by Tawna Fenske
“Yep.” Willa nodded, still fighting to hold back the smile. “It’s a date.”
“A date.” Kayla repeated the word like she might have misunderstood. Like Willa had just announced plans to shave her head. “Like an actual date?”
“Not dog walking,” Aislin clarified.
“Or game night that’s totally not a date,” Kayla added.
“Or mini golf,” Aislin added. “Or basket-weaving or sandwich-making classes.”
“Or shower sex that’s definitely not a date because you aren’t leaving the house.”
The nail tech rubbing Aislin’s feet jumped a little at that and exchanged a giggly glance with the girl drying Willa’s toes with a fluffy towel.
“Sorry,” Kayla said to them, not looking too sorry. “Seriously, though, a real date? Like a date date?”
Willa sighed, second-guessing her decision to say anything but too damn excited about the date to complain too much. “I bought a Groupon for the personal chef service, so it’s not super expensive,” she said. “I already placed the order online. And Grady’s in charge of the planetarium tickets.”
“So you’re finally doing it.” Aislin shook her head slowly, like Willa had just confessed to joining a cult. A nice cult, but still a cult. “You’re dating a guy more than twice.”
Willa nibbled a hangnail and tried not to twitch as the student began massaging her feet. It tickled a little, or maybe that wasn’t the sole source of discomfort. “It’s not that big a deal,” she said, knowing it was exactly that big a deal. “It’s not like we’re getting engaged or moving in together or getting matching tattoos. We’ve just agreed to keep seeing each other.”
“I think it’s great,” Aislin said, possibly noticing Willa’s discomfort. “Just take it one day at a time, Wills. He likes you; you like him—”
“And he makes you relax,” Kayla added, sweeping an arm around the student-run spa. “Case in point.”
“We’ve done this before, you guys,” Willa reminded her.
“Yes, but not in the middle of a work week,” Aislin said. “At four thirty with the agreement that you’ll go out with us for cocktails instead of rushing back to work.”
“Which could just be because that’s happy hour and drinks are cheaper,” Kayla added. “But we’ll take it.”
Okay, so the discounted drink thing had crossed her mind, but that wasn’t all of it. Willa wiggled her toes and tried to remember the last time she’d felt this relaxed. “I’m trying, you guys. I really am.”
“We know.” Kayla flashed a smile. “Even Tony noticed a difference. The other night when you had us to dinner, he told me afterward that he can’t believe how happy you seem with Grady.” She lowered her voice and threw in a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “He said Grady’s acting pretty smitten, too. That he’s never seen him like this before.”
“Whatever he’s doing,” Aislin added, “he needs to keep doing it.”
Willa did her best not to react, but she couldn’t help it. Her brain sashayed right over to the memory of Grady drizzling maple syrup over her bare breasts and licking it off while he—
“Whoa.” Aislin laughed. “From the way you just blushed, I’d say you’re satisfied by more than just work/life balance.”
Willa glanced down at her toes, watching as the nail tech swiped juicy strokes of bright red. She’d grabbed it the instant she’d seen the color was called “Campfire Flames,” assuring herself she just liked the color. It wasn’t that she was so nuts about Grady that she couldn’t even get a freakin’ pedicure without thinking of him.
Oh, who was she kidding?
Her subconscious wanted to freak out. Wanted to remind her this was dangerous, that she ran the risk of derailing all her plans.
But the rest of her sat grinning like a big lovestruck dork.
Thankfully, Aislin and Kayla had started chatting about some new Netflix show, so they didn’t notice. They also didn’t notice her phone pinging in her purse, so Willa reached for it.
Reached for it, then remembered Grady’s voice. They’d been lying in bed at the hotel, her head cradled on his chest. She hadn’t checked her phone for hours—understandable, considering what they’d been doing for several of those hours—though she could hear it vibrating in her purse across the room. Willa hadn’t mentioned it, but Grady must have picked up on the trail of her thoughts to her phone stuffed in her bag on the other side of the room.
“Feels nice sometimes, doesn’t it?” he’d asked.
“What’s that?”
“Switching off,” he’d said. “Giving yourself a break and letting calls go to voicemail, texts go unanswered for an hour or two.”
As Willa had lain there with Grady stroking her hair, she’d considered his words. Nice. Was that what she was feeling? “Nice” almost didn’t cover it. “Bliss” was more like it. Bliss with a side of anxiety, which might be the only way Willa could process bliss.
“Yeah,” she’d finally whispered, snuggling up closer to him under the covers. “It feels great.”
As Aislin and Kayla chatted beside her, Willa reached into her purse and powered off her iPhone.
She thought she’d gone unnoticed until Kayla gasped. “Did you seriously just shut down?”
Aislin peered around her from the other side. “Not possible. I’ve known you fifteen years and you always have your phone on. Even in the bathroom.”
“Or at dinner.”
“Or when having an endoscopy.”
“Oh my God, I’d forgotten that,” Kayla said. “Remember how the doctor told her to—”
“Enough.” Willa laughed, though part of her wondered if she really was that bad. If she’d been a lousy friend. No wonder she couldn’t seem to make time for a relationship. “It’s almost five. Isn’t that when normal people shut down?”
“Normal, yes.” Kayla grinned. “But you—”
“I’m trying to do better.” Willa gestured to her feet as Aislin stretched out to give Willa a high five.
“Remind me to send flowers to Grady,” she said. “Beef jerky ones.”
“Forget the jerky roses,” Kayla said. “Remind Willa to do whatever it takes to keep him around.”
Willa’s cheeks heated as her friends made kissy noises.
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Aislin said.
When the pedicure sessions were complete, they walked down the street to the Hartford Hotel and found a table in the downstairs lounge. Willa glanced at her watch. Five fifteen. She’d had her phone off for almost thirty minutes.
“Can you order me the Secret Garden?” she asked Kayla as she grabbed her phone and headed for the ladies’ room. “And I’ll split the calamari if anyone wants some. I had it the other night and it was amazing.”
She waited for one of them to comment about her taking her phone with her to the bathroom, but no one said a word. God bless them for knowing there was a limit to how long she could be offline.
Pushing through the door to the ladies’ room, she slipped her phone out of her purse and powered it up. When was the last time she’d been offline this long? Months, probably years.
It felt exhilarating. It felt terrifying. It felt—
“Oh shit.” Her voice echoed through the empty ladies’ room as Willa stared at the email from Scalemark Supplies, a new client she’d been courting for months.
Ms. Frank,
We’ve been trying to reach you with follow-up questions about your RFP. The board of directors is narrowing the field down today, and we urgently need responses to the following…
Shit, shit, shit.
She stumbled into a stall and locked the door behind her. Kicking the toilet seat down, she sat hard on the lid, thumbs flying furiously over her phone screen.
Mr. Reynolds,
I’m so sorry for the delayed respon
se.
Delayed. For crying out loud, she’d barely been away for thirty minutes, and it wasn’t like they’d told her the board meeting was today.
She considered typing something about being offline at the hospital visiting a sick friend, but her conscience wouldn’t let her lie and besides, they had a point. The client was in decision-making mode. She knew better than to go offline at a time like that.
I’m delighted to include the requested materials here. If you need additional information, you can call or text at your earliest convenience. Attached, please find…
She spent a few minutes attaching the necessary files because of course she kept those things on her phone. Of course she did.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she stood up and unlocked the stall door. Her hands shook a little as she made her way to the sink and washed up, pausing to splash cold water on her face. Her phone sat on the counter beside her, and when the screen flashed Grady’s name, her stomach did a giddy somersault.
Grady: Hey, sexy. Jumping on the plane soon. Miss you already.
Her face flushed with warmth as she picked up her phone and typed a quick reply.
Willa: Miss you, too. Looking forward to our date.
Grady: So am I.
She glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Her friends were right: she did look happier. It seemed silly that something as simple as a text could have such a physical effect, but there it was, plain as day, in the mirror in front of her. That smile. That glow.
Grabbing her phone again, she typed.
Willa: I’m doing pedicures and happy hour with Kayla and Aislin on a workday. Impressed?
The reply bubbles popped up almost immediately.
Grady: Very!
She laughed as a gif popped up with cartoon cats applauding. Then more reply bubbles as he added something else.
Grady: I’d be more impressed if you actually SWITCHED OFF, since it’s after 5. But baby steps. Proud of you.
She rolled her eyes as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Willa: I’ve had it off. Glad I switched on, since I got to hear from you.
She started to add a couple of heart emojis, then stopped herself, feeling silly. She settled for a smiley face with heart eyes, then deleted that, too. She finally settled on a regular smiley face and the certainty that modern technology had seriously screwed with flirtation.
Grady: Glad you’re well. Miss you. Xoxoxoxoxo
Willa fired off an xoxoxo of her own, then left the restroom with a little more spring in her step. As she walked across the restaurant, Kayla and Aislin shook their heads at her.
“I knew it,” Aislin said. “She couldn’t resist checking her phone.”
“At least tell us it was for Grady and not work,” Kayla said. “We might give you a pass for that.”
“I was texting with Grady. It’s the last time I’ll hear from him for a few days.” She held up her phone and made a show of shoving it in her purse. “And now I’m putting it away.”
“Good for you.” Kayla lifted her glass. “Cheers to Willa’s new work/life balance.”
“Hear, hear.” Aislin clinked her glass and Willa followed suit.
“Cheers,” she echoed, taking a sip of her drink. It was cool and citrusy and tasted just as decadent at this hour of the day. “And to calamari. Yum, this looks good.”
As they all dove in, she forgot about emails and Grady and the client and everything else for a while. Was this how the rest of the world lived? Was this what it felt like to relax for a while and treat herself to a break?
Maybe she could get used to this.
By the time they left The Hartford, it was almost six thirty. She hugged Kayla, then Aislin, as they complimented one another’s pedicures and promised to do it again soon.
“Anyone want to split an Uber?” Aislin asked. “I know we only had two drinks, but…”
“Yes,” Kayla said. “Let’s be responsible. Wills?”
“Definitely.” She could come back for her car tomorrow, maybe even plan a running date with Kayla to get here. How about that for new and improved healthy choices?
She pulled out her phone to summon Uber, then froze. All the blood drained from her face.
“Wills?” Kayla’s voice was tinged with concern. “What’s wrong? Is it Grady?”
“No.” Her voice came out in a whisper as her gaze swept over the string of missed messages. “I switched off my notifications. I didn’t mean to. Maybe I hit the button when I shoved in in my purse or— Oh shit.”
She fumbled the ringer back on, scanning the series of message alerts. The calamari curdled in her gut as she read the words.
Please sign the attached nondisclosure form and return it ASAP.
Hello?
Need a response by 6.
Willa glanced at her watch, already knowing it was too late. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
She tapped out a response anyway, then toggled her way to DocuSign to fill out the forms. Dammit, she knew better than this. What had she been thinking?
“Can we help?” Kayla asked. “Is there anything we can do?”
“I’m fine,” Willa said, hoping it was true. “It’ll be okay.”
…
She lost the deal with Scalemark Supplies, and that sucked. Sucked a lot, and Willa shed a few tears while Stevie licked her face to assure her things would work out.
Which they did the next week when she worked double-time on a proposal for another new client that specialized in event planning. They loved her pitch and signed on for a complete website rebrand, giving Willa some assurance that the lights would stay on and her bills would be paid. She might even add to her nest egg, that emergency fund she tucked away for the kind of catastrophe that could bring everything crashing down around her. Stability. That’s what she needed and what she continued to chase.
She redoubled her efforts at landing new business, crafting pie charts and doing heat map analysis free of charge to persuade newcomers to come on board. She stayed up late creating a mockup of an online order form a client could use for client intake.
She walked Stevie, too, determined to nail this balance thing.
“It’s about balance,” she remembered Grady’s mother telling her. “Doing what you need to do to survive but making sure there’s something left over for you. For the people who love you.”
It did feel good, though she missed Grady terribly. She couldn’t wait to see him again, to hold hands across the dinner table and gaze at the stars together in the Hart Valley Science Center’s planetarium. She’d wanted to go since she was a little girl and felt dumb for never making the time. Not until Grady came along.
By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, she was jumping out of her skin. Grady wasn’t due for another hour, but she got ready anyway, taking extra time with her hair and makeup. She even ran over to Kayla’s to borrow some strappy little kitten heels and ended up borrowing an entire outfit. Dress, shoes, even a bracelet that sparkled with tiny crystal stars.
“You look amazing,” Kayla told her. “Knock him dead.”
Back at her own house, Willa glanced at her watch. It was after five. She frowned, uneasy to realize he was almost an hour late for the early dinner they’d agreed would kick off their evening together.
True, traffic could be crazy driving from southern Washington on summer afternoons, but it wasn’t like him not to call or text. Hopefully nothing had happened. She set the table for the meal they’d ordered from the personal chef service, stomach rumbling with eagerness and maybe a few nerves.
Determined to stay busy, she went back to work. Perched on the edge of her office chair, she did her best not to wrinkle the kick-ass linen wrap dress Kayla had loaned her. By five thirty, she’d started to freak out. The sky was sinking lower on the horizon, and her stomach snarled its discontent.
“Willa.” The grin that spread across his face sent a spear of heat to her belly. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I stopped to help a guy with a flat tire, and it took longer than I expected. It happened right in a dead zone, too, so I couldn’t call or text.”
“It’s okay,” she said, breathing him in as she threw her arms around him. He smelled like woodsmoke and shampoo, like he’d run home to shower but had been so eager to see her that he hadn’t scrubbed all the pinesap from his hair.
“God, I missed you,” he said.
“I missed you, too.” She kissed the side of his neck, breathing in all that delicious heat. “So much.”
He drew back to admire her. “You look amazing.”
“Thanks.” She grinned. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
Muscles stretched the front of his T-shirt, and he filled out his jeans like a dream. She was so busy admiring his body that it took her a minute to catch the guilty expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t kill me,” he said, “but I didn’t make it to the personal chef place before they closed. They left a message saying we can still pick it up tomorrow—they’ll keep it in the fridge or something. I’m really sorry.”
He looked sorry, too. So sorry that Willa could almost ignore the growling of her stomach. “It’s okay,” she said. “We’re going to need another plan for dinner, though.”
“Got it.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. “There’s that nice Italian place right by the planetarium.”
Willa forced a smile, trying not to think about the added cost. “They do have good garlic bread.”
“If I call ahead and order, we can have the food waiting when we get there and then run across the street for the show.” He nuzzled her neck, and Willa arched into him, groaning as goose bumps rippled up her arms. “Or we skip all of that and stay here so I can eat pizza off your naked body,” he suggested.