That mouth. How had Ella forgotten how pretty it was? Sophie had a pair of lips that people don’t normally forget. Maybe it was the ring accentuating the Cupid’s bow shape, the small gap in between her front teeth, the plump, nearly symmetrical top and bottom. Or maybe it was because Sophie was wearing gloss and the moisture drew Ella in. Or maybe Ella needed more than a yearly hookup and her body was making her very aware that her last hookup was almost twelve months ago.

“Today, we’ll develop a solid workback schedule.” Sophie flipped open the laptop and patted the space next to her.

Ella gave one firm nod. Exhale, inhale.I belong here as much as anyone else.She vowed to keep saying that to herself until the words sank in. Slipping into the chair near Sophie, Ella couldn’t help but indulge in the surprising scent drifting from Sophie’s skin. She thought Sophie would smell like leather and bourbon, but instead, coconut and vanilla wafted to her nose.

Thank God Ella remembered building several mock workback schedules during her final year in college. But just because she knew how to build a project plan backwards in school didn’t mean she had any idea how to do it in the real world.

“You want to take that one?” The keyboard clicked like gunfire under Sophie’s fingers.

Ella’s cheeks burned. “Oh, um…” This project management software looked totally different than the one she’d used in college, which was like a spreadsheet. As she frantically clicked the mouse, fancy colors, headings, and different navigation, fields blurred in front of her. She barely knew how to log into this platform, much less navigate to the right places.

Sophie glanced at Ella with a tilted head. “Don’t worry about it. I got it.”

Whew. The tightness in Ella’s chest released at the surprising kind words. Maybe Sophie wasn’t completely horrible.

“Sorry. I keep forgetting you’ve never worked before.”

And now her chest turned cold.

The next two hours muddled with content documentation, terminology, and training videos when Sophie’s phone rang, interrupting the tornado of information. She grabbed it on the second ring. “What’s up, kiddo? You good?”

Ella’s ears perked up at the gentleness. She tried to busy herself with reading asset-approval documentation, but the curiosity nipped.

“I mean, you called without texting first, so clearly I assumed that a demon crawled out from that sketchy-ass cellar in the basement and was dragging you by the ponytail down the hall, and this was my time to lecture you that if you’d just shave your head like me, then you could avoid these types of mishaps.” Sophie grinned, and several moments passed. “Okay, yes, for sure. I promise. I’ll be there.” She hung up and faced Ella. “Sorry about that.”

“Sister?” Ella asked, curious about what would soften Sophie like that in a snap.

Sophie exhaled. “Sort of? She’s my best friend’s younger sister, Harper. But we’re tight. I don’t have any siblings, so I kindof adopted her as my own.” She turned back to her laptop. “And by adopt, I mean I basically forced Harper to pretend she was my sister when we were growing up.”

A tenderness filled Ella with Sophie’s light chuckle.

Sophie peeked at Ella with the corner of her eye. “You have any siblings?”

I wish. For so many years Ella wished for a sibling. When she was younger, she tried everything to will it to happen—squinting as hard as she could at the stars and crossing her fingers while begging, throwing coins into each one of their four Greek god stone water fountains on their property, rubbing a crystal rock her aunt gave her. Friends were minimal, she had no close cousins, and she just knew if she had a sibling, she wouldn’t always feel likethis.Lost, or wondering if the thoughts in her head were healthy, or wondering if her parents were terrible or good. She’d have someone to play with besides a nanny or her mom.

Ella rolled her lips into her mouth. “No,” she finally said.

A slight tilt of the head, and Sophie cleared her throat. “All right, launch date is May 15th. That’s exactly…” She counted on the calendar on her computer. “… thirty-eight business days from now. Although we’ll probably end up working some weekends, so let’s say forty.”

If Ella didn’t know any better, she’d swear Sophie’s tone softened.

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