But at least I was dating.
Seeing Landon again at the reunion last month had been a wake-up call. I'd been wading through life, waiting for a guy as awesome as Landon and coming up short every time. Turned out, Landon wasn't as great as I'd thought. He was essentially the same guy who had dumped my friend on graduation day ten years earlier. I clearly hadn't been giving any other guys the time of day.
Now, I was.
"Just give Nick another chance," Julia encouraged. She flipped her shoulder-length auburn hair to one side, revealing the shaved undercut she had gotten earlier that week. She was obviously the coolest person I knew.
"All right. I'll go for date three," I told her with a shrug. "What else am I going to do this weekend besides plan Emery's surprise birthday party? Do you think you can make it?"
"Next Monday?" Julia asked.
"Yep."
"And she still has no clue?"
"Emery hates, hates, hates birthdays. She does not suspect that I have anything planned."
"I might have to be late. Is that cool?"
"You'll miss the surprise part." I pouted.
"Okay, okay. I'll reschedule my hair appointment. The girl is so hard to get in to see."
"You just got your hair done!"
"Upkeep, bitch," Julia said with a laugh. "I don't look this fabulous for nothing."
"Yes, you do. You always look fabulous."
Julia rolled her eyes and waved her hand, as if to say, Whatever. "So, is, uh … Austin going to be there?"
I grinned wide and crossed my arms, giving her the look. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened with you and Austin Wright after the office Christmas party?"
"Not a chance," Julia said, standing abruptly. She was in an all-black getup-pencil skirt, button-up blouse, and ballet flats. "Austin Wright completely proves my point of the bad boys finding me. I like to file him under The Past I Will Never Look at Again."
"At least he hasn't been in your office as much lately," I conceded.
Julia was head of HR for the entire company. She was excellent at her job. But Austin got more HR reports against him than anyone in existence. Apparently, being drunk daily on the job got him into a lot of trouble. If he were anyone else other than a Wright, then he would be gone. Right now, he got paid to drink at his desk and dick around. He had a problem, but no matter how many complaints he got, his family wouldn't throw him into rehab.
"He comes and goes, depending on the week." Julia shrugged. "I don't want to talk about Austin. Let's talk about Nick. Do you think you guys are going to have sex?"
I shrugged. "I think we have a while to go. We've kissed, but it wasn't really anything."
Of course, it was impossible to have a life-altering kiss like I'd had with Landon at the back of Flips that night. Shouldn't have allowed it to happen, but damn, he was a good kisser.
Fuck, I'm doing it again.
How many times did I have to remind myself that I couldn't think about kissing someone else's husband?
It was bad enough that Emery had been pushy about Landon after the reunion . I'd finally had to shut her down completely and tell her that, like her, I had sworn off the Wright brothers. She, of all people, should understand that I didn't want to hear about Landon or talk about Landon. Whatever had happened with us was over. The idea that people actually went from friends to lovers was ludicrous. Friends to lovers didn't exist any more than Landon and I did.
"Ugh! I just want you to fall in love, like me!" Julia confessed.
"It'll happen. Maybe. Someday. Never."
"You're ridiculous."
"Hey, Heidi," Jim said, popping his head into Julia's office. "Morgan came by and asked for the entire engineering and project team to convene in the conference room. Some announcement."
"What announcement?" Julia asked.
"I don't know what it's about, but I need to steal Heidi."
"Okay, I'll be right there," I said. I turned back to Julia with a shrug. "I guess I'll go see what that's all about."
"Keep me in the loop."
"Will do."
I hopped off her desk and strode out of her office. My office was on the other side of the floor with the rest of engineering. The engineering and project team worked closely together here at Wright Construction headquarters. I was lucky to be on the same floor as Julia even though our jobs were night and day.
I was the only woman working in engineering, and I was damn proud of it. Even if I did have a tiny cubicle, unlike Julia's swank office. I'd been climbing the ladder to this job my whole life. I'd graduated at the top of my class in civil engineering at Texas Tech and started working as an intern at Wright right out of college. I'd worked my way up and up and up. My job was my life. I made great money, and I loved what I did. I felt so fortunate to be where I was.