Tales Of Information Management And Gossip
Day 22 of The Andie Chronicles
My phone vibrated furiously. It was James.
He was calling, again and again until I answered. “Why doesn’t my key open the door?” I could hear him shout through the door until I addressed him.
I unlocked the door. “Calm down,” I said, opening it and letting him in. “It was just locked from the inside.”
He stumbled inside. “You never do that. Not on a Monday morning when you know I’m coming to work.”
I couldn’t hold my tongue. “Well, I didn’t want to assume anything. You know of all people that assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.”
James pursed his lips.
“No? Am I wrong? Feel free to correct me.”
He couldn’t. He knew well and truly that his little surprise gathering was an epic misjudgment of my breakup. And what I wanted and needed at that time.
It was times like this I thought James didn’t know me that well. We spent every day together, working side by side, spending most of our free time together.
And yet he still couldn’t handle my breakup. He didn’t know how to console me in a way that wouldn’t make me feel even more lonely.
“I stuffed up, ok?”
He had to catch himself as he shouted the begrudging apology.
“I thought if you could see we were there for you, it would be clear you had support. I didn’t even think about the fact you hadn’t told us yet. Or that Taylor was there. Or that I asked the cute waiter to join us. That was a bad idea.”
I took my usual seat at the dining room table, the one we transformed into a co-working desk.
“Yeah, seeing my ex’s brother wasn’t exactly what I needed. I also didn’t need to see the blabber mouth in the flesh.”
I paused and thought about Taylor’s position in my life right now.
“I don’t hate the guy. But he isn’t in my relationship with you, or with GG, or with Sophia. There are no triangle relationships in this situation. He shouldn’t be speaking for me, ok?”
I know I had to say this to GG too. I would at our spin class tomorrow. But I had to make sure James knew not to listen to other people instead of me.
I had to say it out loud and not internalise this as I had been for the last week.
“I get it,” James replied, taking his seat too. “And you know what’s worse?”
I shook my head. What could be worse than this breakup right now?
“What’s worse is that this misjudgment completely overshadowed what happened between you and Douglas. It’s not cool when that happens.”
I didn’t want to tell James I was secretly grateful for the distraction. But now this was resolved, I could go back to thinking about my heartbreak.
Great.
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
By the way, this all started when Andie turned thirty-five, and her then-boyfriend didn’t call her.
Or the day after that.
Or the day after that, too.
Everything started to unravel when her BFFs got into bed with her ex, too… ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
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