Page 87 of Making Home with You
“The only way I’ll let this continue is if you agree not to come in to work until the office is open, and there’s no staying late.Got it?”
“Got it.”
I’m ready to go, and feeling better about this place than I have since the day after I started.I want to skip down the hallway, I want shout it to everyone here, but I’ll gloat in private knowing I could be the only one who feels this way.
“Let me drive you to the train,” Joe says, and I roll my eyes but agree knowing he’s uneasy with the whole situation.
“Fine, fine,” I say back, laughing a little at the fact that no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to get away from these overprotective boys.
We reach the ground floor and I’m rifling through my purse for my phone, but I keep coming up short.I need to text Finn and let him know I’m okay, but that I’m running a little late.
I dig into my laptop bag but still can’t seem to locate my phone.And that’s when I realize I’ve left it sitting on my desk.In my excitement, I pulled it out to text Finn but never got around to it.I can actually picture it on my desk calendar where I always leave it.
“Joe,” I say, my hand reaching out to stop him as he nears the exit doors, “I forgot my phone upstairs.I’ll just a be a few minutes, okay?”
“I’ll come with you,” he insists, taking a step back toward the elevators, but is stopped by the ringing of his phone.
He shoos me on as he paces the lobby, phone to his ear, and I hurry off to the elevators.It will only take me a second to grab my phone and be back down.
When I reach my office, there’s my phone right where I knew it would be: sitting on my desk, at the top of the calendar and I laugh a little at my predictability and my forgetfulness.
I shouldn’t keep Finn waiting any longer and I know he’s probably on his way home by now too.If he walks in and doesn’t find me at the house he’s going to lose his shit.
Me: Hey!Running super late but I have something important I need to tell you about when I get home.
His response is nearly immediate and I smile knowing that when I get home I get to tell him about my day.
Finn: Thanks for letting me know.I’ll see you soon.
His response is short and to the point and the stupid side of me is now worrying about what’s going on with him.Even though a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders, doesn’t mean the same has happened with him.
We’ve kept things from each other and I’m realizing now that we should’ve been relying on each other, sharing with each other all the shit that’s been happening.
I walk past Andrew’s office and the immature side of me flips him my middle finger even though I know he’s not his office.It’s something I’ve done a million times behind the wall of our adjoining office, but now something about it feels so much more satisfying.
His light is on when I walk past, even though the office was dark just a little while ago.I glance in through the crack in the door and I watch the shadow of someone moving behind the desk.
My heart begins to race and I question my overzealous behavior.Shaking my hands at my side, trying to rid them of the tingling that has taken over.My excitement is now overshadowed by the fact that Andrew was here the entire time and now probably knows what I’ve done.
But, when the person behind the desk appears, it’s the cleaning service and he walks out of Andrew’s office carrying a bag of trash as he slips into mine to do the exact same thing.
I practically laugh out loud at my overactive imagination.I’m not going to let some former-date-rape-frat-boy bully me into thinking I’ve done something wrong.He’s not going to incite the type of fear in me that he’s done up until this point.
Joe’s still on the phone when I finally make it back to the lobby; phone in hand and ready to get the hell out of here.
He motions with his head for me to follow him, and we head out to his waiting nondescript police issued vehicle that he conveniently left parked right out front of my office building.I guess that police placard is more useful than the badge sometimes.
He drops me at the station, again either utilizing or abusing his police presence to park directly in front as he walks me inside and waits on the platform until I’m on safely on the train.All of this going down as he reminds me not to arrive at work before office hours and not to stay any later than necessary.
Since the incident with Carla outside of Finn’s house, he’s started parking off to the side of the driveway.He gave me his garage door opener and has since insisted I park there rather than risk something else happening.So when I hit the button, it only takes Finn a second to whip open the door leading to the house and poke his head out.He watches me pull in, cut the engine and climb out as he hits the button closing the garage door behind me.
He isn’t taking any chances, but something is different about today.He seems more on edge when I push up on my toes and press my lips to his.
“Sarah, I gotta talk to you about something,” he says, pulling back and looking me straight in the eye.His expression is unreadable and for a second I wonder if he’s found out I’ve been lying to him about what’s going on with my boss.
“Is everything okay?”I ask, stumbling over my words as I realize I should tell Finn everything.
“Not exactly.”
