The look on Beck’s face as they pulled into the garage made Josh smile. If her remarks about the place didn’t clue him in on her feelings about the decor, the look she wore now sealed it. Mouth turned down at the corners, slight pout, narrowed eyes. She hated it as much as he did. Fucking place looked like a nuclear bunker, not a house. Even the damned garage was clean white surfaces, glimmering with polish and white pot lights on the ceiling. The whole garage was white and not a single speck of dirt was visible.
“How is it so….”
“Pristine?” he suggested, taking the key out of the ignition and stuffing it into his pocket. The number of times he had locked the keys in the car over the years….
“This is a garage, right? Not a showroom floor?”
Josh laughed at that. “I’m pretty sure I said the same thing to Kris when we got here. Come on, I’ll get you set up in the office.” Hopping out of the car, he grabbed the box of donuts and his coffee, then made his way around to her side. Somehow even after the whole fan parade at Tim Horton’s she still looked a little nervous so he took one of the cream donuts out of the box and offered it to her.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she accepted it.
With a grin he took the other cream donut and stuffed his face with it, making sure to get a good glob of cream on his face in the process. “Very strict diet for this movie,” he said around the chunks of donut in his mouth. “Don’t tell anyone.”
Beck blinked, then started laughing.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that? I got something on my face?”
“No,” she giggled. God, the way her eyes sparkled and her nose crinkled when she laughed was adorable. “Not at all.”
So that was her game? Two could play at that. “Office is this way,” he said, leaving the cream where it was as he walked to the door and held it for her.
The way she bit down on her laughter and looked up at him through her lashes…. “So Josh Tanner drives his own cars, eats donuts, drinks black coffee…,” she said, grinning up at him as she walked into the house. “What else do you do?”
“Most people just call me ‘Josh’,” he said, smile threatening to split his face in two as he followed.
Pink slowly spread across her cheeks and nose. “Not the press,” she muttered.
A puff of laughter bubbled up out of his throat. “Depends,” he said. “You interview with the same people enough, you get familiar. And some people meet you for the first time and mistake friendliness for friendship.”
The pink washed into red and she looked away.
“Wasn’t talking about you,” he assured her. “I like hanging out with you.”
The redness in her cheeks and nose got brighter, making him smile. “You’ve known me a grand total of, what, an hour? Two?”
“Plenty of time for me to know I’m having fun,” he said.
“I’m not even going to ask about the cream on your face, Josh,” Kris’s voice sighed to his right.
Forcing his gaze away from Beck’s face and her adorable flush, he grinned at his friend. “I brought donuts!”
Kris shook his head and sighed, looking at Beck. They’d been friends too long, he’d need to up his game if he was going to throw Kris off his.
“I can help you get set up in the office,” Kris offered, gesturing down the hall.
“No, I got this,” Josh said, pointing with the donut box in the same direction. He ignored the pointed look his friend gave him as he led Beck to the office, smiling and chatting away.
The vibration in her jacket pocket made Beck jump as she walked down Yonge Street, nearing the Hockey Hall of Fame. She had forgotten she’d turned her phone on vibrate when she was looking for an excuse to get out of the date from hell. Maybe she should pick up a bottle of wine for her sister, Dani, for the life-saving text that allowed her to pay her half and run out the door. From the moment he found out she had a tech-related job, he’d started talking about his own job as an IT office manager. She zoned out and texted her sister when he started going on about how women weren’t interested in or very good at tech. Somewhere in his rant, she was pretty sure he mentioned hitting on a woman working for him and how it was surprising she’d left. Then he went on to explain why Internet Explorer was the best browser. Idiot.
As soon as her phone unlocked, she saw the email was from the company where she’d applied for her business loan. Her stomach tightened as she opened the message.
‘After going through your application, we are sorry to inform you that your application was rejected....’
She stopped reading, put the phone away, and blinked back her tears. What a fucking bullshit way to end her day. Nearing the station, she briefly considered getting a room at the Fairmont, doing a luxury spa day, and forgetting about it all with a bottle of red wine all to herself. But that wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with her day, nor was it the most affordable, especially when she had wine at home.
Instead, she made her way inside and nearly lost her shit when she saw the issues from that morning had continued and expanded. All trains were cancelled. People were pushing, bickering, complaining, all trying to find a way home. The customer service line was insane - long and packed with irritable travellers.
The corners of her mouth pulled down and tears pricked at her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she focussed on a spot on the wall until she calmed down, then pulled out her phone. Who the hell was she supposed to text at this time of night? What, Dani was going to drive from Oakville to pick her up?
Then she remembered Josh had said to let him know if the trains were still cancelled. She pulled up his contact and stared at it, pushing out a breath. On one hand, she didn’t want to bother him; on the other, he’d probably be really good at cheering her up. Her mouth tugged upward of its own volition as she pictured him showing up at Union with donut cream on his face. Not the most inconspicuous option.
Pinewood Studios wasn’t that far away from the station. And if he was still there.... Taking a deep breath, she fired off a quick text to ask if he was still on set.
Almost instantly she had a reply.
‘Just about to leave. Trains still cancelled?’
Rather than getting into it, she just asked if he could pick her up at Union.
‘Everything okay?’
It was an innocent enough question, but it made the facade she had built up to stop herself from crying in public shatter. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she made a beeline for the nearest bathroom, locking herself in the stall to cry quietly until it passed.
When she was finally able to take a breath without tears, she wiped her face with her sleeve, then cautiously peered out of the stall and found the bathroom empty. She walked to the sinks, splashed some cold water on her face until she didn’t look red, puffy, and ill, then patted herself dry again.
Making her way through the crowd, she found an empty seat and dropped into it. She pulled out her phone to finally send a reply to Josh. Only there were a ton of missed texts and calls from him. How the hell long had she been crying?
She fired off a quick text and waited, staring at her phone.
After a few minutes with no reply, she started to type again, only to be startled when someone dropped into the seat next to her and exhaled loudly. “You’re okay.”
When she turned away from her phone there was Josh, wearing a hoodie and a pair of dark aviators. She burst into laughter.
“Not the reaction I was expecting,” he groused.
“And I wasn’t expecting the unabomber, but here we are,” she laughed.
He smiled at her. “Date didn’t go well?”
Leaning forward on her elbows, she put her chin on her hands and sighed. “Understatement. And amongst other things.”
“What happened?”
Her lips pressed together and she sighed heavily. “Standard mansplaining bullshit,” she muttered. “Women don’t like IT, women aren’t suited to tech, et cetera and ad nauseum. I had my sister fake an emergency text to get out of there.”
“What a dick!”
Pulling her shoulders into a half shrug, she muttered, “Not really much of a loss. Not like I was attached to a total stranger on a first date.”
“So what were the tears for?”
Beck blinked then looked back at him. “That obvious?”
“Your eyes are red,” he explained, his hand coming up to rub soothing circles on her back.
Nodding, she turned back to look out at the station, watch people rush around and panic over the cancelled trains. “Got turned down for a loan I really wanted,” she mumbled. “Business loan. Bad date, loan declined - again - and cancelled trains. It just…all at once.” It was hard to explain why she reacted how she had. Growing up her mother had always said she was dramatic. Now she knew better - ADHD and emotional dysregulation. Great combination. And probably way too soon to be explaining all that to him. “Only good part of my day was when we were hanging out,” she confessed quietly.
“What if I drive you home, maybe pick up some food on the way? I know just the cure: nachos with cheese dip, slurpees, and ice cream.” The hand had stopped making circles and was now tracing patterns she couldn’t discern. “I make a great ear if you want to vent, too.”
When she turned back to look at him, she felt tears threatening to spill again. But this time it was relief. Josh wasn’t upset, wasn’t judging her, didn’t call her reaction dramatic; he was just…there for her. “Thank you,” she mumbled, smiling at him.
He stood up and offered her his hand with a wide grin. “Let’s go.”
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