Chapter Four - She knows me better than myself
Work was picking up and deadlines were coming due. I was consumed by meetings and project projections. Some days I wondered why I worked so hard to climb the professional ladder. I had come a long way from the days of answering phones in the customer service call center. These days I was a little envious of the younger me who only worried about clocking in and out on time. As the Senior Director of sales in the southeast I had a lot of employees who depended on me and a few above me who always seemed to expect more.
"Stephanie, are you ready for lunch?" The door to my office flew open but I was in deep thought and didn't even notice. "Seriously, Stephanie!" I was brought back to the current space and time to notice Meghan walking in carrying her purse and a cup of coffee. "oh shit, I forgot!" We had a monthly lunch date and I had totally forgotten about it. Meghan was my best friend and we didn't get to spend nearly enough time together. I pushed away from my computer and reached for my purse and keys. I smiled at her as I walked towards the door. "what is that look for?" she said pulling the door closed as we exited.
"It's not illegal to smile is it?" I replied with an even bigger grin. Meghan had a belief that smiling only caused random strangers to want to strike up a conversation and avoided using those muscles at all cost. "You know how I feel about smiling, but this is different." "Wait, did you get laid?" I didn't turn around and kept walking towards the office exit. We were not having this conversation here, in fact I wasn't sure I was ready to have this conversation at all.
We got into her car and before she would turn the key over she looked at me, demanding an answer to her question. "It's 157° in here, turn on the damn car Meghan!" I said as the sweat between my boobs started to form.
"Don't make me use the cold air deprivation tactic, to get answers!" She said with a side eye on me. I tried to hide my grin and turn my head, looking out the passenger window. People walking by in a hurry lost in their thoughts or talking on the phone. I wonder if they have a friend who knows what you are thinking and doing without saying a word. I replied "maybe!" "Bullshit!" she said. "Your telling me all about this when we get to lunch."
We arrived at our usual soup and salad spot and I didn't even get to ask for the breadsticks before she started firing off questions. "So, who is the guy? When did this start? How did you meet him? Was it good?"
I told Meghan about Travis trying to avoid giving any specifics away of who he actually was. I told her I met him online and we started chatting, one thing lead to another and we now meet every Wednesday for a "fun time"
"You didn't tell me you started online dating, who are you?" She knows that is something I would never do again. It was so painful the last time. Dates after dates with guys who seem to have only one thing in mind or they live with their mom and four cats. "I didn't say I was online dating" I replied. "Wait, WE know him? "Stop skirting around this story and tell me!"
I told her that Travis was an acquaintance of William and he didn't mean anything to me but was worth a few hours a week. Meghan said "Thats a lie, I can see the glow in your eyes when you are talking about him, in fact your demeanor has perked up since I walked in the door at your office.
Could Travis mean something more to me? This was a simple, cut dry case of two adults filling in the empty space in our lives, or was it?
I told her about him showing up at the beach and how I thought it was funny that he doesn't have a dog, but we have to go feed them. The server brought us our food as I spilled the beans about every detail between Travis and I.
"When William finds out he is going to blow his lid!" she said with a smirk and a tiny look of concern. He can't find out, this isn't anything, he'll go crazy for no reason."