Page 6 of Not As Advertised

Indie

Of course you will get through it. You always do, remember? And if not, I’ll hire a hitman to solve your problem.

Abbie

Violence is not the answer. See you in five.

Indie

You’re right. It probably isn’t. Then again, while I was tutoring on Friday, I heard some kid at the community center say it was “the solution.” On my way.

Abbie

Thank you. PS: I’m not sure that’s a reliable source of advice.

A quick elevator ride later had me waiting in line to buy our caffeine injections, aka Barista Dean’s epic café mochas. I felt a pair of arms circle me from behind. Indie’s warm vanilla scent wafted into my nose, and a small smile formed on my lips for the first time that day.

Indie would have some sage advice to help me get through this morning’s crisis. And even if Indie didn’t have anythinguseful to say, she’d always have some juicy office gossip so I could forget myself for a little while.

“Sooooo, tell me, what’s the emergency, Abs? I thought being way up on the fifth floor was going to be awesome, even if you were holding out on being mad at me like a champ.”

Indie came around to face me as the line inched forward (Dean’s masterpieces could not be rushed). Covering my face with my hands, I tried to gather the right words to explain what I was feeling. I dropped my voice to a whisper, hovering somewhere just above a dog’s hearing range.

“Oh my god, Indie. It’s such a disaster. I didn’t tell you because I was hung up on being annoyed, but yesterday, when Emery met me at the park, I was talking to this really hot guy.”

I peeked through my fingers at her, expecting the interrogation to begin immediately since I never brought up guys.

“What? This is serious business. I can’t believe you let a silly little thing like me ruining your perfect bubble of predictability on the admin support team get in the way of hearing the news about a hot guy. It’s been a literal ice age since you went out with someone.” Indie tried putting on her best innocent, wide-eyed pout. The effect was lessened, however, by the cheeky expression that broke out over her face.

I dropped my arms back to my sides. Indie’s signature snark was too irresistible to keep up any pretense of being annoyed. It wasn’t her fault I turned being clumsy into an art form.

“Please refrain from calling any news outlets. It was like a five-minute conversation. This is not a national news story.”

“It’s close,” Indie said with a wink. “Let’s deal with the immediate crisis that brought us to our second coffee before noon. Then you can tell me the good stuff.”

Knowing that there were too many ears capable of eavesdropping on what I was about to say, I hesitated. Thethought of someone else in the company finding out about my personal hell was too much for me.

“I will. It’s just… Let’s get our drinks first and get out of the crowd.” I got more uncomfortable by the second, hating the idea of drawing any attention to myself.

Nothing to see here, folks.

So that was what we did. After paying Dean for his works of art, we found a tree several steps away from the Appeal building to lean against. Even though it’d been less than ten minutes, Indie was anxious for me to spill all the details.

“Okay. You need to talk now. I am not designed for this level of patience.”

Completely untrue, but I let that slide. She may want gossip like she worked as a paparazzi for a living, but there wasn’t anyone else I knew as fiercely willing to hold out for what she wanted than Indie.

I couldn’t help the pained expression that took over my features. The words I had to say tasted sour in my mouth.

“Fine. So you’re lucky. You don’t have to wait on the ‘good stuff’ about the guy from yesterday because my new bossisthe guy from yesterday!”

Indie’s expression had me tempted to pull out my phone to capture her in a rare moment of speechlessness. She opened her mouth once, twice, before she was able to form words.

I had to admit feeling a little smug that I’d shocked my friend, who was the epitome of calm. Too bad the disaster was mine.

“Damn, Abs. Aiden Sullivan is incredibly hot. Like, supernaturally so. I was going to ask you to sneak a mirror into his office to see if he had a reflection. And you talked to him out of nowhere yesterday?”

“My god. You looked up his picture already?”

---