Page 119 of Fluke
“Yes. I got home a few minutes ago. It’s already so late in the day, so I didn’t plan on coming in the office until tomorrow.”
“Take tomorrow off. We’re having a staff meeting and that won’t really apply to you anyway since you’ll be moving jobs. Enjoy a long weekend.”
I could start packing now.I grin, thinking about Jess’s reaction when he sees that I got started without him.He’ll love that.
“Wow. Thanks, Bridgit. I appreciate it.”
“So tell me about the trip. How did it go? What did we learn?”
“I wish you could see the smile on my face. That would tell you all you need to know.”
“Oh. Did things go well with yourex-husband?” She chuckles. “Chuck got fired yesterday, by the way. But we can get into that next week.”
Chuck got fired?My eyes bug out of my head. “I have so many questions.”
“Chuck was using his company email for conversations not pertaining to work,” she says. “It gets complicated, and there’s a murky line between whether what he was doing was illegal or simply against company policy. That’s being investigated. But let’s not get sidetracked—give me your thoughts from the past few days.”
Talk about throwing me a curveball …
I shake my head and set the Chuck stuff aside.Focus, Pippa.
“I’m more sold on this concept now than I was before,” I say. “Good things can happen when you just stop being distracted. When you hit pause on life for a moment and have time to think. To feel.”
My mind replays Jess on his paddleboard, pointing at turtles and fish—and the monkeys. Watching him make a marinade for the chicken tikka masala. His arm stretched over the back of the wooden booth, his cheeks pink from the wine Ted gave us at dinner andbeing still.
“Having a few days to get to know one another again—doing things we wouldn’t have normally done—just changed my life,” I say. “It’s hard to have conversations when you have to carve time out for them. It’s hard to prioritize things when you have work in front of you. But when you’re floating down a river with no one around but your significant other or sitting in a new restaurant trying new foods and meeting new people together … it’s making new memories. It's remembering the parts of their personality that you fell in love with.”
“I take it you fell in love on this trip?”
I laugh. “I did, actually. Jess and I … We might’ve drifted apart—again—if we hadn’t done this. Or maybe not. Maybe the universe used this path to put us together. But I feel very, very good about what we’re offering with this, Bridgit. I have suggestions—lots of them. I’ll draft them and send them to you by Monday morning.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Great.”
“We’ll chat on Monday. Talk soon.”
“Goodbye.”
I slip my phone into my pocket and start emptying my suitcase. I’m not halfway through when my phone buzzes again.
Unknown: Hey, Pippa! It’s Brooke, Moss’s girlfriend. Honey’s granddaughter. We met the other day.
I add her to my contacts list.
Me: Hi!
Brooke: I got your number from Honey. I hope that’s okay?
Unknown: Hi!
Brooke: That’s Ashley, Maddox’s wife.
I add her to my contacts list too.
My smile stretches from ear-to-ear.
Me: Hi, Ashley! Yes, of course, it’s okay, Brooke.
