Stay ✔︎

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18
COMPETITIVE

JUST WHEN LUISA THOUGHT everything in her life was running smoothly. She got a text form the last person she had expected, well, not the last person, but... it was Polly, her best friend with whom she hadn't been in contact for a year now, since her wedding to be exact.

"You okay?" Luisa felt Torrey's hand over own.

And Luisa didn't know why but she pulled her hand back, shooting Torrey a barely there smile, nodding. And of course, Torrey didn't believe her but she nodded back anyways.

They had met for lunch the following day, and Luisa's break time was almost over. Shaking her head and the ridiculousness of it all, she pushed her chair back, standing up.

"Uh, I should actually get going. And don't even try to fight me on this, I'm paying,"

Torrey smiled, "Definitely would have ordered something more expensive if I had known that,"

"You can do that next–" Luisa abruptly ended that sentence and looked at Torrey alarmed.

But Torrey was only smiling even wider now, "Next time? I'll keep it in mind,"

Luisa nodded, blushing extremely, ducking her head and focusing intently on taking out the bills and counting them one by one.

"And oh, your spare keys are still with me. They're actually–"

"It's fine," Luisa shook her head, waving her off, and then immediately regretted it, "I mean..." she trailed off, unsure how she was continue, or what she should even say.

"Okay," Torrey, graciously, intervened, nodding.

"Okay, uh, I should go," she put the bills in between the receipt book.

"Yeah, okay," she stood up and went to hug Luisa and then a short kiss.

She was about to go for her cheek but Luisa misinterpreted that she was going to go for the lips so there was another additional awkward moment right there. They laughed it off, but there was no way Luisa could just ignore the palpable awkwardness of it all.

She everything but stormed off back to her building, and slapped her forehead multiple times upon reaching back to her office. Blake was by her side within a split second.

"So, how did the date go?"

"It's not–"

"I'm sorry I forgot you freak out over the small implication of any sort of labels," Blake raised her hands in surrender, and then with a sly smirk continued, "How did the non-date, totally-just-hanging-out-with-each-other lunch go?"

Luisa chose to ignore the obvious mocking tone in her voice "Good, thank you for asking,"

"Just good?"

"Yes, just good. Can I get back to my work now?"

"Ah, the familiar tactic of burying yourself with work hoping that your problem will just go away. I mean out of all the defence mechanisms out there, why did you have to choose the most boring one?"

"Don't you have to do work as well?" Luisa turned to her exasperated.

"I'm bored. Come on, entertain me,"

"Huh, glad to know, my crisis are a source of reliable entertainment for you,"

"I thought we had already established that," she shrugged simply.