Starting Over (Unexpected Encounters part 3)

Chapter 6

"Okay let's talk about something less depressing," Kaia said.

I rolled my eyes and Gabbie shook her head. She was always so great with her words.

"What?" She asked as she looked between the two of us, "I'm just sayin."

"Go ahead then," I grinned, "what were you going to say?"

"Well we need to plan our Friendsgiving," she said, "it is on Thursday."

"True," I nodded, "I'm not going home since I was just there, are you guys going to be around?"

"Yeah I should be," Gabbie said, "we're not doing our family meal until this weekend."

"Same," Kaia said, "let's do Thursday then."

"Sounds good," Gabbie said, "I'll tell Carson."

Carson and Gabbie had been together for what seemed like forever, so it was no surprise that she was inviting him. Kaia was the one who caught me off guard.

"I'll invite Aus - " she stopped mid sentence when she saw me look over at her.

"You'll invite who now?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Well I mean - if Gabbie is inviting Carson I just thought..." she trailed off.

"I'm just giving you shit," I grinned, "I don't care if you invite Austin, but I don't need to see any gross PDA."

"Deal," she laughed, "but don't scare me like that."

"No guarantees I won't do it again," I shrugged, "maybe I'll see if Jasper wants to be my hot date."

"You don't have to have a date," Gabbie said.

"I know, but I wanted to invite Jasper anyway," I said, "so it works."

"Okay," she nodded, "anyone else we want to invite?"

"Whitney?" Kaia asked.

I jerked my head around and glared at her, and she immediately regretted her joke.

"Sorry, too soon, too soon," she said.

"Way too soon," I muttered, "but no, I think that's good."

"Okay anyway," Gabbie said, "Carson and I will take care of the turkey."

"Good call," I nodded, "I wouldn't trust Kaia or I with that part. I'll do a few sides."

"And I can get dessert," Kaia added.

"Okay, got that all settled," Gabbie said, "everyone invite your people and we'll be good to go."

                                       ***

I walked cautiously into the building for work the next morning, now hoping I could avoid seeing Whitney. My outlook had changed very quickly.

I knew that if I continued to work here, we'd have to get used to seeing each other eventually, but after last night I wasn't quite ready for that.

I went into the main lounge area that the staff shared, and I filled up my coffee cup. I set it down on one of the counters and walked over towards the fridge to put my lunch away.

The door was open and someone was leaned down putting something inside, so I stood there and waited. I turned to take a sip of my coffee, and looked back when I heard the refrigerator door close.

"Oh sorry, were you -" Whitney stopped when she saw that it was me waiting there.

Of course it had to be her.

"Oh, no it's - you're fine I um - " I stumbled over my words as my face grew red.

"Sorry," Whitney mumbled, "didn't mean to be in the way."

"You weren't," I shook my head, "don't worry about it."

She tried to move to the side but I went the same way as her towards the fridge. We did the awkward dance as we both tried to avoid running into each other, and I got much closer to her than I had in a very long time.

My heart pounded rapidly against my chest as I stepped to one side and stood still.

"Go ahead," I said, motioning her by.

Why did my life have to be so awkward already this morning?

"Oh good, you've met Whitney!" Liz said from behind me.

Had I ever met Whitney, if only she knew.

"Morning Liz," Whitney said with a grin as she walked by me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to hide the embarrassment on my face before I turned around to look at her.

"Hey Liz," I said with an awkward wave.

"Bailey and I know each other actually," Whitney casually said, "from uh, from before."

"Super vague, but okay," Liz teased.

"I was her TA when I went to school here," I quickly added.

"Oh right," Liz nodded, "well good, that'll be nice to have a familiar face in the building."

"Yup," I nodded.

Whitney gave us both a forced smile before she started to walk out.

"I have to get going," she said, "see you guys later."

"Later Whit," Liz responded.

Once Whitney was out of earshot, Liz turned and gave me a look.

"Okay, what was that?" She asked.

"What? I - it was nothing," I stuttered.

"Uh huh," Liz grinned.

I shook my head and briskly walked out of the lounge towards our offices.

Liz came in and sat down across from me at my desk. I still really had no idea what I was doing yet, so I'm not sure how I was expecting to get away from her.

"So I know you've only known me a day," she said, "so feel free to just ignore this...but I'm guessing Whitney is an ex best friend or something along those lines?"

I looked up at her as my hands fidgeted in my lap. Sharing our whole story obviously wouldn't be a good idea right now, but there was something about Liz that made me believe that I could trust her.

"Um," I started, "take away the best friend part, and then you'd be correct."

"Oh," she said as she leaned back in the chair, "I have to admit I didn't see that one coming."

"Yeah and it uh - well it didn't exactly end well," I said.

"And you knew she worked here...and still took this job?" She asked.

"Well," I sighed, "what happened between us was my fault, so I had this grand idea of working here so I could prove that she could trust me again, and - I don't know."

"Sorry," I continued, "I'm oversharing."

"No, no, no," Liz said as she waved her hand dismissively, "you're fine, I asked about it."

I nodded as my mind was somewhat put at ease.

"I take it from what I just saw in there that your plan isn't going very well?" She asked.

"Uh no," I said, "not exactly...she's with someone else so it's kind of pointless now."

"Okay I really feel like I'm sharing way too much about my relationship problems on my second day of work," I continued.

"Bailey," Liz laughed, "it's fine, I promise. I'll stop you if you are."

"Alright," I said as I let out a deep exhale, "anyway, that's enough about that for one day."

"I guess we should probably get to work," Liz responded.

"Right," I sighed, "work."

"And then you can tell me the whole story some other time," she teased.

                ——————————————-