Learning How to Bend

Day 24 - More words!

//So, I would go back and add this first part to the part before this one, but I'll stick it here instead just so it doesn't get lost. It's not SUPER important (and I actually wrote it yesterday!), but I know y'all to know who called Lily. I'm also a bit excited to get on to the next little scene. Anyway, enjoy! //

It was not an assigned ringtone but my default one, which meant it was someone who rarely called me.  No surprise at all, I was hoping it was Thaddeus.  I had not spoken with him since...well, since yesterday at our biweekly meeting in his office.  Antonia still hated me, that was evident enough the moment the elevator doors opened and she acted like she had forgotten my name.  Again.  The discussion had gone well with Thaddeus, though, and it actually did not last a million years.  Unlike what romance books might tell you, we did not engage in any funny business behind his closed door.  No kissing, no hand-holding, not even any light touches on each other's arms or accidental brushes.  For both of us inside the walls of Andino Incorporated, we were in our respective business modes.  Our relationship did not exist.

Or so I thought.  As the meeting ended, he walked with me to his door, which was abnormal enough in and of itself.  I reached over and ran my hand down his arm to find his hand.  For the briefest of moments, I held it in mine before quickly letting it go.  He did not really respond, but that was fine with me.  I just wanted him to know I was there for him.  I went to exit, but he stopped me by brushing my temple with his lips as I started opening the door.  The light touch made me jump.  His hand went to my waist.

A small sliver of me thought he might pull me in for a kiss, but I knew him better than that.  He opened his door and pushed me out, closing it behind me.

I missed him.

"Your phone's still ringing," Kat said.

It should have gone to voicemail by now.  I frowned and picked it up, activating the audio caller ID feature.

Peter Hamill.

Again.

I opened the flip phone and closed it rapidly, hanging up on him.

"Don't you think you should talk to him?"

"No," I said. "He's not a nice man.  Or...at least he wasn't, the last time I spoke with him."

"Which was...when?"

"Six years ago," I said. "Can we go back to talking about Thaddeus?"

"You don't like him that much?"

"No," I said. "It's complicated."

"So...you volunteered Thaddeus." I guessed she was probably wiggling her brows.  Amazed me how quickly her mood could change sometimes; was that a symptom of pregnancy, too?

I sighed, brushing my hair out of my face. "What do you want to know?"

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about Thaddeus until I finally left near dinnertime with Chelise.  I quickly heated up some leftovers in the microwave and ate them in silence at my kitchen table.  My father had not left a voicemail, so guess I was not that important to him.  I finished my meal, put the dirty plate in the dishwasher.  After changing clothes and brushing my teeth in the bathroom, I crashed on my bed with my stuffed dog held tightly in my arms, and did not wake up again until morning.

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December 14.  Thaddeus's birthday.  I waited on the couch outside his office for only a couple minutes before Thaddeus's office door opened.  I did not wait for him to greet me, as I knew he would do no such thing.  I entered his office, and he closed the door behind me.  Before he could escape too far away, I pulled him into a hug.  His entire body stiffened.