sweet instigator

eight. (*)

What the hell am I doing, Maddie thought to herself.

She had gotten home after her day of work, anxiety high and it showed in her bleeding cuticles and her chewed-up lips. Madeleine felt on edge. Seeing Connor today had not been on her agenda, nor was the question he had asked her.

Madeleine told him she’d talk to her boss, and she had scheduled that meeting for the next day and the prospect of that… well, she’d rather not think of it.

She wasn’t sure how she had to sell off another case when her caseload was already too much. There wasn’t any budget for another case or to create another ad, and she’d have to do this after hours with no pay.

And Madeleine absolutely despised herself. Connor was important to her. In many ways, he had been the love of her life. He was comfortable, and she was happy. It’s why she was swayed so easily when he came to her office to almost beg her for this favor. Maddie didn’t owe him anything and she knew that, but all she could think of when looking at Connor’s face was the endless disappointment in his eyes when she yet again canceled on dinner, or when she answered a work-call during the weekend, or when she came home so tired she fell asleep on the couch before they had a decent conversation.

So perhaps she didn’t owe him anything, but she still felt completely guilty. The reason Connor broke up with her was because she was married to her job. She was never home, she never prioritized him, she put her career before her relationship.

So when he asked her this favor, she found it hard to deny him.

Madeleine knew Connor considered them friends. He called and texted her all the time, asking how she was - yet Madeleine needed distance and never really responded to him. She never saw the break-up coming and today, she experienced a low moment in being confronted by her ex-fiancé.

Enter Cameron.

And so now Madeleine was freaking out. Her anxiety was high, but she wasn’t sure if having sex with Cameron was the solution. Sure, the sex was incredible, but she knew she was just running away from her problems and it’d be a temporary fix.

Madeleine groaned as she sat on the bed in her apartment. The place was a mess, and she really needed to tidy and clean but she just wasn’t in the correct headspace.

She needed a friend to talk to, and her heart ached when she stared at Liz’ contact info. She couldn’t exactly call her up and tell her she was hesitating whether to hook up with Cameron or not.

But Liz was her best friend, and they told each other everything. So Madeleine dialed the familiar number and pressed the phone to her ear.

“Maddie?” Liz breathed into the phone. Madeleine could hear traffic on the other end of the line as she palmed her forehead, “Hi.”

There was a second of silence before Liz spoke again, “What’s wrong? You sound like you’ve been crying.”

“I - uh…” Maddie chuckled as she bit her lip, “You’ll never believe who walked into my office today and requested a meeting.”

“Hmm… Can I get a hint?”

“I’ll make it easy,” Maddie breathed, “it was Connor.”

“What?!” Liz sounded easily as shocked as Maddie had been when she got the call from the front desk to alert her that Connor was there. Liz huffed out, “Are you serious? No way! Was he there to see you?”

“Something like that.” Madeleine mumbled, “He… He needed me in a professional way? His job is on the line, apparently he made a budgeting mistake for this new product, and now they need a cheap ad. So he came to be.”