twisted | ✔️

chapter seventeen

I'd been sitting at this desk for the past two hours, staring at my computer screen like these images would somehow magically rearrange themselves into what I pictured them to be, but it was like watching paint dry. I'd cast them up along the front wall, but enlarging them didn't seem to have done any good. I had a meeting with my supervisor, Elizabeth in thirty minutes, and I had to have something better to show to her. My heels were creating a blister on the back of my feet, and I was exhausted, and even though I'd poured my entire soul into this canvas before me, it still wasn't good enough.

"That looks great," a voice said behind me, and I turned my head to see Teddy. He waltzed up beside me, leaning his arm against my chair and studying my work.

"Does it?" I asked, my voice dripping with desperation. "I have a meeting with Liz, and I don't know what I'm going to do if this doesn't go well. It's for the new ad campaign, and so far, she's rejected everything that we've given to her."

"Yeah," he responded with a chuckle, "I know. I was one of the victims. But that looks really good. Better than anything I could have thought of."

"So you think she'll say yes?" I said.

"It'd be a crime if she didn't," he said, shooting me a sideways grin.

My heart swelled. I'd finally found something I was good at, something I was excited to get out of bed in the morning to do. I was still dancing which had saved me on more occasions than one, but this was still new, still marked with possibility and opportunity, and I liked knowing that I was heading somewhere, even if it turned out to be in the completely wrong direction.

"You shouldn't doubt yourself, Hudson," Teddy said, taking the seat beside me. "You're incredibly talented. You've got a real eye for this kind of stuff."

I gave him a look, shaking my head like he was unbelievable. "Teddy," I said, "are you just trying to butter me up?"

He feigned shock, placing one hand over his chest. "Now, when have I ever done that?"

"Hmm, let's see," I said, starting to count the instances on my fingers. "There was that day in the elevator, and then there was my first day on the job, and then, oh yeah, last week."

"Come on, Hillary. It's just drinks. We could both use a night out in the company of another beautiful person."

"Did you just call yourself beautiful?" I said, and he laughed. The truth was, he wasn't lying, but he was only beautiful in that obvious sort of way, the kind that everybody wants, but in that way that did nothing to speed up the blood in my veins or the heartbeat in my chest. "Teddy, you saw me when I was nine months pregnant and sweaty and exhausted and just generally angry all the time, and you still want to go out with me?"

"You were gorgeous then," he said, "and you're gorgeous now."

I knew it was a line, but I wasn't even bothered by that, because my attention was averted to the face passing by the room. Glass covered every inch of it so I could see as he stopped, looked at the board, and then proceeded on toward the elevators. For a moment, I thought it was a mirage, a trick of my dehydrated heart, but the differences between the one I remembered and the guy here now were striking, so it couldn't have been. He was real. He was here, and he was real. My heart was in my throat.

"Excuse me," I said to Teddy, pushing myself up by the desk and making my way over to the door. My hands shook as I pulled on the handle and stepped into the hall.

"Davies!" I called out, praying that he would turn, praying that I wasn't crazy and wasn't just hallucinating him, and everything around me seemed to pause. But then he turned around, breaking out into that smile that had haunted my dreams for over a year now, and against my will, my heart skipped a beat.