Page 14 of April

Asher gave her a thankful smile at the subject change and said, “Yeah, I know.”

“Do you think they’ll pull people from this one to staff that one up or hire all local?”

Linden didn’t give a damn about their company’s new location. She cared about her best friend, who seemed a little lost this morning, and she wanted to pry until Asher revealed everything that was clearly bouncing around in that head of hers, but for now, she’d talk about work, and maybe they’d get there later.

CHAPTER 5

“Do people celebrate three-month anniversaries?”

“Huh?” she asked as she took a sip of the wine Gavin had poured for them.

“It’s technically our three-month anniversary. Well, I guess that depends on when you consider we got together. Tonight is the anniversary of our first date, but we didn’t–”

“It is?” Asher asked herself more than her boyfriend.

“Yeah. You forgot?” he asked as he sat back down at the table after placing their dishes in the sink.

“I don’t think I knew we’d be celebrating.”

“It’s just dinner and good wine. I thought it would be nice. I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

“I get busy this time of year. It’ll get worse before it gets better. Summer is wedding season, and I’ll be busy until October. Every weekend, there’s a wedding or two, depending on the schedule,” she said.

“I know. I understand. I just missed you. I thought if I cooked dinner and grabbed us some wine, we could maybe enjoy dinner and save the dishes for later.” He lifted an eyebrow at her, which was his signal that he was interested in sex.

“Oh,” she said.

“Oh? You don’t want to? We haven’t all week.”

“No, that’s not…” Asher picked up her glass again and took a long gulp of the wine, which reallywasgood.

“It was your day off, right? And you don’t have any early meetings tomorrow. We could take our time.” Gavin leaned over the table.

Asher nodded, but not to accept his proposal. It was just something her head had done. Gavin smiled, though, and she watched him stand and hold out his hand. He wanted itnow,apparently. She hadn’t even finished her wine yet, and he was taking her by the hand and walking her up the stairs.

Was it better or worse to break up with him after sex? It would give them one last time before it was over, but it felt wrong to sleep with him again. Not just because Asher no longer wanted to date him, but because she knew now. She understood something about herself that made her want to explore it.

“Ash?” he said when they arrived at the top of the stairs.

“Huh?”

“Is everything okay?” Gavin checked. “You’re kind of walking like a zombie right now.”

“A zombie?”

“You know we don’t have to have sex, right? I want to, but if you don’t, we don’t have to. We can just take a shower or watch something in bed. If it happens, it happens. I–”

“Gavin?”

“Yeah?”

Asher let go of his hand and sat down on the small sofa in the loft office space. Gavin looked confused, but he joined her, placing his arm over the back of the sofa and staring at her.

“Gavin, we need to talk,” she began.

“That’s not good,” he noted, removing his arm now. “I know that tone. I’ve heard it a few times before, and it’s never good news.”

“I… I think we should break up.”

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