Page 57 of Negotiation Tactics
Oh, I see. This is about Lily. We haven’t hung out with her as much as before since my falling out with Josh, so I imagine Brady’s feeling awkward about meeting up with her. They really get along, and I enjoy Lily’s company too, so it would be super shitty of me to cut her out justbecause she works with that brat. Quiz nights have become something of a tradition, and I look forward to them every damn month.
“You two have to send me a selfie. I am not missing out on seeing you in those ugly white wigs.” The theme this month is Victorian Aristocracy, and I know for a fact that Brady was planning to go all out. It’s a shame I can’t join them, but I am confident they will maintain our winning streak. “Fuck. Is it too late to bail on the golf and fly back home so I can go with you?”
He snorts, cackling. “No way. It’s your punishment. Once you are back, we can do a costume party or something. Maybe you can invite Christy too, so she can dress up as a witch.”
“She doesn’t need to dress up as one to pull that off.”
“Shit, you are right.” We both laugh, then he adds, “Judging by the lack of complaining on your end about her, she doesn’t seem so bad…”
I contemplate that. “She’s alright. I guess we’ve both changed after all.”
My own words linger in my mind long after that. Ihavechanged, I can feel it. I don’t know when it happened or what it means exactly, but something is different. I’ve been getting along okay with my ex, I’ve been handling things at the company well. Everything is moving along as it should, and yet, a shadow still hangs over me despite my multifaceted progress.
I take out my phone, fingering the edge of the napkin. I need to forget Josh, I will. But that doesn’t mean that I have to give up on the friend I made along the way. It’s not Lily’s fault. If she wants to cut me out, she can, but I’m not going to turn my back on her just because she’s close withJosh. I’m not petty like that. It’s completely normal to want to retain the relationships that matter to you, after all.
Yep, that’s it. We get along, she’s fun to talk to. We can stay friends. It doesn’t have to be weird or anything. I won’t mention Josh, won’t ask what he’s up to as that’s none of my business. Besides, he’s one stubborn brat—I’m sure he’s already bounced back. He probably doesn’t even think about me, which kind of frustrates me because I am finding it hard to evict him out of my head. His smiles, the way he said my name when he was about to unravel, the soul-stealing green eyes, the vulnerability in his voice when he shared those deepest parts of himself.
I shoot Lily a message, asking her how things at the Union are before I can change my mind. It’s harmless and has nothing to do with Josh. I’m just being a good friend to Lily. A friend who cares. She was dealing with a big case and I want to know how that went.
Or so I convince myself, ignoring the frisson of annoyance and disappointment that racks through me when my fingers hover over the chat with Josh. I need to delete it, for my own sanity. He’s nobody to me, a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things. A good fuck that never truly cared about me to begin with.
Right?
21
Josh
Ihigh-fiveLilyassoon as the packaging company reps leave the meeting room, giddy from the win we just landed. It was my case, but she wanted to tag along, so I let her, both of us needing a change of pace after I had to settle on the Devon Holidays case last week. I hate it and even though people are being understanding, my heart aches for them. The loss has affected morale in the Union too, though everyone is doing their best to pretend otherwise.
“Can’t believe that sleazy asshole tried to argue with you,” Lily says, huffing out a laugh that sounds a lot like a pig’s grunt. It’s kind of cute.
“I bet he regrets it now,” I gloat, because an additional ten percent on top of our initial demands for salary increases is definitely not what his intention was when he opened his stupid mouth.
We spill out of the elevator and I head for my office, ready to go over the legislation around post-settlement court proceedings until my date with Peterson. I might have accepted Devon Holidays’ termstemporarily, but it doesn’t mean I won’t spend every free moment I have for the next six months trying to make a comeback. Watch me. I still have a long way to go, but I’m just getting started.
I get settled behind my desk and navigate to the pdf I opened before the meeting with the packaging company,trying to find the paragraph I stopped at. Just as I locate it at the bottom of the page, a knock on my door hijacks my attention.
Lily is standing there with her hip cocked against it, arms folded. She has her things with her. “I’m leaving twenty minutes early so I can get ready for the pub quiz with Brady,” she reminds me and I grin despite the pang of hurt spearing through me.
There’s free beer or something if they win, plus it has become something of a tradition for them. Alistair usually joins as well.
Despite what went down between him and me, I don’t hold it against Lily if she wants to be friends with him. They’ve been growing closer ever since they reconnected, but we don’t really talk about it. He’s out of town now, doing that ad campaign with Christine, so he and Lily haven’t really hung out recently, but I won’t ban her from it either. She’s an adult, she can take care of her own affairs. Also, she’d never throw me under the bus—she’s not that type of person, so while this arrangement isn’t exactly ideal, I’m not one of those people that give their friends ultimatums just because I messed up.
“Ah, right.” I offer her a half-smile. I’ve not directly asked her whether she and Alistair are keeping in touch while he’s away, but it doesn’t matter. “Have fun!”
Lily glances at her phone and studies me for a few moments, returning my grin. “Don’t forget your date is in two hours. No getting carried away with work, or Peterson will kill me.”
Peterson is Lily’s neighbor, and we met when he stopped by to give Lily back a video game he’d borrowed. It happened while we were having lunch with Mariam at the Chinese place across the street. He was blond and cute and may havecaught my eye, which is how I ended up agreeing to go out on a date with him.
To be honest, it’s great timing, especially now that I’ve had enough time to move on from the fling I had with Alistair Devon. I’m totally over that asshole.
“I won’t,” I promise. “I’ll just wrap up things here, then head over.”
“Okay,” Lily concedes, pushing off the doorframe. “I’ll see you on Monday. Have fun on your date and tell me everything!”
It takes me another forty minutes to finish and by the time I turn off my computer and get my things, everyone has left the office. Double-checking that the coffee machine has been turned off and that the filter has been changed, I lock up. On the commute home, I shoot Jaz a text about my date and the two of us decide I should go with my yellow Hawaiian shirt and the pair of chinos in off-red since it’s sufficiently warm tonight.
As soon as I am in front of the mirror, I freeze. I’m transported back to the night of the event at the PCC where I met Alistair Devon for the third time. I wore this same outfit then, intent on using any dirty trick I could to get the upper hand in the negotiations with Devon Holidays.
