You and I - Eviana

Don't Worry

About 3 weeks has past and Evan was supposed to be coming back next week. Mariana was missing him so much.
"Why don't you just handle the design and I'll have Raj check over the code instead" Chris said and Mariana rolled her eyes.
She hated working with them and couldn't wait till Evan came back so she could beg him to let her go back with the girls.
"Actually, I think I can handle the code, why don't you just keep playing ping pong and not worry too much about it" she said scowling.
Raj let out a small laugh and Mariana quickly turned away from him. She had been so awkward around him lately.
She still liked him but there was a reason for her to leave him in the first place and she was sticking with her gut, she wanted to pursue things with Evan.
"Fine but if something's wrong with the new update we're blaming it on you" Gavin said continuing to play ping pong.
"You know you guys aren't the boss" Mariana said crossing her arms.
"Yeah I heard she has some realllly close ties with Evan. We better watch out" Chris said and they all laughed.
What did he mean by that? It's their 3rd week working at Speckulate and they already heard rumors about them. Mariana was horrified, she continued to do code but started to feel a little nauseous.
She figured she just needed some fresh air so she got up with her laptop and headed outside.
Raj followed her out.
"Can we chat?" He said sitting in a seat next to her.
"Fine" she wasn't feeling well and just wanted him to hurry up and say what he wanted to.
"I don't want things to be awkward ok? It's obvious that you're not ready to get back together and I can respect that but, I can't be waiting forever" he said looking down.
"Yeah.. not awkward at all when you're laughing at me with your new friends" she said shaking her head.
"They're just joking around"
"They're being dicks!" Mariana said as she opened her laptop,
"Just leave me alone. I have a lot of work to do" she said and Raj went back inside.
A few hours later Mariana was still not feeling well, she decided to try to get something to eat and figured it might help.
She ordered a bagel from the cafeteria and Casey walked up,
"So word on the street is that you and Evan hung out before he left" she said eating a spoonful of yogurt.
"What?! Where did you hear that?" Mariana said confused. Though, she had an idea where.
"There's just a picture of you floating around walking out of his house. Mariana, what the hell are you even doing with him?" Casey said shaking her head,
"This ruins all that we stand for as women here at Speckulate. Honestly it's embarrassing and makes us look like whores. Nobody is going to take us seriously" she said crossing her arms.
"Look, that's a lie, nothing happened. I went over to drop something off after I helped Callie. He said it was ok to go over, that's all." Mariana said grabbing her bagel and walking away. She knew she couldn't hide the relationship for much longer.
She went online and researched more engineer jobs in the area.
The rest of the day seemed to be never ending and Mariana couldn't get rid of the sick feeling she had felt all day.
She arrived back at the coterie and immediately walked to her loft.
"Hey, how was work?" Gael said as Mariana walked past him completely ignoring the question and slammed her door.
"Ok then."
Mariana layed on her bed still in her work clothes and fell asleep.
She woke up an hour later when she heard Callie in her loft,
"What's wrong with you?" She said noticing her still being in her work clothes and everything including her high heels still on.
"I'm just so tired and-" Mariana couldn't finish her sentence, she grabbed the chamber pot that was next to her bed and threw up into it.
Callie looked at her in disgust and put her hand over her mouth,
"Well at least nobody used the pot today" she said going up to her and pulling her hair up.
"Gross" she said looking away as Mariana continued.
"I must have food poisoning or something" she said placing the chamber pot on the night stand when she was done.
"You better not be sick... that shit will go around the entire coterie.. literally" she said opening her drawer.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for my earrings, I can't find them" Callie said.
"Why do you need them?" Mariana said.
"I'm going to meet Jamie at the park today. He finally agreed to talk" she said still looking through the drawers.
"Oh wow I'm glad he finally answered you"
"Me too, I just want to say my peace. If he doesn't understand then that's on him and I will be ready to move on. I just need closure" she nodded.
"I totally understand.. good luck"
"Found it! And you need to get some rest. Love you" she said walking out of the loft
"Love you too" Mariana changed into her pajamas and fell asleep.

~

"Are you feeling better?" Callie asked as Mariana sat down next to her outside by the pool.
"Yes, so much better. Must have been the bagel I ate earlier or the coffee I had this morning, not sure but I feel great now actually" she said wrapping herself in a blanket.
"You sick or something?" Malika said who was sitting on the chair next to them.
"Kinda it was just something I ate earlier. No big deal. How have you been?" She said to Malika.
"Good, getting kinda boring just being home all day but I'm okay. Dennis is teaching me how to bake!" She said looking over at him. Malika was serving her sentence on house arrest and then probation. This option was not ideal but definitely better than jail.
"She is an excellent pastry chef. Way better than Gael" he said drinking a sip of beer.
"Good thing he's not here to defend himself otherwise the fight would never end" Davia said touching Dennis' shoulder.
"So I guess you guys are going strong again?" Alice said looking at Dennis and Davia who were smiling at each other.
"..Yes" Davia said after some hesitation and Alice smiled and clapped her hands,
"Ok, I'm heading out before this one gets all of us sick" Dennis said pointing at Mariana who was staring into space with her head leaning on her hand.
He gave Davia a quick peck on the lips before heading inside.
"Awwwe" everyone said at the cute exchange. Davia was glad she felt comfortable to be more open with everyone about her new relationship but she had something she was hiding from Dennis and was scared he would hate her. This was the only thing holding her back from fully falling for him.
"Alright Goodnight" Alice said wrapping Malika, Davia, and Mariana in a hug, she went inside.
Soon after everyone followed except for Callie, Mariana, and Malika,
"I have nothing better to do so I'll keep you company out here.. Seriously, you don't look good. Maybe you should take tomorrow off and go see a doctor?" Malika said looking over at her.
"Yeah and I have tomorrow off so I can go with you" Callie said reaching out her hand to touch Mariana's.
"No, I think I'll be okay tomorrow. Plus I really don't wanna miss any days with a new team and all. They'll think I'm not reliable."
"Don't worry about what others think. You have to take care of yourself first" Malika said.
"I know, thanks. I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow, and what happened with you at Jamie's?" Mariana said turning to look at Callie.
She looked down and away from her,
"I'll tell you later. I don't feel like talking about it right now" she said getting up to walk back inside.
"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to make you upset I was just curious" Mariana said sitting up straight.
"No you didn't.. I'll talk to you later, love you" she said walking inside.
"Love you too" she said back.
"She's definitely upset" Malika said watching her walk in and Mariana nodded,
"Definitely"