Moments of Julian Read Online Free PDF Page B

minutes to reach
their CEO when I say who I am with. We set up an appointment for me
to meet with her at their corporate offices in Toronto in two
weeks.
    I sense I just have to decide what I
want to spend my bonus on, because I have every confidence I will
close this deal.
     
    “ So…” Gretch drags the
word out. “Looked like you met someone interesting at the banquet.
Someone dark and mysterious?”
    I set my sandwich down and give her a
look. “Seriously, I thought we were going to just ignore this.
We’ve made it three days without bringing it up.”
    “ I’m sorry,” she says with
a smile. We’re eating lunch in my office today, going over files
and reviewing the needs of our clients. “I’ve been thinking about
it all week and I just wondered if you were going to see him
again.”
    I take a sip of my water, eying her
over the water bottle. “No,” I say, setting it down. “I am quite
sure I won’t be seeing him again.”
    “ Uh, oh,” she says, her
face falling. “Did it end badly? Did he end up being a total
jerk?”
    “ Well, other than him
telling me I was a terrible dancer, he was actually pretty
perfect,” I say reflectively, surprised by the words that come out
my mouth. “He wasn’t turned off by my…me.”
    “ He said you can’t dance?”
Gretch says critically. “That’s rude. Did you guys ever even dance
at the banquet?”
    “ For all of two minutes,”
I say, shaking my head and picking a pickle out of the sandwich and
popping it in my mouth. “He said I stepped on his toes
twice.”
    “ It’s pissing you off,
isn’t it?” Gretch says with a smirk on her face.
    A laugh bubbles between my lips.
“Actually, yeah, it’s bugging the heck out of me. No one says stuff
like that to me.”
    “ That’s because you’re
pretty much good at everything,” Gretch says as she bites into a
baby carrot.
    “ Apparently not
everything,” I shake my head as I take another sip of
water.
    “ Hey, I saw this flyer
posted on the community board for ballroom dance lessons,” Gretch
perks up. I look up to see her eyes excited and bright. “It was
like a six week course, twice a week. I think it starts tomorrow
actually!”
    I actually laugh and sit back in my
oversized office chair. “Dance lessons? I think I’m a little grown
up for that.”
    Gretch shakes her head. “Lots of
people do that kind of thing. And why not? It’s not like you have
much going on in the even—”
    Gretch comes to a screeching halt
there.
    “ That will be all for now,
Gretchen,” I say, packing my sandwich away and turning back to the
files. “We can finish this all up tomorrow.”
    She knows better than to hang around
and try to apologize. It will only make me more angry. She promptly
stands, gathers her things, and leaves my office.
    I take myself very seriously. I’ve
worked hard; I’ve proven myself to be a successful adult. I’ve done
everything right.
    So when I am insulted for not having
much of a social life, I have zero tolerance.
    I don’t often get humiliated, I don’t
give people the chance. But it feels like I’ve had more than my
fair share in the last week.
    I stay at the office late that night,
not really working on anything in particular, but keeping myself
busy. Once five hits, the building starts getting quiet really
fast. The lights are left on all night, it gives the outside world
the impression that a lot of people are working very hard here
twenty-four-seven. Which actually, our IT department has people
working at all hours. But the building feels peaceful and
quiet.
    Around six, I order a salad and have
it delivered from one of the restaurants close by and make my
feelings go away with an online shopping spree that ends up
totaling seven hundred dollars for a pair of shoes, a new handbag,
and two blouses.
    I feel slightly better when I’m
done.
    But I’m still a pathetic twenty-seven
year old woman who has no social life.
    Having built the life I have, it makes
it hard to