Page 84 of Love You
And that’s when Ricki came to the table to take their orders. “What’s everyone having today?” She smiled but it looked forced.
Win got a waffle with everything on it. For a guy who lived on kale drinks he sure had a sweet tooth. Darcy needed to remind herself of that. Madison got fruit salad and dry wheat toast. Big shocker there. Just to outdo her, Darcy got coffee and plain yogurt with muesli. Not that anyone noticed. Win and Madison were too busy reliving their significant seven-day history.
Halfway through the meal, Darcy excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she came back they were still engaged in a conversation about their whale watching trip, the one Win had gone on with another woman. Darcy felt a little like an empty coatrack just taking up space in the corner.
When the bill came Win paid it and they went to tour GA. At least they were sticking to her agenda. At the office, TJ, who’d shown up on a Saturday, introduced himself. While they talked, Win pulled Darcy aside.
“I think it’s going pretty well, don’t you?”
Before she could get two words out Madison returned. “It’s a great building.”
“We used to be in something smaller, off the beaten track,” Win said. “But we outgrew it with all the corporate accounts we were getting.”
She’d give Win credit. He was working it. Darcy just wasn’t sure if it was to get Madison’s business, to get in her yoga pants, or both. She supposed she should be thankful. Her promotion relied on a grand slam and Win was pitching them right down the middle of the strike zone. But instead of being thankful she was hurt—and jealous.
All morning long, she felt a stabbing pain in her chest. When Win decided they should do a bike ride by the lake like they’d done last time, Darcy used the excuse of paperwork to bow out. Win didn’t even try to persuade her to come along.
Darcy could hear laughter drifting from the storage room as they gathered up helmets and water bottles. The pain moved down to her stomach and her eyes blurred as she pretended to stare at her computer monitor.
“How do you think it’s going?” TJ stopped by her desk on his way out.
“Good, I guess. You know, the old Win charm.” She tried to swallow but there was a lump in her throat.
TJ looked at her closely. “Why don’t you go with them?”
Great. Now TJ was witnessing her humiliation. Either that or he thought she was shirking her responsibilities. Neither was good.
“The truth is I can’t keep up.” It wasn’t a lie, she couldn’t. “I don’t think it’s a particularly good image for GA to have me chugging behind them, out of breath.” And heartbroken.
TJ tilted his head. “Suit yourself. But it seems to me that you’re giving up without a fight. See you Monday.”
She wasn’t sure if he was talking about her lack of athletic prowess or something else entirely. And honestly, she didn’t want to examine it too closely. She just wanted to spend the time sulking.
Three hours later, a sweaty Madison and a not-so-sweaty Win came back to the office in time for their lunch reservation. Darcy couldn’t bag out of that too unless she wanted to come off as pathetic. So she tagged along, which is exactly how it felt. Darcy Wallace, the third wheel. Not surprising, Old Glory was full of tourists. More and more, the bar was attracting guests of the resorts, who came down from the mountain for some local flavor and to sample the many microbrews Boden had on tap.
“Hey.” Boden waved from behind the bar. “I’ve got you set up in the back corner.”
He led them to a table and for what seemed like the first time ever, Boden acknowledged Darcy’s existence by casually draping his arm over her shoulder. She chalked it up to the fact that she’d made the reservation personally. Then he ruined the whole effect by ogling Madison. Even bedraggled from a bike ride, she still turned heads.
Darcy took the chair in the shadow of the restrooms, figuring it served as a metaphor for her crappy day. “How was the ride?”
“Fantastic,” Madison said.
“Really good.” Win smiled and Darcy was sure anyone in the bar with a good vantage point of that bright pearly grin of his melted. Women, men, small children, big dogs, it didn’t matter.
“Sorry I missed it.” About as sorry as she was for not having anal cancer.
A server hadn’t come yet so Win got up to get them some drinks at the bar. Madison obviously thought it was a good time to check her messages because she whipped out her cell phone and started scrolling through the screen. That was fine, Darcy could just study the American flags on the wall.
Madison gazed past their table, presumably looking for Win, and spotted one of the oak barrels. “Ooh, peanuts. Darcy, would you mind? I’m kind of pinned in here.”
There was a chair behind her. All she had to do was move it. But Darcy got up to get the silly peanuts. It was better than staring at red stripes and white stars all afternoon, not that she wasn’t patriotic.
She returned with a basket. “So did Win tell you much about our corporate team building program?”
“He did.” She tossed the phone back in her bag and snapped open one of the peanuts. “It sounds phenomenal. But as you know we’re also talking to Mountain Adventure down south. We have a campus in Los Angeles so that might be more convenient and more cost-effective. But so far I’m partial to Garner Adventure.” She turned her blue eyes on Win as he made his way to the table with three pints in his hand.
“The great thing about Glory Junction is it’s super accessible.” It really wasn’t unless you had a private plane but pretty soon the only thing that would keep Darcy warm at night was her promotion.
