Page 35 of Dream with Me

“Oh my God, thank you so much for having a coffee waiting for me. I definitely need this today.” She lifts her mug, breathes in the aroma, and then takes a long sip. She smiles. “Yes, everything is okay, except I’m dealing with the contractor from hell. He’s making me absolutely nuts.”

“This for the house you’re renovating, right? What’s the issue?”

“He’s so annoyingly frustrating. It’s like he wants to argue with everything I say or counter every suggestion I have.”

I grin at her, and she rolls her eyes. “I know what you’re thinking,” she says.

“I’m not thinking anything. What do you think I’m thinking?”

“I think you’re thinking I’m trying to boss him around and tell him what to do. That I should let him do his job.”

“Well, I wasn’t thinking that, although I figured you were probably being very vocal about what you wanted. But now that you mention it, are you trying to tell him how to do his job?”

She picks at her cuticles, staring at her hands. “I mean, not really. I’m making suggestionson how he couldthinkbetter.”

I laugh out loud. I’m sure telling him how tothinkbetter went over well.

“So, you’re telling a contractor, who probably has thirty-plus years in the business, how to do his job,” I smirk as her face reddens slightly. I’m surprised because I’m pretty sure in the few weeks we’ve been friends, I’ve never seen her embarrassed.

“He doesn’t have thirty years in the business. He’s maybe thirty-five, give or take a few years, at most. But he’s distracting. He’s disgustingly handsome and always in my line of sight when I’m trying to work from the site.”

“First of all, I don’t think ‘disgustingly’ and ‘handsome’ go together. But also, why are you trying to work from the site? It’s an active construction zone with all the renovation, isn’t it?”

“Well, my neighbor at my current house is loud and irritates me with the music he’s constantly playing on the back patio. It’s so loud I can hear it in my house. Plus, I need to be there to make sure this guy stays on track.” She picks up her menu and starts checking it over. I already know what I’m getting.

“Hmm.” I try to hold back my smirk.

“What’s that for?” she asks.

“Well, what if one of your clients wanted to sit in your office while you worked on their taxes? To check you were doing things like he wanted and staying on track. Would you be okay with that?”

She cocks her head back and grimaces like my words are causing a visceral reaction in her.

“No, that’s ridiculous! I know what I’m doing. I don’t need somebody to micromanage?—”

She stops herself and pauses while she takes a long drink of her coffee. Her eyes narrow as she watches me over the rim of her coffee mug.

“I see what you’re trying to do here, Shannon. But let’s quit talking about my annoying, cocky contractor. I wanna talk about your hot, soon-to-be ex-husband.”

“Nope. Not talking about him. But let’s talk about Will.”

I tell her about what happened in the conference room with Will and that I felt uncomfortable. I scanned my thoughts after it happened before deciding how much to say to her because I wasn’t sure if I was misreading or overreacting. After thinking it through, I know I wasn’t. It’s never appropriate for him to put his hands on me and crowd my space—you don’t do that to a woman. Or anyone. People should not touch others like that without permission.

We talked about what I can do to try to avoid being alone with Will, and I’ve already been doing some of it in the week since the fire alarm happened. Though I know I won’t be able to avoid being together without others around forever. He’s basically my boss, so he could ask me to sit down and review accounts with him anytime. It would be difficult to insist we not do it in his office or the conference room, set off from the main work area.

“I’ve decided not to say anything to him about it right now. If it happens again or he makes me uncomfortable again, I’ll address it.”

Tillie shakes her head in disgust.

“I can’t wait to get leave. Between that kind of behavior and this cutthroat attitude of only taking clients they can bill per hour and milk the most money from, it’s not what I stand for. It’s also not what Jeff’s dad stood for, and I would hope Jeff doesn’t fully know everything that’s going on and condone it. Though it’s hard to imagine he doesn’t notice in these meetings how much some of these accountants are taking liberties with things like what they bill for and such.”

Panic fills my chest. She’s my one work friend. Well, she and Ruthie. Yes, one of my good friends is forty years my senior. So? With Ruthie, though, I watch what I say because the woman runs on coffee and gossip. Besides my sisters, sisters-in-law, and a casual friendship with Emily, I don’t have other friends. I don’t want to lose the one I have.

“You’re leaving?” My voice cracks. God, I’m pathetic.

Before she can answer, the server approaches the table with the food we ordered while talking about Will. It smells scrumptious. I ordered a shepherd’s pie, wanting something warm and comforting on this dreary, rainy October day. Tillie got soup and a salad, and I noticed she put hardly any dressing on her salad.

“I’m not leaving yet, but it’s my dream. I wanna start my own company, something smaller than what these guys have, and somewhere I feel good about the work I’m doing for people.”

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