Light Me Up [H.S]

23

I was struggling to keep my focus on work. I kept smiling like an idiot and had to reel it in. I had a couple of manuscripts to go through and I didn't have time to day dream, thinking about Harry's face, his smile, his eyes, his soft lips...

"Peyton?" I was pulled out of my day dream by a colleague, who needed my say in something. She held out a draft for me to add to my pile of books I needed to read through. "Are you well?" She asked with a smile, obviously suspecting that I was thinking about someone, while smiling like an idiot.

"Yes, yes of course," I said while shaking my head at myself. "Just a little distracted today."

"Yeah, I can imagine," my colleague said and grimaced.

I furrowed my brows and looked questioningly at her, wondering what she had seen or heard about me and Harry. Not that it was anyone's business who I went out with. But I wasn't crazy about the idea of being someone the entire office gossiped about. "Pardon?" I said and smiled at her.

"I mean about that chapter Ethan Hale turned in... That's gotta be tough reading." She smiled sympathetically before she turned and walked out of my tiny office.

I immediately felt a panic rising in my chest, and found my phone. I dialled Morgan's number and waited for her to pick up.

"P? Are you alright?" She said when she picked up the phone. I never really called her during work hours. Usually I just texted her if there was office gossip or if we were arranging to meet for lunch.

"Do you know anything about Ethan's latest chapter?" I sort of just spat out quickly.

Morgan rummaged around a bit, like she was moving to a more secluded spot. "What chapter? What am I missing?"

"Someone just dropped something off and sympathetically told me that it must be tough reading it. What the hell has he turned in?" My palms were sweaty and I feared I was going to regret ever spending a moment of my time with that ass wipe.

"Let me look into it. I'll see you at lunch, yeah?" Morgan said sounding like a woman on a mission.

"Thanks Morgan. See you at lunch." I hung up and sat for a moment staring into thin air. The silly smile was momentarily exchanged for a worried expression.

***

I met with Morgan for lunch, and she had a look on her face that didn't make me feel much better. She had a brown envelope with her, thick with pages of words that Ethan had written. I took a deep breath when she sat down next to me in our usual spot in the corner. 

"Is it bad?" I said and studied her face for an answer. 

"It's not good," she said and rolled her eyes at the envelope. "Did you know it was a 'Personal Development Guide for Men with Ambitions', he's writing?" 

Her description alone gave me the ick. I scrunched my nose and shook my head. I knew it wasn't prose he was writing, but I hadn't expected him to write a self-help book. I'd expect someone with a little more life experience to do something like that. Ethan was barely thirty and he didn't seem to have much life experience, really.