Chapter 0140
+25 BONU
I woke up again around 5 pm. I felt like death. I was groggy, my head was still throbbing (from too much sleep now, I assumed), and I felt like I hadn’t slept in days, which was the opposite of true.
“Mornin‘ sleepy head,” Megan said from where she sat in the recliner.
“Mmm,” I groaned and sat up. I looked over at her as I stretched my arms over my head and yawned.
“Well. However long it takes for beauty sleep to kick in, 18 hours isn’t it,” Megan said with a frown as she looked me over.
I threw one of the couch pillows at her. She caught it and threw it back. I laughed.
“I need food,” I said. “What are you guys doing for dinner?”
Megan shrugged. “There’s tons of stuff in the kitchen. Help yourself.”
I shuffled into the kitchen. I scratched my head with one hand and my stomach with the other. I turned back to Megan. “Hey, I’m doing it!”
She looked at me, confused. “Doing what?”
“That thing with your head and your stomach. I’m scratching both at the same time,” I said, demonstrating.
“It’s patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, you nitwit,” she said, laughing and rolling her eyes at me.
“Oh,” I dropped my arms in defeat, then shrugged and went back to the kitchen.
A moment later Megan joined me, and we both stared into the fridge trying to figure out what we wanted. I opened the freezer after a moment.
“Ooh, pizza rolls,” I said, pulling out the bag.
“Make me some too,” Megan said then went back to the living room. I heard her turn on the TV.
I turned on the oven and waited for it to preheat. I spread a bunch of rolls on a cookie sheet, then watched the oven temperature. With nothing to do for a few minutes, my mind decided it would replay the 9 pm meeting for me.
I sighed after I thought through the whole memory of it I did not do well with idle down time. I would have to find a way to distract myself so I didn’t spiral.
I walked back into the living room to grab my phone from the table. I unlocked it and opened my notepad app. I put a title at the top: “Things to do during my suspension.”
I watched the cursor blink, patiently waiting for me to start the list. Several minutes went by without a single idea coming to mind. The oven beeped, indicating that it was preheated and ready for me. I closed out of the app and slid the cookie sheet into the oven. I set the timer and headed back to the living room to wait it out. TV would be a nice distraction for now.
When a commercial came on, I turned to Megan. “What would you do if you had an indefinite amount of
time off?”
+25
5 BONUS
Chapter 0140
“Oh my god, so many things. I would organize my room, I would take up running, I would learn an instrument. I have a whole list of things I would love to do,” she said. “What about you? Do you have anything in mind for your time off?”
I shook my head. “No. Not a single thing.” I frowned. Was I broken?
“You’ll figure it out. Just get some rest, you’ve been going hard for months now,” Megan said.
“Yeah,” I chewed on my thumbnail. She was right, but I didn’t want to rest. I couldn’t. Too much down time would be really bad for my mental health. Which I knew was the opposite of true but I much preferred to ignore my issues rather than sit with and work through them.
The kitchen timer started beeping. I returned to the kitchen to turn it off and pull the rolls out of the oven. I used a spatula to put them on two plates and carried them to the living room.
“I like having you here,” Megan winked at me. “What service!”
I laughed. “You can leave your tip on the table here.”
The front door opened and Maria walked through. “Hey guys,” she said then looked over at me. She jumped. “Yikes.”
“This one just came out of hibernation,” Megan said, pointing at me.
I shrugged and dug into my pizza rolls. “How was work?” I asked Maria through a mouthful of cheese and bread and pepperoni.
“Weird,” Maria said. She grabbed a pizza roll from my plate. “Word got around about Paul Hanson, and of course Elena is telling everyone all about how you are the one to blame for it. The office was buzzing all day, I don’t think anyone actually got any work done.”
I shook my head. I should not have been surprised that Elena was dragging my name through the mud, but I kind of was.
“There’s rumors that the client is going to leave us, but you know office gossip. Who knows if that’s actually true or not,” Maria popped the pizza roll in her mouth.
“Paul is the nicest guy, I just don’t see him dropping us like that,” I said.
Maria shrugged. “If he thinks he was personally attacked, he might.”
I thought for a moment. “Maybe I should go talk to him Clear things up.”
“Uh…I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Maria said.
“Why?”
“Well uh…his wife showed up at the office today, and she was…not happy.”
Megan turned her attention from the TV to us. “What did she do?”
th him
“She came in yelling and screaming, yelling for Hazel to come out. Logan tried to get her to talk with in his office but she wasn’t interested in that. She said she was going to sue you and the company for everything you both have got,” Maria scrunched up her nose.
I scoffed. “She won’t get much from me.”
Chapter 01-40
+25 BONUS
Even so, my heart dropped to the floor at Maria’s words. Was Jillian serious? I couldn’t take that chance.
I looked over at Megan. “I guess I know what I’ll be doing with my free time now.” I turned back to Maria. How’s it going with Mr. On–Again–Off–Again?”
She looked down, embarrassed. She mumbled something.
“What was that?” Megan said, a grin spreading across her face.
Maria’s face was dark red. “On again…”
“Good,” I said. “For me, not for you, you really should find someone better. But I’m going to need his help again. To break into….
“Yeah yeah, break into the things, prove you’re innocent, I’m already texting him. He knows the drill,” she was typing in her phone as she said it.
A moment later, her phone dinged. She looked at the screen.
“Well, just like in our dating life, he is reluctant but he’s in,” she smiled at me.
Megan and I shook our heads at her.
“Seriously, and this is coming from me, the queen of bad dating decisions,” Megan said. “But you need to find you somebody else. I know some guys…”
“NO,” Maria and I both said in unison.
“Okay, okay,” Maria held up her hands. “Just trying to help.”
