Nerd Girl(106)

Mia eyed me suspiciously. “How can you not be interested in Kyle? He’s so great. Not to mention he’s hot, and available, and totally into you. What’s wrong with you?” She was looking at me like I was crazy.

“I’m … I’m getting over a bad breakup.” Why didn’t I think of this earlier when she started pushing me on him a few weeks ago? “I’m just not interested in dating anyone new right now.”

“How long ago was the breakup? You never mentioned it before,” she said accusingly, not relenting on the third degree.

“Um, it was about five months ago,” I said weakly. I could see the wheels turning in her head. She was trying to figure me out. She knew I was hiding something.

“Okay, Julia. I don’t buy it, but I get it. You don’t want to tell me whatever it is that’s going on.” She sucked in a quick breath and her eyes grew wide. I saw the light bulb come on in her head. “You’re not sharing with me who it is. Kyle is telling the truth, but you’re keeping it a secret because it’s a hush secret office romance! And I bet I know him.”

SHIT! Fuck! Damn! I tried rolling my eyes, like her observation was totally off the wall, but I couldn’t help blushing; it was a dead giveaway.

“That’s it! I knew it. Julia Hayes, spill the beans.” Mia narrowed her eyes and suddenly looked all smug and greedy, like Gollum and his precious.

“No.” I shook my head. “That’s not what’s going on.” I squirmed in my chair. She was waiting for me to continue. I tried to apply my negotiating class techniques with her, the same ones I had applied on Ryan once. When there was a verbal battle of wills, the one who spoke first was usually the one that lost. Mia must have taken that class, too. It was a popular one here at MS. I waited and waited, but it wasn’t working. She held out. Man, she was ruthless.

“Fine,” I said, breaking under the pressure. “You’re right. But I can’t tell you who it is. It wouldn’t be fair to him.” I looked up at her uncertainly. I knew I had lost the negotiation, but I still had to hold back some of my cards. “We agreed to keep the relationship confidential. That’s all I’m going to tell you. You’ll need to be content with that.”

“Okay, fine. You win.”

What? I win? I thought I rather lost that one.

“I respect that you’re keeping this to yourself because of potential professional … complications. If you’re keeping it a secret, he must be someone who’s either married or in a leadership role, because why would you need to hide just another regular colleague of ours, right?”

Wow, she was good at this deductive reasoning stuff.

“But I hope that someday you can trust me enough to tell me. If you need to talk, just know that I’m here.” She actually seemed hurt by my reluctance to share more.

I really only just met Mia, but I did enjoy her company and we had become quick friends in the last month. I hoped we would be able to continue our friendship, even after I left the team. “Thanks, Mia. I do trust you and I value our friendship, but we’re not ready to come out in public yet.” I looked at her with sincerity and some trepidation. “There are some really good reasons why I need to keep this to myself. You’ll understand when I do explain it all to you … someday.”

Mia sighed. “Okay, fair enough.” She was finally giving up.

I breathed a sigh of relief that I was temporarily in the clear. It made me sad to know that I was intentionally holding back information about my life and about my boyfriend from my friend. It made me extra sad to be leaving the team, too, because Mia and I had become such good friends in such a short span of time. When the news came out, I wondered if she would be able to guess what happened. Of course she would. She probably already has a list of possible scenarios.

When I returned to my desk, I had better luck looking for available positions that I might be interested in, and by the end of the day, I had two informational meetings scheduled for this week. For the rest of the afternoon, I racked my brain trying to figure out what the hell I was going to tell these hiring managers.





“So, why are you looking to change positions?” Brett, the hiring manager for my first informational, asked with a smile.

I had spent the last twenty-five minutes talking to Brett about his open position and why I might be a good fit for it. Brett was a Senior Director in the OEM group and looked about the same age as Ryan. Brett was the classic up-and-coming MS executive. He was clean-cut, handsome, and exuded intelligence, cool calm and confidence. He was wearing a starched white button down that covered a flat stomach and beige pants that had probably been chosen by his wife. Near the back of his desk sat a digital photo frame that rotated blissfully happy images of his two children, a little boy around five and his younger, toddler-aged sister. He probably had a friendly Labrador that greeted him at the door every evening when he came home from work as well.