Page 2 of October (New Orleans #10)

She carried the crate, which contained two stress balls, each from an IT conference, some random cables like every IT professional had in their possession seemingly at all times, a coaster, her mouse and laptop, and a few other odds and ends, along with a framed photo of her with her sister and another one with her and India together, but she’d only had that one on her desk because the desk had been in the server room, and only IT and facilities had a key to the room.

They hadn’t ever flaunted their relationship at work.

She suspected that most people knew, but some probably weren’t aware that they’d been together at all.

She would take the photo with India home and would decide what to do with it later, but the one with her sister would go on her new desk.

Finley was most excited about having a desk out on the floor because she had gotten to choose where to sit.

Her old manager had been sitting on the first floor, and when he left the company and she got the promotion to his job, they had given her the option: she could take his old desk or choose a new one since they were planning on moving a different team to the first floor anyway.

Finley had chosen the desk of someone else who had recently quit Southern Roastery.

His name was George, and he had been in HR operations.

He’d been a quiet guy who hardly talked to anyone, but Finley had chosen that desk because he’d had the best seat in the whole building.

“Hey, Molly,” she said as she placed her crate on top of the desk right next to Molly Jewel’s.

“Oh, hi. I mean, hey.” Molly’s eyes always seemed a little wide whenever Finley surprised her by showing up on the days she didn’t cover this floor for IT needs. “What are you–” She looked at the crate. “That’s your stuff.”

“It’s, like, four things,” Finley said with a little laugh. “I think I need to bring in more stuff to really make this cube my own.”

“Sorry. What?” Molly asked, turning in her roller chair to face Finley.

“They gave me a choice of where to sit now that I’m the manager, and I chose George’s old desk. I hope that’s okay. They told me it was fine since they’re not backfilling his role just yet.”

“You’re going to be… sitting here?” Molly asked. “Next to me?”

“Is that not okay?” Finley asked. “I promise, I’m pretty quiet and I won’t cook fish in the kitchen microwave and eat it out here.”

Molly laughed and said, “No. I mean, it’s fine. Just wasn’t expecting it. Jules has the empty desk next to hers.”

“I know,” she said. “That’s for whoever replaces Andrew. I guess I can take Juliet’s desk since she’s moving into an office.”

“That would put you across from me,” Molly said, and her blue eyes got wider somehow.

“And you don’t want to have to look at me when you want to see out the window?” Finley asked.

“What? No, I like looking at you.” Molly’s eyes went wider still. “I just meant that I–”

“Molls?” Finley interrupted.

“Yeah?”

“I thought it might be nice, us sitting next to each other. If it’s not, you can tell me.”

“No, it’s great. It’s good. We’ll get to hang out more.”

Molly looked down at her hands, which were in her lap, and Finley laughed a little as she sat down.

“Oh,” Molly added as she pointed to the crate.

“What?” Finley leaned in and saw the framed photo of her with India peeking out.

“Oh,” she echoed. “I’m taking that home.”

“I thought you two broke up. That’s why I said ‘oh,’” Molly explained with a shoulder shrug.

“We did,” she confirmed. “That’s why I’ll be taking this home.”

“Where it will sit over your fireplace?”

Finley laughed and said, “No, where I’ll take this picture out and put a new one in. Or, I might just leave it empty.”

“Sorry about the breakup, by the way.”

“Thanks,” she said. “It was time.”

“You two are done for real this time?”

“This time?” Finley asked, sitting back in her chair. “You know how many times?”

“Not the exact number,” Molly replied. “I know you’ve broken up and gotten back together before.”

“Well, yeah. But this is it,” she said. “This time, I mean.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“I guess I don’t,” she replied with a smile and ruffled her short black hair. “But I don’t want to keep doing this.”

“This?”

“The back and forth, the together and apart, the–” Finley stopped. “You’re HR. I probably shouldn’t be saying this.”

“No, it’s fine.” Molly shook her head.

“Well, the sex part.”

“Oh,” Molly said and looked down again. “Right.”

“Just that we do that and we’re together, but when that dries up, it’s like we realize we have nothing else in common.”

“Nothing but sex in common?”

“Sorry. TMI?” she asked.

“It’s fine,” Molly replied. “But I do have a meeting in a few minutes that I need to prepare for.”

“Sure. Right. Sorry,” she said. “I’ll let you get to it. I’ll just be setting up my new desk and figuring out how to approve Rusty’s time off request. I’ve never been a manager before and haven’t had to do that.”

“I can show you when I get back,” Molly offered.

“Great. Thanks,” she replied.

She then watched Molly return her attention to her computer and decided that she really liked her new seat choice.