Page 56 of As The Shifter World Turns

There were a lot of “Of course” and “I see” and I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Not that I should've been eavesdropping, but we were in a car. There was no escape and I couldn’t help it. It had to be his boss.

“Is there a per diem?” he asked, followed by more “I guess so” and “Yes” responses.

“Email me the details and I’ll give you a definite answer in about an hour. I’m in the car.”

That must’ve worked for his boss because the next thing I knew the phone was back in my cup holder.

“That was work.”

“I got that.”

“They want me to do a temp job. It’s more money and a great opportunity. Not just following my boss around reminding him of meetings and buying him lunch.”

Then why didn’t he sound happy?” “Are they getting rid of your current job?” That would totally suck, but I’d known it to happen to people over the years.

“No. Nothing like that, it's just… it's two months and way outside my normal commute.”

“How much outside?” I clicked on the blinker as our exit was in sight.

“About three hours.”

I focused on driving, getting to the right lane and not killing us. It was too much to process. We’d finally gotten together and my weekaway had sucked. There were huge questions about our relationship. But we were with each other now. Two months? That was for freaking ever.

“Will they give you a place?” I finally asked as we reached the stop sign at the end of the exit.

He let out a sigh. “I thought you were mad at me.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “You were just dodging traffic.”

And thinking everything through. “Figured you could work better, you know, if you weren’t dead.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Not dead is better than the alternative.” He paused. “They’ll give me money for food and a hotel room. We can still talk and stuff… stuff being coming while we’re on the phone in case you were curious.”

“If I let you,” I teased and turned towards our destination. “When do you leave?”

“I don’t know. They’re sending over the paperwork.”

“I can drive you there.” I offered. He didn’t have a car and I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.

“Thanks.” His phone buzzed again and he tapped and swiped at it. “Monday. I leave Monday.” He sounded just as dejected as I felt.

“Guess we better make the most of this weekend.” Because anything else I could say would sound like me being a dick.

I wish you could stay.

I’ll miss you.

Are you allowed to say, “No”?

Yeah, it was best to focus on the weekend. I could have my little pity party next week, after he left.

Ryder

“I need to run.” I sighed, looking at the now tepid beer in my glass.

I’d gone up to the roof for some fresh air and Ivor was there. He appeared skittish when I turned up. We hadn’t said much to one another at work so this was super awkward.

Us being on the roof turned into me trying to pretend that he hadn’t shut my ass down so completely weeks ago and that everything was normal.

Instead it became me rambling on about work, Ivor being visibly bored, and both of us not having a good time.

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