Always You - A Second Chance Romance

Chapter 16

The weekend went by slowly. Being back home after a trip was always nice - your own bed, your own shower, even your own food and kitchen. And while it was nice being back home, I felt uneasy.

Nick hovered all weekend. Everywhere I went in the apartment he followed. And he consistently wanted to spend time with me. If I sat down to read a book, he sat down next to me. If I wanted to go for a run, he wanted to run with me. Even going grocery shopping, something he never wanted to do even when I asked, he went with me. It felt like he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure how to start the conversation.

I was relieved when Monday morning rolled around and he went to work. I finally had time to myself. But the relief was short lived when I found a touch-base meeting scheduled for the morning between Luke, Chris, and myself. My stomach somersaulted inside me as I accepted the meeting from my phone. I chewed my lip as I looked at the agenda that Chris had included on his invite.

I knew this meeting needed to happen but I didn't feel ready to face Luke again. I decided I should probably make myself more presentable, thankful that I worked from home on Mondays. I quickly went through my emails and then ran to take a shower.

Forty minutes later and I was dressed casually with a blue summer blouse. I was grateful for my wavy hair today since I didn't have much time. I had done some light makeup and checked my appearance in my laptops webcam a few times ahead of our meeting.

At 10:30 am a notification sounded on my laptop to remind me of the meeting. I swallowed hard, my stomach suddenly full of butterflies, and waited to see who joined the virtual call first, Chris or Luke. I just couldn't risk joining and getting stuck with Luke one on one.

My computer chirped with an alert that the meeting was being started by Chris. I let out a sigh of relief and joined the call, plastering what I hoped looked like a sincere smile on my face.

"There she is!" Chris exclaimed when he saw me join the call. I smiled at Chris's image on my screen.

"Hey Chris, happy Monday," I said. Relief washed over me that Luke hadn't joined yet.

"How was the trip back to California?" He asked me.

"It was fine! I'm a little jet lagged still but I should be back to my normal sleep routine soon enough," I said. Chris nodded knowingly.

"Well I'm excited to kick off this project. Luke should be joining soon," he said. "After the call hang on the line for a little bit, I need to go over the promotion with you." I smiled widely.

"Sounds great," I said. I took a sip from my coffee as Chris and I chatted, waiting for Luke to join. A few minutes later his profile picture popped on the screen.

"Sorry I'm late," Luke said, interrupting Chris' story about an awkward interaction he had had at the convention. "I was having a hard time getting logged into my new laptop."

The screen flickered and Luke's profile photo was replaced with his smiling face on video. My heart did summersaults as my stomach soared and I focused my eyes on Chris' face to hopefully distract myself.

"No problem, we were just chatting about the convention," Chris said. "Anywho, let's get started!"

We talked for about an hour about the specs of the booth we would be designing and some ideas Chris already had. I was used to his leadership style and how he preferred to be more abstract in his ideas, but I could tell Luke was having a hard time keeping up. My laptop pinged with a chat and I looked to see Luke had messaged me privately.

Luke A. - I am so confused, is he always this erratic with new ideas?

I did my best to hide my smile on camera and nodded my head at what Chris was saying. I quickly typed a message back to Luke, trying to resist the urge to laugh.