“Earth to Marcie.” Kresley snapped her fingers in front of my face, startling me back to attention.
“Sorry.” I sighed and clicked save on the file in front of me. I was just finishing up the final bits and pieces for my proposal to Keisha Blackwell. I wanted to feel great about the package I had put together, but instead I was just tired and stressed. Whenever my phone buzzed with a text or a call, I hoped it was my dad.
It never was.
We usually spoke a few times a week by phone, but we hadn’t exchanged so much as a quick text since he stormed out of my apartment a week ago.
She took a step forward and cocked her head as she studied me carefully. “You okay?”
I shrugged and waved a dismissive hand. “Just feeling kind of low. I’ll snap out of it.”Eventually. Hopefully.
Kresley dropped into the chair next to me and laid a gentle hand on my arm. “Just know that I’m here for you, okay? If you need anything at all.”
“Me too,” Frankie said from my office door. She stepped closer and grabbed my hand. “Always.”
Warm gratitude pooled inside my heart as I smiled at my two best friends. “Thanks. Both of you. It’ll be okay. Things are just a little hard with my dad.”
“Have you talked to him at all since he showed up at your place with Denton there?” Frankie asked.
I shook my head. “No. I call him every night, but he doesn’t pick up, so I just leave a voicemail telling him that I love him, which is about all I can do until he’s ready to talk to me again. I only know that he’s in Minneapolis again because Denton talks to his assistant.”
Frankie leaned a hip against the desk and studied me as she chewed a thumbnail. “It was a crappy thing for your dad to do,” she said with a frown. “Do you think he’ll come around?”
“Eventually, yeah, but…” I trailed off as I struggled to find the right words. “It just feels bad now. I wish I could show him this proposal for Keisha Blackwell, but he’s totally iced me out. And it hurts.”
A tear welled up in my eye and I brushed it away. “It hurts a lot.”
Four arms wound around me as my best friends buried me in a lingering group hug.
“I’m sorry your dad is being an asshole,” Kresley said. “But you still have us and Denton.”
“I know,” I replied. “He’s not an asshole, though.”
“No, he isn’t,” Frankie said softly, an indecipherable look in her eyes. “It must have been a big shock, and he’s just not handling it well.”
“Denton is great, though.” I smiled when I thought about waking up every morning next to the man I loved.
“Well, yeah,” Kresley said, dropping her arms and sitting back in her chair again. “He worships the ground you walk on.”
“At least somebody is regularly getting laid,” Frankie grumbled.
Kresley snorted and I rolled my eyes.
Frankie leaned forward and looked at my laptop, where the Keisha Blackwell presentation was plainly visible.
“Is this just about done, then?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, at this point I’m just tinkering with it because I’m nervous that I’m missing something. But I can’t find anything, and it’s just making memoreanxious. I’m used to my dad looking at stuff like this with me, and he’s…well, not interested.”
Kresley looked over at me. “What if nothing is wrong? What if you’re just nervous about taking the next step on your own?”
“Maybe,” I murmured, but her words stuck with me the rest of the day, as I pushed through my work, closed the store, headed to Denton’s condo—which I had begun to think of as home—and spent a quiet evening in his arms.
Maybe Kresley was right, I thought as I lay awake next to my sleeping boyfriend.
Maybe the next step was up to me—and I just had to find the courage to take it on my own.
The next morning, I headed into the store a little bit early, when I knew that Frankie and Kresley wouldn’t be in yet.