Page 127 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Only one thing to do. Finish the project so he wouldn’t have to think about Todd anymore.
Close to noon, his IM flashed. This time, it was Adam.
Sam’s got a hankering for Mineo’s, so we’re all going. Eli said to drag you with us. Kicking and screaming, if necessary.
Sounds like Eli, he replied.
He didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to socialize. Wasn’t hungry. Except he’d promised Eli he’d keep going with the crew to lunch. He just hadn’t expected the lunches to be every other day. Wonder whose ideathathad been?
I’ll be right up.
He tromped to the front of the office and found the rest of the crew there.
“How’s your knee?” Sertab asked.
“Oh... it’s fine.” Heat crept up his neck at the lie. Still,My heart is cracking and I can’t breathe because I love him and I can’t be with him because he’d never want me as a neurotic, bitter messseemed far too long an explanation.
“Onward,” Sam said, and headed to the office door.
He found himself walking next to Jen. “How’re you doing?” she asked.
He must have a fuckingsignon him. “Eh, tired. I’d blame it on the jet lag, but...”
“Well, that wipes me out forever, too.” She paused. “Hey, my girlfriend and I have an extra ticket to the hockey game on Sunday. You interested? Pens versus the Flyers.”
Up ahead, Sam was laughing with Adam and Sertab about something. “You know, Ilikethe Flyers.” So did Todd, but he wasn’t there, so fuck him.
She laughed. “Dude, why do you think I asked you?”
“Well, that and you won’t have to break up the lovebirds.” He pointed over his shoulder at Eli and Justin.
She snorted and pushed her hands into the pockets of her shorts. “Have you ever hung out with those two after work?”
He shook his head.
“They’re somewhere between too adorable and too porntastic.”
“So like at work, but dialed to thirteen?”
“More like twenty, but yes.”
No, he couldn’t handle that right now. Could barely manage work. But the thought of spending a weekend alone was horrifying.
Last weekend, he’d spent the days combing around Squirrel Hill and Oakland. Museum-hopping. Shopping. Eating. He’d sat on Flagstaff Hill and tried not to scream at the clouds.
He’d typed Todd’s number on his cell a half dozen times. Despite deleting it from his contacts and blocking it, he’d managed to memorize it anyway.
No, he wasn’t about to spend the weekend at home. There was pinball on Friday, then Sertab’s dinner on Saturday, and now this. A full weekend.
“Yeah. I’ll take the ticket.”
It wouldn’t get his mind off Todd, but getting out would dull the pain and longing lodged in his bones.
