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Tears cascaded down her cheeks as she stared wildly at the door, willing Fallon to come back, to hear her, to stay. But she didn’t. The door remained shut. The tension stayed thick. And Savannah crumbled.

twenty-five

Fallon chewed her nail, a nasty habit she’d broken nearly a decade ago coming back in full force. Athena had already scolded her once today for it, but she couldn’t stop herself. She hadn’t been able to get Savannah and their last conversation off her mind. No matter how many times she checked her phone, Savannah hadn’t called or texted, and she’d been too chickenshit to initiate something.

But Savannah was coming in today.

And there wouldn’t be any chance of avoiding her any longer. The closer the hour got to the time of Savannah’s appointment, the more Fallon’s nerves reared up in her stomach. With five minutes to go—and Savannah was always on time—Fallon was trying not to vomit all over her desk.

The door clicked open, and Fallon’s gaze was riveted to it. Savannah stepped inside, stopping short just past the doorway. A large, black purse hung from her forearm as she looked directly at Fallon. They stared in silence, and Fallon had no idea what to say to break it.

She shouldn’t have let it go on this long, that was for sure. She should have talked to Savannah before they had to see eachother here, where they couldn’t talk, where they didn’t have complete privacy.

“I’m so sorry,” Fallon said, knowing that Savannah had no clue what she was apologizing for.

“Is Ms. Pruitt out today?” Savannah frowned, but she did step closer to Fallon’s desk.

Shaking her head, Fallon tried again. “For not calling or texting.”

“Oh.” Savannah’s lips thinned into a line.

Fallon longed to see them curl up into a smile. She wanted to know that Savannah was happy again, that joy was reaching down inside her and lifting her up, that she wasn’t an empty shell of who she’d once been.

“I should have—” Fallon started.

“You’re not the only one—” Savannah stopped as they spoke at the same time.

Fallon nearly smiled at the coincidence, but she stopped herself. Standing up, she strode straight to Savannah and reached for her hand before stopping. Clenching an empty fist, Fallon nodded toward the conference room.

Athena stepped out, breaking the silent conversation that Fallon didn’t dare to say out loud. Athena’s gaze landed on both of them, flicking between them, before she settled on Savannah. “No gifts for my office admin today? She’ll be disappointed I’m sure.”

Fallon choked. If she could have gotten away with groaning, she would have. But she wasn’t going to manage that without alerting Athena to the fact that something else was going on. And she really didn’t want that.

“Uh… I was a bit busy this week.” Savannah’s cheeks were a bright red.

Fallon stepped toward the conference room and held open the door. “Do you want me to take notes today, Ms. Pruitt?”She needed the awkward probing to end immediately. And the best way to do that was to distract Athena into work, which was rather easy.

“No, I don’t think so,” Athena said as she stepped past Fallon and into the conference room. She didn’t look over at Savannah as she went right in.

Fallon, however, locked her gaze on Savannah’s awkward stance and willed her to move. She wasn’t sure how long she could stand here and wait for Savannah to make her next move. They stared at each other, again cast into a battle where neither of them was willing to make the first move. Eventually, Savannah started in Fallon’s direction. She said nothing as she walked by. She didn’t even look up into Fallon’s curious gaze.

Sighing as she shut the door, Fallon sat down at her desk. She busied herself with work and tried to ignore the fact that Savannah was mere feet away, huddled in a room with her boss, and they had barely spoken more than three sentences to each other before they had to stop.

She should have texted before today. She shouldn’t have waited until avoidance was no longer an option. Cringing, Fallon struggled to focus, barely making headway on any of the work on her to do list. Finally when Athena exited and handed her a new list of things to do and disappeared into her office, Fallon couldn’t wait.

She jumped up from her desk and beelined it to the small conference room. She shut the door behind her and leaned against it before she stepped away and sat across from Savannah. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you sooner.”

“Same,” Savannah whispered, flicking her gaze to the door. “Do you want to talk about this here?”

“Where else?”

“MILF Wine?” Savannah slid the papers on the table into a binder. Fallon was so curious what was in there.

“Give me thirty minutes.” Fallon opened the door to walk out and stopped short. Athena stood right in front of her, an eyebrow raised and her arms crossed. “Y-yes, Ms. Pruitt.”

“You’re free to leave now.”

“What?” Fallon’s heart stuttered, her stomach dropping, and the nausea that had been so visceral an hour ago came rushing back.