All in my Head

Chapter 12

Jonah's POV

By Friday afternoon, I'm not even mad about seeing Nick by Ava's desk yet again. I mean, sure, I'm still vaguely unsettled by the whole thing, seeing as Nick genuinely gives me the creeps, but I wasn't all that nervous anymore that he was going to steal her away before I got the chance to know her. Most times when Nick was chatting her up, she seemed uninterested, often pulling in Kacie or Lewis or Kelly around her. And Nick seemed oblivious to it all. He would always come back to the second cluster boasting as if he had successfully swooned her, when it was obvious she never once enjoyed their conversations.

And so I was feeling calm about the entire situation again. That assuredness that things were somehow going to work out between me and Ava was back, and I was comfortably settling into that feeling. Plus, tonight was my chance to get to know Ava a little more. Leslie had set up a trivia night at a bar for the interns this afternoon directly after work, and I was hoping to snag some one-on-one time with her.

But for now, I was trying not to think about that. Or about Austin, who was still searching for apartments and insisted he'd be out of the house by the end of the month. While part of me desired to go find the highest roof in the city and angst endlessly over these two impending situations, I opted to stay at my desk and chip away at the dense files that had been sent my way. I had been given a big project to start working on this morning regarding the financial stability of a nearby county, and I was heavily invested to say the least. I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed this case, thinking about how shocked I would have been even two months ago had I known I was going to be working on a financial project with this much gusto. But I really did enjoy the work. I loved being able to look through a county's financial records; combing the numbers and stats and figuring out where potential waste was occurring, putting together possible budget solutions for a more financially sounds future, identifying the revenue streams they could use to fund their upcoming infrastructure projects. I found it to be both soothing and incredibly exciting all at the same time. And I couldn't think of a better way to spend my Friday afternoon.

The last two hours of the day flew by surprisingly. Leslie had informed us to meet her in the lobby of the building at 5:15 sharp so we could all head over to the bar together for the trivia night. So at 5:07, when I saw the entirety of Cluster 1 stand up, I nudged Evan, who was practically asleep at his desk.

"Yo, dude, let's go. Jul, come on," I say, hoping to catch the same elevator as the first cluster. I was about to walk away with Jul and Evan in tow when I realized I should probably let Nick know too. He wears earbuds 24/7 with music so loud that it was a wonder he wasn't deaf yet.

"Nick, everyone's leaving," I yell over my shoulder, hoping that'll do the trick. I probably should be mature and actually make sure he hears me, but oh well. What's done is done.

The three of us briskly walk out to the elevators on our floor just as they're beginning to close. "Wait!" I half shout, half speak.

An arm sticks out and stops the doors before they can close all the way.

"Hey thanks, man," I say to the tallest redhead I've ever seen in my life. I think his name is Louie if I'm not mistaken.

"Yeah, no problem," he says.

"Yeah, it was really no problem for Lewis..." I suck at names. "...all he had to do was move his arm like an inch and it was long enough to reach," Kacie says with a laugh. Verging on mean, but it does get a few snickers from everyone, even Lewis, who is currently the color of a tomato.

Cluster two enters the already crowded elevator, causing everyone to shuffle around a bit and squeeze in closer together. I incidentally end up right in front of Ava, stopping only a few inches from her to make room for Nick who is rather aggressively trying to make room for him and his comically large shoulder bag.

"Sorry," I say to Ava as I settle in in front of her, moving my own bag to the front of me to give her a little more room. I hope I smell ok, because she is very close to me right now.

"No, no worries," she says with a little laugh. "What better way to get to know your coworkers than jamming all 11 of them in the elevator at once," she comments, laughing now and getting everyone to laugh - likely onto the necks of the people just inches in front of them. I laugh too in agreement.

We meet Leslie in the lobby of the building, letting her take the lead on the short walk to the bar. We all follow behind her like we're on a school field trip and she's the chaperone. We all break up into smaller groups as we walk, though, and as Evan enters into a conversation with Kacie and Lewis, I make sure to catch up to Ava and Jul who are a few paces in front of me.

"Hey guys," I say as I sidle up to them.

"Hey, Jonah," Jul says quickly. Ava says a quiet hello herself.

A beat passes before Ava asks, "so Jonah are you and Jul doing the same type of work? I know she deals with a lot of researching of clients and stuff."

"Yeah sort of," I start. "I'm more focused on the financial side of things though. A lot of times, Jul will research a company or city we're working on and then sort of debrief me on the situation before Evan and I start digging through their financial records."

"Oh, that sounds so legit," she says. "So you guys all kind of work together over there in Cluster two?" she asks as we stop at a corner and wait for the light to turn for us to cross the street.

"Yeah we kind of do," answers Jul. "Although I wouldn't say Evan really contributes all that much. He's almost always dozing at his desk or searching for cheesy jokes online to tell me throughout the day."

"Aww, how sweet," Ava says with a laugh and a light mocking tone, elbowing Jul gently. Julianna responds with a subtle eye-roll.

"What does Nick do?" Ava asks. No need to worry, I tell myself. She's just curious about what everyone does at Cluster 2, it doesn't mean anything.

"Honestly, who knows," Jul responds quickly with a subtle look of disgust on her face.

"Not a surprising answer," Ava responds. I can't read the expression on her face.

"I think he does a lot of coding for the financial modeling side, really serious computer science stuff," I answer. "He doesn't really talk all that much to us though, so who can be sure," I say with a chuckle.

"Yeah, again not a surprising revelation," she laughs.

"Yeah he doesn't talk to us, but we all know who he does talk to all the time," Jul says, taking her turn at mocking now.

"Oh my God, stop," Ava says, dragging out the last word and giving Jul a playful shove. "He doesn't just talk to me, he's just a floater. I see him talking to Petey and Calum all the time," she says, taking a look over her shoulder to make sure Nick isn't in ear shot.

"Are you sure about that?" Jul asks suspiciously, just as I'm thinking the same thing.

"Yes, 100%," she says as we finally reach the bar's entrance. I hold up the door for her and Jul, making sure to shoot Ava a slightly bigger smile than I give Jul. So she's not into Nick. Which means there's still room for me to swoop in there. I smile to myself now thinking this.