Reconstructing Meredith by Lauren Gallagher

Author:Lauren Gallagher [Gallagher, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781515385455
Google: llj4sgEACAAJ
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2015-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Around three the following afternoon, my cell phone vibrated, sending cool water through my veins and jarring me out of my mental haze. I was in my office, up to my ass in schematics, numbly processing numbers in between responding to the usual bullshit via e-mail. Fortunately, I knew my job inside and out, so running on autopilot was doable. Even after a sleepless night and trying to think with a wandering mind, I could still function at work. I’d certainly done it before.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I needed neither caller ID nor clairvoyance to know before I picked it up who was calling. When I looked at the screen, I wasn’t sure if I was more unnerved or relieved to be right.

Meredith.

My heart pounded. I flipped my phone open. “Hey.”

“Hey.” She was quiet for a moment. “Can we talk? About last night?”

I glanced at my watch, cursing under my breath. “I’m just about to go into a meeting, babe, but I’ll be home around six tonight if you want to meet me at my place. Or I can come to your place, it’s up to you.”

“Yours is fine.”

“I’ll see you then.”

We hung up, and I went back to my schematics and numbers. I couldn’t even run on autopilot now; my apprehension created the kind of distraction that scrambled figures on a page and kept my fingers from typing a coherent sentence. I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. How the hell I was going to stay focused in the meeting, I had no idea, but I also didn’t have much choice.

Come on, get it together. I glared at the letters, numbers, and diagrams that refused to make sense. Somehow or another, I had to think about specs and functionality for the next couple of hours. Not Meredith, not arguing, not that cretin who’d traumatized her.

I can do this. I’ve gotten through less with more on my mind.

I did get through it. With a little luck and my God-given ability to bullshit my way through anything, I made it through the meeting without so much as raising my boss’s eyebrow. What the boss and client didn’t notice wouldn’t hurt me.

Eventually, five o’clock rolled around, and I slipped out under the radar of anyone who might have thought to suggest overtime or some other such nonsense I didn’t need tonight. I was of no use to anyone here this evening, so there was no point in getting roped into sticking around.

The knot in my stomach tightened with every milepost I passed on the freeway. Tighter still when I reached my exit and coasted down the off-ramp. By the time I turned on to my street, I didn’t think that knot could get any tighter.

I’d barely put my car in park in the driveway when movement in the rearview caught my eye. I glanced up as Meredith pulled in beside me. That knot that couldn’t have possibly gotten any tighter tightened anyway.

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