Page 3 of The Meeting
“Would you like to see the final product?”
He glanced at her briefly and gave her a strange look before turning back to the television. “No, I’m sure it’s fine. It was fine before I left today, and I’ll see it when I upload it.”
“That’s not why…” she drifted off. Was it too much to ask for support? To ask him to be interested in her work? To ask him to care and get excited about the designs she was creating?
“Never mind.”
Silence passed between them. She took another sip of her wine, twirling the stem of the glass between her fingers.
“So, I’ve been thinking.” She waited for him to look at her, but when he didn’t, she continued anyway, “Maybe you’re right about the other projects I’ve set aside. Maybe they are good enough.”
“Told you so,” was all he said.
She refrained from sighing. “Maybe you could look at them with me and see what you think.”
He looked at her and rolled his eyes. “They’re good enough.”
“But you don’t know what they look like.”
“They’re probably good enough. Just take pictures, and we’ll upload them and see what happens.” He turned back toward the TV, dismissing her.
2
Kailynn woke to the sun streaming through the open curtains. She groaned and rolled over, only to come face-to-face with Drew’s gaping, drooling mouth. A fog horn sounded out of his lungs, and she had to physically stop herself from slapping him across the face with her pillow.
She swung her legs out of the bed and crossed over into the bathroom across the hall. Staring at herself in the mirror, she sighed. It had been a long time since waking up next to him was thrilling. After rubbing her eyes, she started her morning routine.
A half hour later, she stepped out of the bathroom with a puff of steam following behind her. A towel was wrapped around her, and her hair was in a pile on her head. Drew noisily banged around in the room, signaling that he was awake, so she didn’t attempt to be quiet as she entered. A pair of shoes sailed through the air, hitting the floor and bouncing, before coming to a stop a few feet away from where she stood.
And not just any shoes.Hershoes.
“What the heck?”
He stuck his head out. “Well, if you didn’t have so much shit, maybe I could find my stuff.”
If steam could come out of her ears, it would have been billowing out like a train. She took a deep breath and did her best to steady her voice without flying off the rail at him. Maybe he had a reasonable explanation for being a dick.
“What are you looking for?”
“My Birkenstocks. What the hell else would I be looking for? Jesus, Kailynn. You’d think you would know me after nine years.”
She stomped over to a pair of shoes sitting against the wall by the door and pointed. “You meantheseBirkenstocks? I didn’t think you’d be tossing shit out of the closet just to look for shoes that were already sitting out.”
A disgruntled ‘yes’ came out of his mouth before he took the shoes and walked out of the room, and then the apartment. No apology. No attempt at cleaning up the mess he made. Not even a ‘bye’.
She saw red as she stared at the mess of her stuff all over the room, whichhadbeen neatly stacked in the closet. She grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand and dialed up her closest friend, Abigail. Kailynn and Abi had been best friends growing up, but lost touch in high school when Kailynn stupidly ditched her for Jessica, who was the popular girl in school.
Kailynn was still friends with Jessica, seeing as she now did their marketing. She was great friends with her actually, but she still considered Abi to be her best friend ever since they made up after their 10-year high school reunion the previous summer. She was always thankful Abi had forgiven her for the pain Kailynn caused her in high school—all in the name of being popular.
Looking back, she still wasn’t sure why she did it. Well, sheknewwhy she did it: popularity. But it was a stupid reason. Definitely not worth tossing a lifetime of friendship away with someone she had known since she was six.
“Hey lady,” Abi said as soon as she picked up.
“Ugh,” Kailynn replied, dropping onto her bed.
“Uh oh. What did he do this time?”
“That obvious, huh?” Kailynn went into a rant about everything Drew did and didn’t do over the last twenty-four hours. When she finished, she was completely enraged once again.
