“So, are you finally out of the car?” Izzy whispered through the phone.
“Yes, and I’m on my way to his place to embarrass myself.”
“Oh, girl, relax. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I am.”
“Well, I’m glad that at least one of us is convinced.”
I took several deep breaths as my ride took longer than any elevator ride I’d ever been on before. It was almost as if the universe knew that I was about to make a total ass of myself and wanted to prolong the anxiety that was sitting in the middle of my chest. Then, out of nowhere, I started to feel nauseous. So nauseous that I started to feel like my knees were slowly buckling beneath me.
Shaking, I hurried to hit the emergency button to stop the elevator. “Izzy, I can’t do this. I’m going back down.”
“No, you’re already there.”
“Yeah, but I can easily turn right back around.”
“You could, but you’re too damn close to getting answers. Besides, this is your friend we’re talking about. His feelings were hurt in some way, and I can’t say that I blame him. You guys need to talk this out.”
“I’ve tried.”
“I know that. But sometimes a phone call just won’t do. The man needs to know that you care a lot more than you made it seem.”
“But—”
“No buts, Nova. If this was no big deal, you wouldn’t have been stressing about this for as long as you have, and you damn sure wouldn’t have driven four hours. Like, you’re blaming it on everything you can think of, but we both know it’s because you have feelings for the man.”
“I know I have feelings for Don. But I can’t afford to want him in that way. There’s too many obstacles.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ve told me all of that, and I call bullshit,” Izzy said. “You know what? If it makes you feel any better, just tell him you’re in town for business and you decided to stop by.”
“Business? What kind of business?”
“Tell him you were looking into starting a store out there, and you wanted to look at locations.”
“There’s no way he’s going to believe that.”
“Look, I’m trying to give you something to work with. Either go with my story or keep letting your anxiety take over. It’s completely up to you.”
Blowing out a heavy breath, I rolled my eyes. As ridiculous as her story sounded, it was a lot better than me just seeming like I was some weirdo that was in her feelings about not hearing from him. After taking a few extra seconds to convince myself that Izzy’s suggestion wasn’t trash, I hit the emergency button again and continued my journey up.
When the doors opened, I was immediately intimidated by the view of the hallway. It was almost as if it stretched out right in front of my eyes like I was in a horror film.
Easing off the elevator, I whispered, “Come on, Nova, pull yourself together. You got this.”
“That’s right, get your shit together.”
Realizing that Izzy was still on the phone, I said, “I’m hanging up now.”
“For real?”
“Yes, for real. I know you didn’t think I was going to let you stay on the phone this whole time.”
“Well, I was kind of hoping you would.”
“Girl, bye. I’ll call you later.”
