Page 2 of Love Unexpected
Greta motioned toward me. “Merch has it well in hand.”
Isaac’s gaze shifted to me. “Rosie! Talk to me about hoodies.”
Side note: I wasnotgood at talking to people. I mean, I was a functional adult. I could interact and engage with my coworkers and order food from the local Chinese place and interact with my landlord about cabinet repairs without any trouble. But that hadn’t always been the case. It had taken me years to get a handle on my anxiety, resulting in a full arsenal of tools and coping strategies culled from countless therapy sessions, yoga classes, and meditative breathing workshops. All of it had worked. I was fine. Mostly. But sometimes, when I interacted with certain people or felt particularly nervous or overwhelmed, I pretty much lost it.
I willed my nerves to settle. This wouldnotbe one of those times. I generally avoided one-on-one conversations with Isaac whenever I could out of an absolute certainty that otherwise, I would say something to embarrass myself. Because Isaac definitely qualified as one of thosecertainpeople.
I swallowed and cleared my throat. “Fifteen more minutes and they’ll be live on the site.”Hey look! A complete, coherent sentence!
“Perfect,” Isaac said. “And the ones without the hood? I mean, I have no idea why anyone would want a sweatshirt without a hood, but Dani swears people will buy them.”
“I think Dani is probably a smart person to trust when it comes to fashion. And yes. They’re good. The sweatshirts, I mean. Not Dani. Though I’m sure Dani is probably fine too. Not that I would know. I never talk to Dani. Or anything.” I closed my eyes and winced. “Sorry. I’m...the crewnecks are perfect. All good. Ready for lift-off.”
Isaac wrinkled his brow, a question in his eyes.
“Launch!” I yelled, loud enough to attract the attention of half the warehouse. “I meant launch,” I said, dropping my voice to normal decibels. “The crewnecks are ready for launch. And the hoodies. Can I stop talking now? I’m going to stop talking.”
Isaac nodded slowly. “Sure. I think you’ve told me everything I need to know.” He turned as if to walk away then swung back around. “You okay, Rosie? You look a little flushed.”
I shook my head, my hands instantly flying to my cheeks. “Nope, I, um...I’m good. A-okay.”
He shook his head. “Okay. Just checking. You let me know if Greta’s working you too hard, all right?” He finally turned and headed toward his office, sparing me the humiliation of having to respond again.
“Wow,” Greta said slowly. “That was...”
“Shut up,” I said. “It’s your fault, anyway. You knew the sweatshirts were added to the site and ready to go. You could have just told him for me!”
“And deny myself that little show?” Greta smiled. “Absolutely not.”
I dropped my head onto my desk. “Was it that bad?”
“I mean, I don’t think he figured you out if that’s what you’re asking. You just seemed like you’re a nervous communicator in general,notlike you’re madly in love with him.”
Okay. Yes.I said Charleston was a reason for moving. And it was. But who was I kidding? The biggest reason I had for abandoning my midwestern roots and moving to the South?
I was hopelessly in love with Isaac Bishop.
I lifted my head and glanced around us, not exactly wanting anyone else in the office to know my secret, but everyone at the surrounding desks seemed preoccupied enough not to be paying attention to our conversation. “I have to figure out a way to get over him. This is getting ridiculous.”
Greta rolled her eyes. “Or you could just ask him out.”
“I will absolutelynotask him out. He’s seeing someone right now anyway. And he’s my boss. You aren’t supposed to date your boss.”
“Isaac would hate hearing you call him the boss. You know how he feels about teamwork and collaboration. We’re all in this together, Rosie,” Greta said in a surprisingly accurate mimicry of one of Isaac’s favorite expressions. “And we know he doesn’t care about workplace romance. I started dating Vincent when our offices were still crammed into the tiny kitchen house behind Isaac’s house on Church Street, and Isaac was our biggest advocate.”
“That’s because he’d never seen me date anyone before,” Vinnie said, coming up behind Greta and leaning down for a kiss. “He couldn’t contain his excitement.”
Vinnie to everyone but Greta, who insisted on calling him by his given name, had been part of the original team when Isaac had startedRandom Iin his parents’ basement back before he’d even graduated from high school. The studio and headquarters forRandom Ihad occupied a few different locations, finally settling into the spacious top floor of a warehouse near the medical complex in downtown Charleston. They’d moved six months before I’d gotten the job and headed south.
Vinnie and Isaac were close friends; it made sense Isaac would have been happy for him. But that didn’t meanIsaacwould be interested in dating one of his employees.
“The point is,” Greta said, standing up so Vinnie could drop into her chair before she lowered herself onto his lap, “you have no reason not to consider yourself a desirable option. Just put yourself out there. You’ll never know how he’ll respond if you don’t try.”
“I concur,” Vinnie said.
I shook my head. “No. It’s too soon. If I say something now, it’s going to look fangirly and stupid. I have to wait until I’ve worked here long enough that it can at least look like my feelings are organic...that they startedafterI got the job.”
Vinnie looked from me to Greta then back to me again. “That’s not how it happened?”
