Page 69 of Every Broken Promise
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” I told him.
“Punctuality is important. I don’t care what you do in your off time, but at work, I expect professionalism.”
That struck me as odd, but I didn’t have it in me to question what had crawled up Ronnie’s ass.
“Sorry, I woke up late, but I did bring you lunch to make it up.”
I waved the sandwich I had made for him, and his expression instantly changed.
“You brought me lunch?”
“Technically, I made it. Nothing fancy,” I said as I handed him the paper bag.
“You made this for me,” he repeated.
“Mhmm,” I murmured. “Sorry for being late. It won’t happen again.”
I left his office before he could say anything else and made my way to my cubicle, only to stop dead when I saw a large bouquet of astrid flowers.
TWENTY-SIX
This week turnedout to be a bust, not only for myself, but for Rachel as well.
While I got flowers, she didn’t receive her weekly bouquet from her ex-husband. I had no idea who had sent mine. I doubted they came from Tyler unless they were apology flowers.“Sorry, I didn’t make you come.”But I doubted that was the case.
I did not share the fact that I got flowers with anyone in my home life. My coworkers knew because they worked with me—as for me, I figured that if I ignored it, the problem would go away.
Had it been roses, lilies, or anything else, I might have felt some form of excitement, but they were astrids, making it feel like a threat rather than a gesture.
As for my sleepover, my parents had been worried I had been kidnapped, but once they saw Mark dropping me off, they seemed to think it was okay that their only daughter was sleeping over at a man’s house.
Life was wacky that way.
“I can’t believe you got engaged.” I turned to look at Orianna.
She was proof that time moved quickly for some while it stood still for others. When I started to work here, she wassingle, and now she was ready to get married to the chief of police in a town over.
“Between us, I want to elope,” she amended. “My mother-in-law would freak, but if we do that we will have a small celebration in a few weeks. I’d expect you there.”
I agreed because no one in the town over had beef with me, and it would be fun to go out and mingle with other people.
“Astrid!”
I let out a silent groan when Ronnie called me over.
“I can’t wait to go home,” I told Ori as I got up and went to Ronnie’s office.
“What’s up?”
Ronnie looked up at me with a set jaw. My stomach sank, and I thought something was wrong with my article.
“Is everything okay?” I asked softly.
“No,” he told me. “They changed the conference date. It won’t be next week anymore.”
I felt relief, not only because everything was okay with my column but because I had not let myself think too much about this, and now I had a bit more time before I had to fret about it.
“Aw, that sucks,” I lied. “But it gives us more time to prepare.”
