The One Who Got Away is Back

Present 8 ♡ The Past is Calling

It was the middle of the afternoon a few days after the intense but delicious weekend, while I was sewing a test pattern by hand, when I got a call on my cellphone. I didn't notice it at first, but when I did and tried to pick it up, the call disconnected. I saw that it was an unknown (407) number, which wasn't very common in my life anymore since I'd moved out of Orlando.

"Oh well," I murmured and went back to work. Marisol and a couple other girls were chatting up a storm about this swimsuit line we'd been contracted for and next thing I knew I got pulled into the conversation. My phone buzzed again like whomever was calling couldn't wait, but they were going to have to because as soon as I picked up my phone, Miguel opened his office door and called my name.

The three women gave me sly looks and I rolled my eyes.

"Go get him, tigress," Marisol said, giggling. She'd got it in her head after seeing just a few interactions between Miguel and I, that we had potential. She didn't suspect that there was something going on, only that something could happen. Which was kind of freaky, because Miguel and I tried our very best to be professionally distant and that way I was able to chalk it up to her just joking around.

"Stop," I told her, batting my hand in her direction.

"What was that about?" he asked as I stepped into his office.

"Nothing." But I said it too quickly and his eyebrows went up. I took a seat across from him and cleared my throat. "So, why have I been summoned to the principal's office?"

"You're very lucky I have Angela on mute right now," he said with a smile.

I got a full body cringe. "Oops."

With that, he un-muted her and put his phone in the middle of his desk, the better for her to hear the two of us. "Hi Angie, I'm back with Addy."

Angie? This freaking guy had more charm in his pinky toe than any salesman I'd come across.

"Excellent," she said from her end of the line, sounding all cheerful and pleased. "How are you doing today, Addy dear?"

"Uh, very good and you?"

She told us a little bit about her vacations on the Turks and Caicos and how great of a tan she was getting.

"And a full body one, at that," she said, laughing like it was no biggie. Miguel and I exchanged an awkward glance. It wasn't great to have that mental picture but now we couldn't unsee it.

He tried to steer the conversation back on track. "Addy, the reason we wanted to talk with you is because we-"

Miguel looked up and saw the panic that was written all over my face but the way amusement danced in his eyes told me it couldn't have been a bad thing.

"Because we," he repeated. "Have decided you are the right person to lead the project of the new app."

Even though I was sitting, I felt like suddenly nothing was holding me and I was falling. But in reality all that happened was that I slumped back in the chair. A weird sound left my throat.

"What was that, sorry?" Angie asked. "The waves are really loud."

I narrowed my eyes at Miguel, wondering if she was in the nude beach she'd lauded to while talking with us. I shook my head and focused on the matter at hand, which, if it wasn't a mistake, was shaping up to be a fantastic opportunity for my resume. Something that potentially could make me stay longer in Tropicana than I'd been planning on.

"Sorry, I just wanted to double check that you really want me on this and not your lead designer. Is that the case?"

Miguel stayed silent, allowing Angie to respond.