Beer, Spaghetti, and Pharmaceuticals ||COMPLETED||

Forty Five

She expected something more than complete avoidance. It was offensive how easily it was for him to cut her out of his life. Yes, she expected it to be awkward. No, she did not expect them to fall back into a normal, happy routine immediately.

Maybe she just wanted to be treated like Alice.

She sighed and watched the smoke blend into the grey sky.

September would make it a year since Isaac had barged back into her life, changing everything she once knew as a fixed reality. Nearly every day for a year they saw each other, usually in inappropriate settings, confessing intimate details to each other. She never realized it much at the time, but she really let her guard down around him.

From the very beginning of their friendship, their vulnerabilities would lie strewn upon the table, free from judgement and a strange unspoken trust between them.

Then, overnight, he snapped his fingers and magically turned off any recollection that they've even spoke before. She understood that she hurt him, she did, but he didn't have to act so... cold.

And she missed him.

She really, really missed him.

Her heart started to race again and she shoved the smoke into the ashtray, making the split decision to get back to her computer as fast as possible to distract herself. Anything to get her mind off him.

She sped down the halls to the elevator, hoping to avoid any potential small talk with the coworkers, as the thoughts of Isaac continued to flood her mind.

When she stepped into the elevator, she pressed floor 18, and leaned against the cool metal railing.

Remember when you and Isaac had your first kiss in an elevator?

She smacked her forehead and cursed her unconscious, begging for it to stop being such a masochist.

He was even in her dreams. They weren't sexy dreams or anything. They would only be talking. Fully engaged, eyes locked on each other, raw conversation.

She always felt so happy and relieved in those dreams, as if a biological need was finally satisfied after being neglected for so long.

Then Alice would wake up and realize it was just a dream.

She would realize that Isaac was capable of turning off the part of him that was responsible for that need. That he suddenly couldn't be bothered to even answer the odd voicemail she would leave after finally gaining the courage to ask if they could talk.

Ding!

She let out a sigh of relief when she made it to the eighteenth floor without running into anyone.

She rushed out of the elevator, took a sharp right and -

SMACK!

Alice literally ran into someone.

By reflex, her eyes clenched shut as she slammed to the ground, letting out a loud yelp. Feeling mortified, she cringed before she slowly opened her eyes.

"Nooo..." she groaned as her eyes focused on the towering demeanor over her. Based on the expensive silver Rolex on his wrist that hung out his pocket, Alice knew who it was before her gaze made its way up to his blue eyes.

He cocked his neck at Alice, his hands still shoved in his pockets.

"Erm... you alright?"

"Umm... y-yeah, yeah," she stammered out, her heart racing as her brain began to register that this was the closest they had been in weeks.