Her head snapped in my direction so fast, that I thought her neck had broken in the process. “What. Haven’t. You. Told. Me.” She said slowly, glaring.
I picked at my nails before meeting her eyes again with a guilty smile. “Please don’t kill me! I had just forgotten to mention it to you…”
“Well, hurry up then! What happened between you two?! I swear to God, Emily Johnson, if you have withheld the news of a shared kiss between you two I will suffocate you with my pillows.” Her eyes narrowed even further into a death glare.
“No, no! We did not kiss. That won’t happen, believe me. We did… kind of get into a fight on Friday night though.”
“Over what?!” she exclaimed, and she put the laptop down on the space between us. My eyes briefly flickered over to the bright screen, and I saw rows of gorgeous dresses, but couldn’t stare at them any longer because Amy snapped the laptop shut with her hand.
“Sorry. It was really nothing. I don’t know why he’s still upset over it. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t rejected him before…” I trailed off, my own thoughts stopping me from continuing the story. Why was he so worked up over it? I mean, the last time I had gone over, all we did was sleep and eat brunch together. It was nothing major.
“What happened?!” she screeched, pulling me back into reality.
“Well, we were actually having an okay time, you know? Then I mentioned that I have to get home and he invited me over, again. I said no, and, well, I don’t know. He just became all snappy and disappeared into a door that’s in his office. Then, when I went to drop off his planner on Sunday, he wasn’t home. The maid that cleans his house took it from me and told me that he stayed at a girl’s place.” I shrugged, not really knowing what else to say.
Amy gave me a look that I thought would burn my skin. “Did you just give me a brief version of a story involving Adrian Kingston?” she asked, clenching her teeth together angrily.
“Ames, are you due for your period soon?” I asked in amusement, as her angry expression turned into one of confusion. “I don’t know. Hey, I’ll check!” she chirped, suddenly cheery again as she reached for her phone and went on the period tracker app that she had installed. “Huh, would you look at that,” she said, before shoving the phone right to the tip of my nose. “I’m due in 3 days.” She smiled widely.
I raised my eyebrows at her happiness towards being due for what I thought was a monthly visit from death, but didn’t question her behaviour. “Anyway, it’s getting late, and we both have work tomorrow-”
“I have to find your dress by 12AM tonight or else it won’t come in on time! You go to sleep, I’ll take care of it. It’s too early for my bedtime anyway, granny.”
I rolled my eyes before switching the television off. “Suit yourself,” I said in mid-yawn, “I trust your taste anyway. Thanks so much, Ames. Goodnight.”
“I’m here to help!” she said. “I’ll take a photo of the dress once I find it and show it to you tomorrow before we go to work.”
I nodded and set my alarms before taking off my bra and getting in a comfortable position to sleep.
***
“Suzie, please let me help,” I implored her. “It’s a lot of work to put an entire event together in a week! It’s tomorrow, how about you rest for the day and I’ll do the rest of the last-minute preparations?” I watched her scrawl something down on a sheet of paper.
“Oh no, I couldn’t do that to you, sweetie. I’m fine, honestly. Don’t you have an important conference call to be in -” she checked the small clock on her desk before looking back up at me, “-10 minutes?” she asked, raising an eyebrow with an amused expression at my miserable look.
“Yes, but-”
“Ms. Johnson.” I heard Adrian’s deep British accent from somewhere behind me, cutting my explanation to Suzie off. “We need to set up for the conference call.”
I rearranged my features to a neutral expression before turning around and nodding calmly, before picking up the files I had put down beside me and following him down the hall to the elevator.
Under normal circumstances, the ride down to the third level and the quiet walk down the hall to the largest conference room in the building would’ve been comfortable and over in under a few minutes. Due to Adrian’s quiet and gloomy attitude towards me though, it felt like it had taken hours, and the high-pitched sound of a cricket stirring into life was all the silence needed to confirm that it was one thing – awkward.