Page 65 of The Accidental Text

Today, I feel almost a sense of relief as he walks into my office. I’m relieved because first, he saved me from more grilling by Chelsea, and second, I no longer have to waste my time and energy on making my feelings known to him. I’ll just get over them and let those butterflies I get in my stomach whenever he’s around fly away into the sky.

That may take some time. Right now the butterflies are fighting for space. I take a breath.

“What can I do for you?” I ask.

“Got a question for you.” He takes a seat in one of the guest chairs in front of my desk.

“Is it about Chad?”

“It … is,” he says, with a thin smile. “It’s an HR question, actually.”

“Oh, great. What’s our dear friend Chad done now?”

“Well, he thought it would be funny to wrap all my tools in vinyl.”

I nod my head. I mean … thatiskind of funny.

“Right,” I say, mirroring his unamused grimace, holding in my smile. “Well, didn’t we decide it was time to let him go?”

“I asked Devon,” he says.

“What did he say?”

“He asked me to keep him around a little longer.”

“I mean, it’s technically your call, not Devon’s.”

He gives me a nod. “Okay, that’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure with you before I do anything.”

I furrow my brow, looking down at my desk. Is it just me, ordoes this conversation feel … contrived? There was no real reason for us to have this talk since we already sort of did, the night before the party. And it’s about Chad. Of course.

“It was fun …”

I look up at him. “Fun?”

He smiles, apologetically. Like he didn’t mean for the words to escape his mouth. “Yeah … the party. It was fun.”

“It was,” I say. I want to addno thanks to youbut decide that’s probably not my best move. Chase was the real reason I had fun at the party.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get to dance more.”

Oh. That’s not what I thought he was going to say. I didn’t really have a notion of what he was going to say, but it definitely wasn’tthat.

“Me too,” I say. “But, you had Natasha.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I didn’t …” He stops himself again, holding out his hand, palm up. “I didn’t invite her, just so you know.”

I shake my head. “We said you could bring a guest.”

“Well, I hadn’t planned on it. She’d called me that day and I told her about the party … and she just showed up.”

And then you walked off hand in hand as you left.

“Well,” I say. “It was … fine for her to be there. Glad you had fun.”

“I did. You?”

“I … did too,” I say. I want to throw outand so did Chadbecause it feels so natural to bring him back into a conversation with Dawson. But Chad had to be sent home in a taxi—he got so drunk he could barely walk. I mean, maybe that’s fun for Chad. I prefer to remember my parties.

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