Page 55 of Friend Me

17

Rain pattered against the skylight,turning everything inside the office so gray I couldn’t tell if it was morning or afternoon.

Not that it mattered.

I glanced at the closed door to Cooper’s unlit office and then quickly away. How could I avoid going in there ever again? Every time I looked at it, my belly burned with shame. At least it made me feel something. I was an asteroid, spinning through space, pulled by only the weakest of forces. Hollow. Numb.

I yanked open my drawer and dug out my old plan. I’d crossed off step one, our dance. I hadn’t bothered marking through step two since bonding over takeout had turned into such a colossal failure. And step three? There would be no magical kiss for me.

Slamming the drawer shut, I trudged to the copy room and fed the list into the shredder. But even its noisy grind didn’t satisfy. Maybe I should’ve burned it.

When the shredder turned off, silence pressed against my ears. In fact, except for the drumming of the rain on the skylight, the sixth floor was remarkably quiet. Probably because Jackson’s and Cooper’s outsized personalities were missing.

Which should’ve been a relief. Seeing Cooper would be uncomfortable at best after he’d turned me down last night, even after my anger had dissolved, replaced by emptiness. And having Jackson see me, pale under my makeup with blue shadows under my eyes? He’d have the whole, humiliating story out of me and do something ridiculous like buy me flowers.

And as much as I loved flowers, pity flowers were the worst. What kind did you get for someone who’d crushed on someone for three years and been turned down cold? One of those horrible bleeding-heart funeral arrangements, with red ribbons dripping down like blood.

The door crashed open behind me, and the squeal of Tyler’s sneakers rang out on the empty floor. “Marlee, aren’t you coming?”

I turned to face him. “Coming where?”

“The town hall meeting. It’s about to start. Everyone’s there.”

I glanced around the empty floor and then back at my computer screen, which should’ve reminded me. Oh, right, it’d gone into sleep mode while I moped.

I grabbed my phone and stood. But instead of leading me toward the elevators, he put his hands on my upper arms. Even through my cardigan’s sleeves, I felt that thrill, same as at the wedding. Just another sign of how screwed-up my romantic life was. Tingles anytime a guy so much as touched me. Go figure.

He squeezed my arms gently. “Are you okay?”

I couldn’t look at him. My spine felt like a wet noodle, and I couldn’t muster up the energy to project the bad-ass image I needed to shield myself from those who either scorned me or feared me and my power at Synergy.

“I’m fine,” I muttered, staring at Ms. Pac-Man’s bow on his T-shirt.

“Your dad’s okay?”

“What? Of course.” Still, I glanced down at my phone. No messages or texts. He’d been up and moving in the kitchen when I’d kissed him on the cheek and walked out the door this morning.

“Then what’s—” He glanced toward Cooper’s office. “Oh.”

The wound was too fresh to talk about, even with my friend. “Let’s go.”

He gripped my hand and strode toward the stairs. “Elevators are full.”

My heels weren’t made for the concrete stairs, and he took it slowly, holding my ice-cold hand and letting me clatter behind at my own pace down the four flights to the second floor, where the auditorium was. We paused in front of the metal door.

Footsteps thumped above us, and one of the developers, Grant, came around the bend in the stairs. “Hey, Tyler, you coming?”

He peered into my eyes. “Just a minute.”

“Save you a seat? Or are you sitting with her?” I heard the sneer in his voice.

“I’m with Marlee. I’ll see you after.”

Grant walked around us and opened the door. The beats of Weston’s signature song, DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win,” filled the conference room on the other side. The door swung shut behind him, muffling the music.

Even in the dimly lit stairwell, the gold flecks in Tyler’s eyes gleamed. “You want to go in?”

I gave him the best smile I could muster. He’d turned down his friend for me. “I guess.”

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