“Mel, I fucked up and I’m sorry,” he whispered. There was silence as I waited for more. He said nothing. 

“Cool, cool. Great talk, see you never,” CLICK.

Rinnnggggg. Sighing loudly, “Theo, I’m really not in the mood for empty apologies and excuses. Why would you even ask me out and pull me on your lap if you’re not attracted to my body type? That’s really fucked up.”

“W-wait, wh-what? Mel, that’s n-not--” I interrupted, “Fine, what? What’s the excuse!?”

“Mel, it's complicated. Can we talk tomorrow after work? I’ll be able to talk then,” he sighed. 

“No.” CLICK.

Bzzz. 

I know you’re pissed but I promise you it killed me to walk away from you last night. Please meet me at Richie’s food truck tomorrow after work if you’re not even more pissed after the announcement.

Announcement? What is he even talking about? Ignoring his message I tossed my phone on the nightstand and took two Advil PMs. The last thing I needed was to stay up all night overthinking his text. 

I woke to my alarm blaring loudly in my ear. In the middle of the night I ended up rolling over to my nightstand with my phone on it. Still groggy from the sleeping pills, I rolled out of bed and washed my face. Recalling the previous night, I was still confused by Theo’s words. What announcement? My commute to work didn’t serve as much of a distraction.

Walking into the office, I slouched down in my chair hoping no one would need me. Due to the deadline approaching, my inbox was flooded over the weekend with everything from helicopter parents wondering why their children were denied, to human resources weekly newsletter. 

Groaning, I stretched my arms above my head before tackling the mountain of replies I needed to send out. Finally, after what seemed like all day but was only two hours, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Grinning to myself, I opened the last email from a parent requesting a deadline extension for their child’s essay when I heard two dings. 

At that moment I seriously contemplated yeeting my work laptop out the window of my office. I pretended to bang my head against my desk, before opening my inbox again. My face lightened as I saw that Randy in HR notified the team we had a new marketing specialist and my boss Jesse had already scheduled a welcome potluck.

Deleting the message from HR and RSVPing to the potluck, I shrugged off my blazer and decided to take a bathroom break. 

“Melodi!” Jumping back against the stall, I exhaled loudly at Jesse showing my frustration. While she was a great boss, the woman struggled with personal space. “I saw you RSPVed already. Can you bring your snickers cheesecake and those heavenly maple, bourbon glazed cookies you made for my birthday?” 

Rolling my eyes I replied, “Sure Jess.”

Hurriedly I washed my hands and attempted to make an escape before my sweet toothed boss added any other baked goods for me to make. “Oh Mel! One more thing,” Jesse added from behind her stall. 

Whispering a “fuck”, I turned slowly “Yeah Jess?” Over her flushing toilet she added, “Can you meet Mr. Patel at the front desk? I know he starts tomorrow but Damien in IT is gonna be out and he needs to get set up with his laptop today.”

Giving her a thumbs up, I headed to the elevator. Normally each new hire supervisor would handle these things, but the head of marketing had a meeting with Jesse. Scanning the lobby, my eyes fell on familiar broad shoulders. 

Like a child, I turned away and slowly backed up to the receptionist counter. “Hi Melodi!" she exclaimed way too loudly. "Jesse said you’d be down to greet the new marketing guy,” I awkwardly smiled at Ruby sitting behind the desk and nodded my head. “Theo, this is Melodi Davis from Admissions. She’ll be escorting you to IT.”