Promise Me (36 page)

I get to the gallery relatively early and dump my purse and keys on my desk before heading down the hallway to Alex's office. The door is closed so I tap lightly and open it, not waiting on his answer of whether or not I can come in.

As soon as I see him sitting at his desk, he stops moving the mouse with his hand and grins when I close the door behind me.

"Good morning, Sabrina. I would ask you to come in, but you already did that."

I grin, equally smug right back at him and say, "I'm sure you know why I'm here anyway, so excuse me for not being in the best of moods this morning, Alex."

He leans back casually in his chair and adjusts his tie, watching me while I put my hand on my hip, the universal sign for "I'm pissed off".

"Aren't you going to say anything?" I ask.

"What do you want to hear? The part where I tell you that I was the one that called Dennis and asked him to look at your resume? Or, the part where I tell you that you should do the interview."

"So, you admit it?"

He chuckles. "Of course, I admit it and I'd do it again."

"I'm so glad that you find humor in this, because I'm not finding any of this remotely funny."

Alex goes to stand but I'm already walking to the door to leave. "Don't bother getting up, I'm going."

"Sabrina, wait."

I don't turn around when I hear him come up behind me at first. Between him and Julia, I'm so close to murdering someone that my fingers are twitching. What I want is to get out of here and back to my office so I can punch something to take the edge off. I swing back around to see Alex, his dimpled smile on full display, clearly enjoying himself and making me see red.

"What you don't know is that I didn't ask him to give you an interview for the job. He only agreed to look over the resume, and if it was up to par, he'd think about it. It was you, Sabrina, and no one else who got that interview."

That does change things, but only by the smallest of margins. It doesn't take away from the real reason that Julia used to get this ball rolling. That just makes me wonder why Alex would want to help her with her crazy hair brained scheme in the first place. Granted, we agreed to just be friends, but we do kind of have a past together, albeit a minor one. Maybe not as sordid as how that just sounded in my head, but a past is a past, right?

"Why would you agree to do this, Alex?" I ask him out of curiosity.

His expression is amused as he tilts his head. "You mean besides getting to use Julia for free whenever I choose?"

Nodding yes with a half-smile, because the thought of Julia being at Alex's beckon call is pretty funny and I secretly hope he puts her through the ringer for all of this.

He puts his hands in his pants pockets and says, "Maybe I'm just a sucker for a happy ending."

Alex reaches out to open the door for me while I stand there somewhat slack-jawed by his answer. My feet finally start to move on their own and take a few steps out of his office when he calls my name again.

"Good luck on the interview later today," he announces looking pleased with himself and closes the door again.

Walking back to my office in a bit of a daze, I drop into my seat and wonder what in God's name just happened back there. My head is throbbing and I rub my temples in an attempt to ward off the impending headache that has been brewing since yesterday. I can't fall back on the good advice of Scarlett because tomorrow isn't another day anymore. Today is
the
day to decide my own fate. I can't pussyfoot anymore or make another ridiculous excuse. Without a moment's hesitation, I pick up the phone and make the call that I've been putting off for the last couple of weeks.

Tyler picks up on the fourth ring sounding groggy. I look at the clock to realize that it's only just after nine in the morning and I've probably woke him up.

"Did I wake you?" I ask apprehensively.

"If it's your voice that's waking me up this early, I don't mind in the slightest."

My stomach does a little flip flop and a smile creeps across my lips at the sound of his voice. Closing my eyes, I envision myself in his bed, wrapped safely in his strong arms. The thought is so real that I can briefly imagine his scent flooding my senses.

"Sabrina?"

"Yeah," coming out of my fantasy, "I'm still here."

I can tell he's smiling when he says, "Good, I thought I lost you for a second there."

"No, you didn't lose me."

"Are you sure about that?" He asks quickly.

Not positive if his question is supposed to have a double meaning, I answer just as vaguely. "Yes, I'm sure."

Before this conversation goes somewhere I never intended it to go I blurt out, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called so early. I'll let you go."

"Wait. Can I call you sometime?"

"I don't know."

My heart aches when he says after a short pause, "I miss you, Sabrina."

"I miss you too," I admit in a quiet voice before I say bye.

I hear his goodbye while my hand goes to put the phone back on its cradle. Dropping back limply into my chair, I stare at the phone like it's going to jump off the desk on its own. Not sure if hearing his voice has helped me make any kind of decision in regards to the interview, I check the time again and count how much time I have left to decide what my next move will be.

Approximately five hours and forty-three minutes.

That's how much time I have to decide what mine and Tyler's future will hold. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot. In the same amount of time I could be doing something fun, like driving to Disney World or catching the next flight out to Vegas, I have to figure out if I love him enough to look past everything and if whatever this is between us could ever work after what he did. I, Sabrina Chandler, the same girl who gave her heart away ten years ago to a dream, has to decide if whether the reality is worth the heartache and forgive him.

Damn. I wish I had more time...

Seems for every box I've unpacked in the last week, I've taken a two hour break. At this rate, I'll be completely unpacked and settled in by Halloween. I absolutely adore my new, one bedroom apartment, in the Old City section of Philadelphia. Filled with Historic landmarks, Art Galleries, boutiques, and fine restaurants, the Old City section has just the right amount of eclectic for my tastes. To give credit where credit is due, had it not been for my mom's stealth apartment hunting skills with the few requirements I gave her, I would probably be living with them temporarily and not in this awesome apartment. I love them with all my heart, but I think I'd much rather stick needles in my eyes than live with them again for any extended period of time.

The top requirement for my mom in the short amount of time I gave her to look for an apartment was the most crucial to me: proximity to my new job. Even I still can't believe I work at The Philadelphia Museum of Art. On my first day, I had to actually stop and pinch myself because I thought I was in a dream. Now, here I am on Friday night, a full week under my belt, and I still can't quite wrap my head around it all.

The last month has been nothing short of crazy. After I called Mr. Forrester that day in my office for the interview, which took almost an hour, he called me back the very next day and asked if I'd fly up for a face to face interview. At first, it sounded too good to be true. Even though I was still ticked off at Julia for all her interfering, I'm not that dense. I thought about it for all of ten seconds then said yes. My flight to Philadelphia was booked within the hour for that very weekend. To say it was a whirlwind would have been an understatement. I literally flew in, took a cab straight to the museum, met with Mr. Forrester for a couple of hours, was formally offered the job which I accepted, then took a cab right back to the airport where my flight was scheduled to depart later that evening.

As much as it pains me to say it, Julia was right; it is the opportunity of a lifetime for me. I couldn't very well let her stay in the doghouse too long after that. Especially after she found out and started to cry and tell me how much she was going to miss me. I kind of had no choice but to stop being mad at her at that point. Then she went right on to party planning mode, promising that she was going to throw me the biggest going away party ever. I made her swear up and down that if she did that, that she'd be right back in the doghouse again. Much to her dismay, she agreed, but only if she could help me with the actual move.

When my parents found out, well, I think the hearing in my left ear is still experiencing some light ringing noises from all the screaming my mom did on the phone that day. My dad, as even keel as ever, got to say a quick, "I'm so proud of you, baby girl", until my mom tore the phone away from him again so she could scream some more in my ear. Mom went right into apartment hunting mode and luckily stumbled upon this gem on about her third try a few days later. She had all the papers drawn up for me, and all I had to do was receive a fax and sign on the dotted line.

That gave Julia and I just shy of three weeks to get all my stuff packed up and shipped out, including the furniture. Thankfully, the apartment was already empty and the landlord was accommodating enough to let the furniture and boxes be unloaded before I arrived. All of this under the very watchful supervision of my mom, of course. That only left Julia and me to drive my car from Miami to Philadelphia. We left a sweltering, hot as hell, Miami a week ago, late Thursday night, and between taking restroom and sleeping breaks every few hours, made it in early Saturday morning. She left the next day, and it was quite a scene at the airport between us. You would have thought we were Siamese twins being wrenched apart the way we were both carrying on like bumbling idiots. Needless to say, we've been texting and calling each other all week and she's been constantly hounding me since she left to get my computer hooked up so we can Skype. But, at the rate I've been unpacking, that probably won't happen anytime soon.

One of the first things Julia wanted to do when we got here was do a drive by of Tyler's apartment and restaurant. I can't believe I actually entertained for a millisecond the idea of us doing that like we were gonna case the joint, but sanity prevailed and we stayed away. That didn't stop her from continually bringing him up before she hopped on her flight. And, persistent as only Julia can be, she's been texting me once a day since she left to ask if today will be the day I go and see him.

Honestly, I don't even know what's taking me so long. I want to see Tyler more than anything, but something always stops me. Like an invisible force field comes out of nowhere and knocks me on my ass when I've thought about seriously going to see him after work a few times. We have spoken twice since that day of the interview, but I never told him that I was moving and we didn't touch on anything about us either. I was very careful to make sure the conversation didn't veer into that direction this time. With the stress of moving and the new job, I couldn't bear the thought of one more thing added onto my already full plate. I know that sounds selfish, but it's the truth. As a result, a part of me is afraid that so much time has gone by, that maybe he's already moving on. The fact that he doesn't even know I'm here, just a few miles away from where he probably is right this very second, is killing me inside with guilt.

Guilt is a fickle bitch too. I feel guilty for making him wait when he's the one that broke my heart. Then as that goes through my mind, I don't feel guilty at all. I feel like he
should
be waiting for however long it takes me to decide I'm ready to take a chance again. Then… I feel even guiltier for thinking he's waiting. See what I mean, the guilt alone is going to kill me. I rack my brain over and over again, driving myself into a guilt ridden panic until the dust settles long enough only for it to start up from the beginning.

What I wouldn't give to just wake up tomorrow and realize that this is the day. Instead, here I sit, alone in my apartment on a Friday night a few miles away from Tyler, surrounded by boxes and not having the faintest idea of when and if I'll make the first move.

This vicious circle shit is getting really old, even by my standards.

Angry at myself, I shove the box I was making very little progress with away from me and watch it as it slides across the hardwood floor. It comes to a stop in front of another set of boxes marked "living room", that I haven't touched yet either, and decide to call it a night. Hoping that when I open my eyes in the morning, I'll be able to overcome whatever it is that's keeping me away from him.