Scars of the Past

Chapter Forty: Spot Conlon

I walk through the front door of the building, quickly being greeted by the smell of cleaning supplies. It's pretty typical. Every time there's any sort of stain or mark on these floors, Pulitzer is quick to call someone to clean it up. I've always just assumed it's to outdo his competitors in yet another area, or so he thinks. 

            I spot Davey walking across the lobby with a tray of Starbucks cups and quickly speed up to catch up to him. He fumbles with the tray and two bags. 

           "Do you need help?" I ask. 

            Davey jumps, clearly lost in his head before. "Uh, no. I think I'm good. Thanks though." 

            "How many coffees does Pulitzer possibly need?" 

             "Three in the morning, two in the afternoon," Davey sighs. "Too much." 

             "That would explain the coffee breath," I laugh. 

              He slightly nods, quickly looking around to make sure nobody saw him agree to that. 

              "Are you alright? You seem kind of tense," I note. 

                He gulps as we continue heading toward Pulitzer's office. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind." 

                I narrow my eyebrows as we walk. Some people are gathered around a water dispenser chatting. We pass around them and pass a bunch of other clustered desks. 

                I look over towards Jessica and wave but her eyes are glued to Davey. She's not smiling though, it's more of a glare. A glare I can't read. 

               I turn back towards Davey whose shoulders somehow appear even more tense. I'm about to ask him what's wrong but someone else is already calling over to him. 

               "David, my office, now!" Pulitzer shouts into the room. 

                He squeezes his eyes tight before opening them with a sigh. "See you later Sean." 

                He walks straight past me and through Pulitzer's office. Pulitzer eyes me as he shuts the door and follows after Davey. 

                My attention turns back over to Jessica. She doesn't return the look though. Her eyes are now glued to her computer. I sigh and head to the break room, check-in, and then head to my workspace. 

               Anthony sits at his computer, scrolling down a large screen of articles and popular news. 

               "Hey," I say softly, which startles him. 

               "Uh, hey," he says, looking over to me with shaky eye contact. "I found a few topics for the article." 

                "Oh, that's cool. Do you have a list of some?" I ask, taking my seat. I rotate a little in my seat. If you give me a spinny chair you cannot expect me to sit still. 

                "Yeah, I uh, can send that over to you," he explains, quickly switching to another tab to draft an email. 

               "Thanks." 

               "No problem," he replies quickly. 

*****************************

  I walk straight into the breakroom to Jessica and Davey talking around a small table. They go silent the second I walk into the room. I shoot them a look before heading to start my lunch break. 

       "So how's your day going?" Jessica asks, breaking the silence. 

       "Interesting," I say before turning over to them. "Why are you guys acting weird?" 

       "Just a lot of stuff going on," she says, shrugging. "All good." 

       Davey nods. "Oh yeah, totally all good."

       I narrow my eyebrows. "Something about you saying 'it's all good' makes me think it's not. What's up?"

       "It's complicated," Jess continues. 

        "What's complicated?" I ask before my heart drops. "Oh my gosh, are you guys breaking up?"

         "What?" Davey says, his eyes widening. 

          Jessica shakes her head. "No, that's not it. We're not breaking up." 

         "Then what's the problem?" 

       "I don't think we should tell you-" Jessica begins. 

         "Anthony still likes you," Davey blurts out. 

          "David!" Jessica says, her eyes wide. 

           His shoulders relax as he lets out a heavy breath. 

            "What...?" I ask.

             Jessica takes a breath before starting. "Anthony had a dream about you guys preparing for your wedding last night and now he's confused." 

           I stay quiet. Holy frick, he still likes me. Anthony is dreaming about me. He's dreaming about us getting married. This is crazy. This is incredible! 

          No, it's not incredible. I'm in a relationship. I am taken. We're not going to happen. 

          I look down at the ground, my heart pounding in my chest. 

           "Wow..." I mutter. 

         "But don't freak out over it. It's a dream. Crazy things happen in dreams. I've been killed and had kids and a billion of other things that haven't actually happened. I've even married Leonardo Dicaprio in my dreams. I don't even like the guy," Jessica says. "Although he wasn't bad in the Titanic." 

          "At the same time though, a lot of the time dreams are your subconscious speaking so he might still have some lingering feelings," Davey mumbles. 

          "Not helping, David," Jessica replies, sternly. 

           "Sorry." 

          I shake my head. "No, it's fine. Not a big deal. I'm with Zeke now. I'm focused on someone else." 

            Jessica nods. 

            Seconds later, the doors to the breakroom open and Anthony checks out for his lunch break. "You ready, Jess?" 

           She nods and quickly kisses Davey's cheek. "See you guys later."

           And just like that, they leave the breakroom.

            I'd be lying if I said my heart didn't flutter for a second when he walked into the room. 

           But I can't. We can't happen. We stopped happening months ago and I think it needs to stay like that. 

Note from the author: Hey there! I'm so sorry for just falling off the face of the planet for the past few months. I've been working on a book I hope to publish one day over the past few months so that's taken a majority of my attention. I also wasn't entirely sure where to go with the story since the last chapter but I figured I owed it to you guys to put something out. I'm going to try and push out a few more chapters over the next few days or so to try and give you some content after disappearing for a while. I'm going to try and be a little more consistent with this story but I also don't want to rush it too much because I don't want to mess it up and give you garbage just to get some stuff out there so please bear with me. I am so incredibly grateful for those of you who've stuck around. I hope you're all doing well.