Page 48 of We Met Like This
“I know,” I said. “But right now, I do. I’m in a bathroom stall.”
“Oh, Margot. Please don’t hate yourself. Get out of the bathroom and direct your anger where it belongs. At your stupid boss.”
“Ex-boss.”
“Do you evenwantto go back?”
“I have no other options. I need to.” I ripped off some toilet paper from the roll and blew my nose. “I better go. Oliver is waiting for me at my celebratory lunch.”
“That’s right. Oliver. How was it? Seeing him again after all this time?” she asked.
“Wet,” I said. “And not the good kind.”
“The universe really screwed you over on your celebration.”
“Can you cancel the thing tonight?”
“No, let’s turn it into an angry party. You’re going to need it.”
“I just want to crawl in bed and sleep for years.”
“Exactly why you need tonight. Now go celebrate beingwith a hot man and we’ll fix all your other problems tomorrow.” She hung up the phone.
On the stall door in front of me someone had writtenMen Suck. The solidarity I felt with the author of those words in that moment was much more than the situation warranted. I closed my eyes, tried to think of some words of affirmation to give myself, but when my mind remained blank, I walked out of the stall. Some woman was standing by the door, staring at me with a look of disgust.
“Emergency,” I mumbled, and went to the sink to wash off my face, then used my purse makeup to make myself presentable. Maybe I could still salvage this time with Oliver.
CHAPTER 15
I sat down in the chair across from Oliver. “I lied to my sister,” I said.
Oliver blinked once. “You are turning out to be the most interesting person I know.”
“Is that a nice-guy way of saying that I’m a mess?”
“Not at all. You lied to your sister?” he asked. “Is this the sister that runs?”
“Yes, she’s my only sister. And she’s perfect. Everything she touches turns to gold, so when she asked me how my promotion went today, I told her it went great.” I sighed. “I’m going to get struck down by lightning for lying to my pregnant sister.”
“What does her being pregnant have to do with it?”
“I don’t know, it feels worse lying to pregnant people.”
He laughed, but then seemed to realize that now was not the time to laugh, so he quickly changed it to a cough. “Is this her first pregnancy?”
“No. She already has five-year-old twins. You’d think shewas ten years older than me with how much she’s accomplished in her life, but no, she’s just three.” I cringed. “I sound jealous, don’t I? Maybe I am.”
“Hi! Welcome,” a peppy waitress appeared at our table. “Can I start you with something to drink?”
For a second I had forgotten where we were, what we were doing. “I’ll just have some ice water,” I said.
“Are you sure you don’t want something stronger?” Oliver asked. “This was supposed to be a celebration, after all.”
“I’ve already embarrassed myself in front of you enough, completely sober. I should stick to water.”
“Me too,” Oliver said, and the waitress left.
The menu sat on the table in front of me. I didn’t need to look at it. Since it was across the street from the office, I’d been to this restaurant a million times over the last four years. And yet my eyes scanned the food options like I needed to memorize them.
