You, Again

The Truth Hangover

The next morning Devin woke up feeling emotionally and physically exhausted. She had tossed and turned all night, the wine keeping her body hot and her mind awake till an ungodly hour. She had purposefully gone to bed before Christian got home so she could process everything she had heard. Between the Joe confession and finding out that Christian had been in love with her all this time, she didn't know how to broach the subject.

She could hear him rustling around in the kitchen and she dragged herself out of bed, pulling on an old school sweatshirt over her pajamas, mindful not to repeat nipple gate again.

"Morning sunshine," He gave her a quick once over as she padded past him straight to the coffee pot.

"Hi, hi" she said as she moved around him to grab a piece of bread to make toast. He was weirdly close to her and their kitchen was not big enough for this type of dance.

"Can you, like, move? Anywhere? Just move one step over please." She guided him just out of the kitchen and into the door frame so she could have space to breath. She thought his presence would be calming but it felt like he was suffocating all the air out of the room.

"Yea you could be nicer about it you know." He took a sip from his coffee and walked into the living room plopping down on the couch.

Devin winced, she knew her tone was wrong and this is not how she wanted to start her Saturday.

"I'm sorry. Yesterday was just a long night." She took a seat on the opposite end of the couch and curled her legs under herself to face him. He looked handsome in this light, his light hair fell in front of his eyes and Devin resisted the urge to brush it back with her fingers.

"Yea, listen about yesterday. I needed to talk to you. Did you say you were working for Mr. Ingram?" His tone was light but Devin could tell there was something more to his question.

"Yea, he's my boss. Didn't I tell you that already?" She sipped her coffee and heard the toaster pop. She moved to get up but Christian put a hand out to pause her.

"Wait, can you hang on just a minute?" She took a seat, this time closer to him.

"Mr. Ingram is your boss as in Mr. Dave Ingram?" Devin furrowed her brow, she definitely hadn't used his first name last night.

"Yep sure is. How do you know him?"

"He's my dad's step-brother, the asshole who wouldn't pay for Jessie's college" Devin almost dropped her coffee into Christian's lap.

"What?" She was shocked and her mind was racing.

"Yep, when you said his name I finally put the pieces together. I knew he worked in production but I didn't realize it was Broadway theater. You seem to be working for my sworn enemy." He chuckled but there was no humor in his voice.

"Christian, oh my god. I didn't know. I, what do you want me to do? I'll quit. I'll go in there on Monday morning and I'll tell them I can't work for them."

"I love the enthusiasm Dev, but no don't quit. You need the money. Ideally I would love for you to not continue working with him for the rest of our lives but there's no reason for you to quit. I just wanted you to know so you weren't surprised in case we crossed paths."

"I'm so sorry. He doesn't come across as very mean-spirited. If anything he's just kind of checked out. His wife on the other hand is freaking everywhere. She doesn't give him any room to breathe." She watched Christian wince ever so slightly.

"I'm sorry we don't need to talk about it. I'll figure something out. I promise not to continue working for your sworn enemy while we continue being roommates."