Page 68 of She Likes It, Hey Micah
Micah: The pizza guy asked me out, though!
“You’re going to get yourself murdered someday,” I say, shaking my head. How does her brother not die of worry over this woman and her tendency to interact with strange men? If I were him, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.
Me: Did you say yes?
Micah: Yeah. He was cute! And really sweet when he asked me!
He was cute. Does she think I’m cute? She does—cute like askunk. What does that mean? I like to think I’m easy on the eyes, and experience has generally confirmed that. But how do I measure up against all of Micah’s prospects? Do I even rank amongst the other woodland creatures?
I am definitely losing my mind if I’m suddenly jealous of a squirrel.
Me: When is the date?
Micah: Tonight! Assuming Lila lets me leave on time. She is freaking out today and trying to convince the whole planning team to stay late.
I glance at the office door, wondering if Lila is on edge because of the whole thing with Grant. Would it be better for them to never speak again or to make up? My best option is probably to avoid interference entirely.
Me: What time is your date? Maybe I can do something to make sure you get away.
What I could possibly do, I don’t know, and I hate that I’m even offering. If I weren’t trying to be a better person, I would let her stand the guy up and probably sabotage any future dates with bike messengers and doctors so her only choice is to come running to me.
I shudder. Being a better person is clearly going to take a lot of work.
Micah: It’s at 7 at La Bella! I think I can get out of here okay but I’ll let you know if that changes!
Oh, I wish she hadn’t told me. I’m glad she trusts me, but now I’m going to be sitting in my dark bedroom at seven tonight, desperately trying to distract myself so I don’t think about a greasy-haired pizza guy putting the moves on Micah. Well, she said he’s cute, so he probably doesn’t have greasy hair.
But now I’m picturing him looking like Justin Timberlake or something, which isn’t helping.
I type out one more text that I don’t mean before forcing myself to go back into the office.
Me: I hope your date goes well.
***
Our meeting with the company that powers the lodge goes long into the afternoon, but I absolutely don’t want Grant to be in charge of ensuring we don’t have any more power outages as we move closer to winter. Surprisingly, he’s doing okay during this conference call, but I don’t know how long that will last. Still, I’ll let him take the lead as long as he’s on a roll.
“The ski resort lost power as well,” Grant says for the third time. “I’m assuming you don’t want skiers stranded on a lift just because you can’t manage to construct functional power lines.”
I barely hold back a laugh, and Grant meets my gaze as the guy on the line splutters some excuse. He almost smiles, which is a nice change from the glares he’s been giving me all day.
“No,” Grant says, cutting the guy off. “No, that’s not good enough, because between my lodge, the resort, and the three towns you let go black this weekend, you clearly don’t have what it takes to operate in the twenty-first century.”
“But the storm—”
“Storms happen every year. At this point, you shouldn’t be surprised by a bit of snow. What are we even paying your ridiculous prices for?”
I glance at my phone, but Micah still hasn’t responded to my last text. Not that I expect her to. I guess a part of me hopes she needs to be rescued so I can step in and…make sure she goes on a date with another guy. Something is wrong with me.
As Grant keeps arguing, an idea pops into my head, and I move to the corner of our little conference room. He probably won’t answer, but I dial the number anyway.
“’Sup, roomie.”
I choke, unprepared for that greeting. I figured he would be asleep. “Uh, hi. I was hoping you could do me a favor.”
Kale laughs. I don’t even know where his landline is, but I’m picturing him sitting in his closet or something. “Fischer asking me for a favor? That’s new.”
“We’re having a hard time getting the power company to cooperate and look into some power issues we had over the weekend.”
