Page 69 of Waiting for Acceptance
“High maintenance is still maintainable.” Taylor winks at her.
“Okay, but tell us everything. How was it?” Ruby’s eyes bounce in anticipation.
“It was good. We were pretty busy the whole time. Obviously.” I pop my eyes at Taylor and she rolls hers. “He took me to his favorite pizza place when we landed and it was to die for. The conference went well and I actually got to answer one of the questions at the end of Fitz’s presentation. The party we were supposed to go to got moved to next week and after checking my work schedule I realized I’m supposed to be training someone so I don’t think I’ll get to go, which I’m bummed about, but it was a good trip. Until we got to the airport, but everything is fine now.”
“I’m so glad you had a good time and getting to speak must have been fun!” Shane encourages from her place at the table. Her little baby bump is starting to show up now and I still can’t believe her and Max are having another baby.
“Bitch, back up. What do you mean until you got to the airport? What happened?” Leah asks.
“Did you get strip searched?” Ruby asks.
“Why onearthwould I get strip searched?”
“Well, what else could go wrong in an airport?”
“I can think of a few things other than getting strip searched!” Ruby shrugs and I shake my head and laugh.
“Woman, what happened!?” Taylor waves a hand at me and I suddenly cower.
“We, uh… Ran into Hugh.” I shrug, forking a bite of my food into my mouth. I see Ruby’s eyes widen and everyone else shares a look of confusion.
“My old boss, Hugh? Why would that be a problem?” Shane asks, taking a sip of her water.
“Well, yeah, no. It would have been fine if I’d been like, ‘This is my friend's old boss, I met him once at an event she took me to in California, I haven’t seen him in almost four years’.” I noticethe way Ruby is fighting back a laugh and I want to push her off her chair.
“Howdidyou introduce him?” Taylor’s getting suspicious and my sweet, sweet Shane still looks just as lost as before.
“As a friend…” Eyes begin to widen around the table. “That I may or may not have slept with before,” I mumble the words out quickly as I bring my Diet Coke up to my lips.
“YOU SLEPT WITH HUGH?!” Shane screams, with no regard for who else in the house may hear her.
“Oof. Yeah, I’m sure that went over fabulously,” Leah snickers, just as Tucker and Tank come storming into the kitchen.
“Umm. Who did?” Tucker asks, looking around the table. Four fingers are suddenly pointed straight at me.
“I hate you all.” I roll my eyes and turn around with a guilty smile on my face. “Hi.”
“Damn, Sour Patch. The old guy? Really?” Tank teases and I glare at him.
“He’s literally like three years older than Tucker and Max?”
“Yeah, well, they’re old too.” Tucker slaps the back of Tank’s head and they start fighting, like full-on wrestling, in the kitchen.
“Boys! Take it in the living room. We’re gossiping.” Taylor points them towards the living room and they oblige.
“I cannot believe you slept with Hugh! When?!” Leah’s eyes light up when she asks and I cannot believe I am finally telling them this.
“Well the first time?—”
“Thefirst time? How many times were there?!” Shane is absolutely losing it right now and I must say, it’s kind of funny to see.
“The first time was when you and I went to Cali together. I ran into him while I was at the gym, and one thing led to another…”
“I knew no one worked out for that long! You’re dedicated, Lu, but notthatdedicated.”
“Anyway…” I continue, “then when we went back for your showcase we hooked up again. I saw him a few times after that but I didn’t know what I wanted and he knewexactlywhat he wanted, so it just wouldn’t have worked.” I shrug.
“What did he want?” Taylor asks.
