“Hi Chris.” I called, just loud enough for him to notice me.
He responded by opening his door “Hey, Abby. You’re in early.”
“Coffee?” I pulled out my purse. “I was thinking of grabbing a latte from the shop before everyone piles in.“
He laughed conspiratorially and checked his watch. “Actually, can you please get an extra one? I’ve got someone coming in shortly. Just take the money from petty cash and receipt the lot to my expenses.” He winked and retreated to his office.
“Thanks." Getting to work early had its advantages.
I messaged Josh as I waited for the coffees:
Good morning. Message me when you’ve signed please.
Me x
He would sulk, but I wanted to let him know that I wasn’t still angry with him, as long as he hurried up and signed those forms.
Most of my colleagues had arrived by the time I got back in. “Hey Rach,” I chirped as she routinely redirected the phone back, after listening to the overnight messages. “I’ve just got to take these in to Chris.”
“I’ll do it.” Her eyes were wide as she took the remaining coffees from me and carried them to Chris’ office herself. I took a sip of my own and savoured the creamy bitterness as it slid warmly down my throat. I then pulled up the document I had left the previous night, hardly noticing when Rachel appeared beside me again, speaking in a lower tone than I’d ever heard from her.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
The seriousness in her voice caught my attention. I stopped typing and slid my chair back to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes flickered over to Chris’ closed door. “It’s Sean; he’s back at Avalon. He’s been offered the job of Sales Manager.”
“Oh.” I reached for my coffee and held it, my hand shaking too much to be able to bring it to my lips.
“He arrived just before you got back.”
“Oh.” I finally took a sip. Tasteless foam. She gave me a questioning look, searching for answers that I didn't have. She didn't even know we'd stopped being 'friends', only that he and Bronwyn had a relationship that went awry, and the whole office found out about it. The last I had seen of Sean, was when I ran down the stairs from his apartment, telling him I never wanted to see him again.
I shrugged and gave Rachel a weak smile, turning back to my work. “News to me. I haven’t spoken to him.”
So he lied to me about Bronwyn. So what? I could be grown up about this, if we were going to be working together again. I checked my phone—still no message back from Josh. He was obviously still sulking, right when I needed him.
As Chris’ office door opened, I kept my eyes on the monitor in front of me, trying not to make it obvious that I was holding my breath.
“Hi, Abby.” Hearing Sean’s voice was normal, until I remembered he hadn’t worked at Avalon IT for a few months. And that I had dated him. And he was a two-timing scumbag.
I forced a pleasant smile, knowing perfectly well that it didn’t reach my eyes. “Nice to see you back.”
He held my gaze for a moment before turning to Rachel and hugging her hello. Was that regret I saw on his face? Guilt?
Whatever. Who cares?
I found I had been deliberately avoiding him all day, an act that could easily become a habit, though I knew deep down I'd have to face him eventually. Quitting wasn't an option, especially now that Kate's wedding was coming up, and it wasn’t going to be cheap. Hopefully the money spell would work before it came to that. The heightened awareness proved to be exhausting and distracting, so it wasn’t until I got to my floor of my unit block that I realised I hadn’t heard from Josh. I wondered if he'd signed the documents yet. I also wondered when I was going to tell him that Sean was back at work, a conversation I was not keen on having, especially since his last little reaction about Scott, but best to just get it over with.
As soon as I opened the door, I knew something was up. Candles flickered in the dimming evening light, and delicious smells of fried garlic emanated from the kitchen.
“Josh?” I called tentatively, although really, who else could it be?
He greeted me with a glass of champagne and a soft kiss. “I’m sorry about yesterday.”
"Thank you." I accepted the drink and took a grateful swig.
"And before you ask," he continued, "I signed the rental contract this afternoon. Are you hungry?"
"Starving," I replied, putting my intention to tell him about Sean on hold, it was nice to have Josh back in a good mood. I didn’t want to spoil it now.
"Great." He turned around and stirred a pot on the stove. "Your mail's sitting on the table." He informed me and I flipped through the envelopes while I waited, opening up an official looking one from my current property manager.
"I have to be out in six weeks." I relayed the letter. "My flat's been re-leased."
"Well that works out; we get the keys to the other place then." He smiled as he placed a bowl of steaming noodles in front of me. This was all really going to happen.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
JOSH HAD BEEN BUSY at work all week, often not getting home until after I was in bed. Summer sport had started, and he went to most games, so I still hadn't had a chance to let him know about Sean, though I knew I couldn't leave it much longer.
Rachel and I spent the Friday afternoon working together on some old files, getting them ready to archive. Such a long, boring, and tedious job that we had run out of conversation with an hour and a half left before we could go home. I was thankful when the internal ringtone sounded on my desk phone.
"Hello?"
"Can you please see me in Chris' office?" Sean's voice was professional and nothing else. Ray was off on sick leave with stomach flu, and Chris was away at one of our interstate offices for meetings, leaving Sean in charge. I put the phone down, and Rachel cocked an inquisitive brow.
"Back in a minute." I mumbled, picking up my pad and pen.
Sean looked every inch at home in the large office, but then again, he probably did plenty of un-worklike things in there when it used to be Bronwyn's.
"Take a seat," he greeted me with a charming smile. I wasn’t upset with him anymore. I was no longer hurt or even angry, but he was certainly off my Christmas card list. Well, he would have been, if I ever sent out Christmas cards.
Sitting down on the seat across from him, I placed the pad on the desk and folded my arms, waiting for what he had to say. He just looked at me with an over friendly grin on his face, his blue eyes dark and sparkling.
"Why are you in Chris' office?" Dammit, I wasn’t supposed to talk first.
Still smiling, he answered, "I was just speaking to Chris, and we were discussing your review."
My review? My pay review? "What's that got to do with you?"
"I know that Bronwyn was supposed to do it before... well before she quit and you went on leave." Curiously, he was leaving himself out of the equation.
"Yeah, I was just going to ask Ray or Chris to do it instead."
"Trust me. You don't want Ray to do your pay review," he stated.
"Why not?"
"He doesn't give out pay raises. He never gave me one."
"Maybe you didn't deserve it." Yes, with all the extracurricular activity and whatnot.
He ignored my retort. "Anyway, I mentioned you were working under me a few times."
"But that's not true." I frowned. I still wasn't answerable to Sean, not even with his new position.
He grinned widely and winked. "It is if you take out the word 'working'."
"Sean..." I stood up. "That's highly inappropriate."
"Sit down, Abby." He demanded, switching swiftly back into professional mode. "I'm trying to help you here."
I slumped back down, replacing my arms in their defensive fold.
Sean opened up the folder in front of him. "I'm going to make a recommendation to Chris that, not only have you worked above and beyond your duties and deserve the next
tier up in your pay, but I will also recommend you for a Christmas bonus this year."
"Um, thank you, I guess." I didn’t know what to say. "Why are you doing this?"
"I think I owe it to you," he replied, "and I owe you an explanation."
"Ohhkaay." I let my arms fall to my sides and grabbed the seat; this should be good.
"When we were going out—you and I—Bron and I were taking a break."
I nodded, waiting for him to go on.
Sean sat back in the chair and concentrated on the pen he was holding between both hands. "I liked you when you first started working here. We had fun, and I liked that about being with you; it was simple." He glanced towards the door nervously, even though it was unlikely anyone could hear. My desk was the closest, and I couldn’t make out normal conversation in the office, let alone a voice as hushed as Sean's was. "Bron and I got serious really quickly, just after I started, and it was getting to the point where we weren't sure if we could keep it going without anyone knowing. Then Ray found out, and she was worried about her position here. She thought he wouldn't still take her seriously as a manager, so it got kind of stressful for her. She ended up taking on more than she could handle. She asked for a break in our relationship and organised some work stuff in the States."
That explained the day she stormed out of Ray's office.
I didn’t reply, just waited for him to continue.
"She didn't know we had a lunch date," he told me.
"She didn't? Why was she so narky to me then?"
"It wouldn't have been a personal thing," he replied.
"Oh." It figured, especially now that he’d told me why she was a bit of a stress head.
"Then she gets home from overseas, and I've started things with you, and she's thought about quitting and wants to see me again. So that's why I wasn't available some days. I only ended up telling her about you after she left here." He looked down at the desk and appeared to study the woodgrain. "She said you and I were a good match."
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. "Why did you ask me out so soon after she wanted a break? Don't most people give it at least a few months before dating again?" I did know this from experience; I couldn't even look at another guy in the first few months after Josh. I concentrated on work and finding a better job, and it was only then that I did the spell and met Scott. Sean had asked me out within a week or so; hardly a workable time to get over someone. Then it dawned on me. "You were still in love with her."
Judging by the look in his eyes, I was spot on.
"When were you going to tell me?" I asked.
"I swear I was trying to work out when and how to tell you to cause you the least hurt, but you took me by surprise when you turned up that day." He looked genuinely sorry.
"Sean, it's okay." I found myself reassuring him.
"Thanks." He gave me a lingering gaze. "I'm sorry, Abby."
Staring back into his sapphire eyes, his handsome face still unreadable; my defenses fell down around me without warning. Sitting in front of me was no longer the two timing arsehole I despised. This was funny, friendly Sean, who I would flirt and laugh with and who became one of my closest friends at work. A man who invited me into his house, asked what my favourite wine was, and cooked me dinner. A guy who let me confide in him about my past relationships. A guy who reached out to me because his heart was breaking.
"It's fine," I said, smiling at him genuinely for the first time since he started back at Avalon. "Do you think we can be friends again?"
"Of course Abby, I'd really like that. I kind of missed it, actually." He grinned then looked back down again. "So Rachel tells me you got back with your ex?"
"Yes, we're moving in together in a few weeks."
"Well," he raised his eyebrows, "congratulations!"
***
I had thought I'd managed to hold off any suspicions about the relationship Sean and I once had at work. We were completely civil to one another, but it turned out it was obvious that we were no longer joking around with each other, a fact that Pippa oh too graciously pointed out.
"Have you and Sean had a lover's tiff?" she asked me as we both spooned coffee into our cups in the kitchen.
"Why do you ask?" I replied.
"Well, you just don't seem to be getting along as well as you were before he got transferred and you went on holidays." Her tone was accusatory.
"Oh, I don't know." I shrugged. "He's busier now, being in a higher position and everything. And I guess the dynamic changes a bit when you find out your friend is dating the boss."
She raised her perfect brows. "Yes, I suppose it does." She appeared satisfied with my response and picked up her coffee. "Even though she's not the boss anymore, and they apparently broke up just before he went interstate."
***
Josh gave the Friday night match a miss, and it was nice to finally have a relaxing, comfortable evening in with my boyfriend. He had some work to do while I snuggled next to him on the couch, watching a detective show on TV, glass of wine in hand. The excitement of my upcoming pay raise kept me smiling, and I thanked the universe for heeding the spell by donating to charity on my way home from work.
"Hey, hon, guess what?" I figured nothing could spoil this good news, so I decided now was as good a time as any to tell him calmly that I was working with Sean again and that it was nothing for him to worry about.
"Hmm?" He didn’t look up from his iPad.
"I should be able to cover my half of the bond on time. I got a pay raise today."
"That's great. Congratulations!" He leaned over and kissed my cheek, "but I can cover you if you need."
"Thanks, but Sean's going to make sure it all goes in on time next pay. I'm even getting a bonus."
"Cool." He went back to his iPad.
"That's something else I needed to talk to you about."
"What?" Still typing away, his fingers thudding on the screen.
"It's the same Sean I was dating after you left." Nice touch, Abby; make it Josh's fault for being interstate. "He's back at Avalon. I just thought I should let you know."
"Oh." Thudthud, thud, thud, thud. "He's your boss now?"
"No, not really, but he wanted to make it up to me for being such a prick. So he sorted out the pay review. It's no big deal. I just didn't want there to be any issues, especially after last time at Springers."
I could tell I'd hit a nerve as he flinched and glanced at me sideways, "How long's he been back?" Thud, thudthudthud, thudthud.
"He got back on Monday. I was going to tell you earlier, but you've been working back late so I haven't had the chance." I caught the defensive tone in my voice. Again, I had managed to make it his fault for not being there.
Josh nodded. He stopped typing and put the iPad on the coffee table, leaning over to kiss me on the mouth, his tongue jabbing lightly at my lips. His hands reached around the back of my head, and his fingers entwined in my hair. He kissed down my cheek and neck, disentangling one hand and slid it under my top, unclasping my bra as he pushed me to a lying position on the couch. Soon we were both naked, and I writhed with delight as he dotted featherlight kisses on what felt like every part of my skin. He stopped abruptly, and I bit my lip in frustration, only to tense up when his fingers dug into my thigh a little too hard. "Sorry..." he murmured, pulling at my ear lobe with his lips, and he was inside me just as suddenly.
"Oh." I gasped out of surprise. He stayed silent, his warm breath getting faster and faster against my cheek as I waited for him to finish what felt uncomfortably like nothing more than him marking his territory.
Money Spell
Moon Phase: Waxing
Engrave a dollar sign into a green candle. As it burns, visualise yourself having as much money as you require for your desired purposes. Keep in mind that the universe is more likely to provide what you need, not necessarily what you want.
Let the candle burn down and thank the universe.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
; I WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING with what felt like a strange heaviness in my chest. Beside me, Josh was breathing slowly, facing the window. Something wasn’t right, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. We had a nice night; we ate in front of the TV, then he got some work done while I had a glass of wine. I was honest with him about Sean, and then we made out before having sex. Well, he had sex; I was a masturbatory toy. Maybe it was how he climbed off me after he finished and went straight to bed with just a kiss on the cheek. Maybe there was something in the way he now had his back to me.
Maybe it was nothing.
I put my dressing gown on and tiptoed into the kitchen. Josh joined me a few minutes later, giving me a polite morning kiss on the cheek before picking up his just filled coffee cup. Something was definitely wrong. He wasn’t looking at me, and I had to get to the bottom of this right now.
"Josh, are you having second thoughts?"
He shook his head. "Why did it take a week for you to tell me? You could have told me over the phone or messaged me."
A week for what? I racked my brain trying to understand what on earth he was talking about. I noticed his iPad still sitting on the coffee table and remembered the last thing he said before putting it down.
Of course. This was about Sean. How much more of this did I have to put up with? I was beginning to wonder if I was making a big mistake.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" My voice reached that dangerous level just before shouting. "It wouldn't have made any difference, because this is exactly how you would have reacted anyway! I'm with you, Josh! Nothing is going on with Sean! Nothing was going on with Scott! I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Not yet," he replied. "Is there some sort of ulterior motive for the pay raise? You seem to be doing a good job of not telling me everything."
"And if you keep doing this," I was furious now, "nothing will be going on with you."
"Fine!" he raised his voice this time, banged the cup on the bench, coffee splashing the countertop, and walked out, leaving me in stunned, angry silence.
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