Page 51 of When the Walls Come Down
I knew because it had been the exact same thing I’d been thinking when we left that boardroom.
But, fuck, hearing him say it had burned like the hottest branding iron. He wasn’t the only one who had caught a case of the feels. What had seemed like fate with us being neighbors and then working in the same office had turned into a nightmare.
“May the best man or woman for the job win.”
This wasn’t the way this was supposed to go down. But there I was, alone in my big grown-up adult apartment, with a hole in my chest, missing a man I barely knew because we shared the same dream job.
What the hell? Weren’t mutual interests supposed to be great in a relationsh—
Shit, now I can’t even think the word.
Even despite everything inside me that screamed for us to keep trying, we needed to walk away now, before we had a chance to sink any deeper.
Taking this job from Shane wasn’t going to be an easy fight, but I owed it to myself—and the promises I’d made to my mother’s memory—to at least try. I had a crazy month ahead of me. Right out of the gate, I was at a serious disadvantage. I had to learn the ropes of Bay Brewing all while proving I could handle the launch of the new line of ciders. The same line Shane had known about for months. Hell, he’d probably already sat in Casey’s backyard knocking back a few at a big family barbeque.
But if there was one thing I knew how to do, it was hustle.
I’d figure it out. Learn the product and the demographic and then create the best damn branding campaign Bay Brewing had ever seen.
And, in turn, get one of the most amazing men I’d ever met fired. Fuck.
There was no winning here.
Stretching my legs out, I propped them on the coffee table. Screw being an adult. This shit hurt.
Maybe I just needed to go to bed. Sleep it off. I could wake up the next morning with my heart and head aligned and all thoughts of Shane being a thing of the past. As if that were possible. More accurately, maybe I should walk ten feet across my studio apartment, collapse into bed, and spend the rest of the night obsessing about all things Shane when in reality I needed to be developing my battle plan.
Meh. Now that I was single again, there would be plenty of lonely nights for that.
Disgusted by my own pity party, I clicked the power button on the remote and stood up. But then a sudden storm of clinking on my glass balcony door stopped me in my tracks. It sounded like a mixture of rain and hail, but it only lasted a second.
I twisted my lips and padded over to the door. Clicking on the light, I peered outside, but nothing seemed off. That was until I looked down. At least three dozen orange Tic Tacs were scattered all over the floor.
“What the hell?” I mumbled, stepping outside.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry. I didn’t know they were going to explode like that.”
My head snapped up to the tall brick wall that divided Shane’s balcony from mine. A knot formed in my stomach, but knowing he was so close, I couldn’t deny the hitch of my lips. “What are you doing?”
“I found those orange sonsabitches on my nightstand. I thought you might want them back.”
“Gee, thanks.” Sighing, I took in the sight of those candies dirty and chipped, scattered across the floor, and I’ll be damned if that wasn’t even more symbolic than the bowl of teal balls.
I waited for him to keep talking, but there was nothing but some rustling on his side of the wall.
“Is everything okay over there?”
“Not even close,” he slurred.
I narrowed my eyes at the wall as if I’d somehow developed x-ray vision. “Are you drunk?”
“Are you?” he replied. Or at least that’s what I thought he said, but it could have just as easily been, “Arm chew.”
Great. He was drunk on a sixteen-story balcony and I, the jaded lover, was surrounded by the signs of a struggle over orange Tic Tacs. This had all the makings of a Dateline episode.
“Okay, how about you take a step away from the railing.”
He scoffed. “You get away from the railing.”
After dragging my chair over, I stood on it, but I still wasn’t tall enough to see what he was doing. It took some serious upper body strength, but I was able to pop my head over to his side.
My brows pinched as I caught sight of him—thankfully nowhere near the railing. He was actually on his hands and knees. I watched long enough to see him crawl over to the point farthest from the edge, but adorably the closest to me, and tuck his muscular body into the corner.
