The Deal (Constellation Book 2) by Sabrina Blaum

Author:Sabrina Blaum [Blaum, Sabrina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Babette B. Publishing
Published: 2022-10-18T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

a tension headache

The week after Thanksgiving sped by in a blur. Nicole had texted a few times with E, but they’d both been busy with their respective daily lives, and Nicole hated to admit it, but there’d been a strange sort of distance that had crept between them toward the end of their stay in Dallas, and it seemed to linger. While she’d first thought things were back to normal on their last full day there, she now had to conclude that she must have succumbed to wishful thinking.

E’s messages had been short, and she never asked about anything. It became like pulling teeth, and eventually, Nicole had stopped writing, too. Yet that bothered her as well. E lingered on her mind, even at work, which she’d never experienced before.

Nicole excelled at compartmentalizing. She knew how to focus solely on the task at hand, and if there was an issue, she’d box it up and put it on a shelf (to re-visit later, which often spelled never, unless of course it opened by itself and spilled all its contents at her feet). But that didn’t work with E, and the fact that they experienced a bit of a lull at work, due to their governmental project going through review, turned out to be the only saving grace.

Her thoughts were also distracting, alternating between reminiscing about fun and happy memories from the weekend, followed by worrying about E’s sudden onset of sullenness. Nicole didn’t know how to handle a gloomy, maudlin E—so at odds with her usually relaxed self. This wasn’t fair. Nicole already filled the spot of the one riddled with tension in their relationship.

She’d also received more messages from her family than usual. Joy asked if they could all go for dinner next time she and Marcus would be in town between Christmas and New Year. Nicole’s answer had been vague—E and her hadn’t talked about any plans. So while she hadn’t lied to her sister, by that time, things would still be over. And when her thoughts went there, everything stopped.

Nicole would drop her pen, lean back in her chair and stare into the distance, her screen all but forgotten. She hadn’t thought this through. She didn’t live far away enough that random meetings couldn’t happen, so her plan to wait a few more months and then tell her family that E and her had broken up fell short if any of her siblings were in town beforehand and wanted to see them. Though she could always say E had a previous engagement for the night.

In those moments, she had a better understanding of E’s comments about lying to her family, as pangs of conscience rippled through her. But it went beyond that, and she felt these thoughts gnaw at the periphery of her awareness, yet she ignored them. They were friends, and Nicole needed them to remain that, to stick within this easily controlled framework. Everything else could only fail, and she refused to add E to her long list of regrets.

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