First Sight (32 page)

He lifted his head up
from his hands
, but he didn’t turn to look at
Elizabeth
.
His body remained s
tiff
, and as h
is dark eyes met mine,
I noticed that
his lips
were pressed together in a
tight
line
.

I felt the
fury
rising
inside of me as
he stared at me from across the table
.
“Do you mind telling me what that was about?” I asked angrily, glaring at him.

“Jennifer asked how things were going with the project,” he said firmly, as if I had no reason to question his behavior.

“
And
?”
I stared at him
incredulously
.

“I was just expressing my opinion.”

I practically spit out the next words as I spoke.
“
And you thought
trashing my plan
in front of our
boss
was the best way to do so?
  Telling her that I was wasting everyone’s time?
”

Anger flashed in Travis’s eyes. 
“That’s right,
why should I have any say in this?
  What do I know?
”

“You had plenty of time to speak up before Jennifer walked in
—we’ve been in here for over an hour.
  You had all week in fact, but instead you’ve decided to ignore me for some reason.
”
  I felt my voice catch as I spoke
, but at that moment I didn’t care. 
I didn’t care if Travis saw that I was upset or if the rest of them heard our argument. 
I was so frustrated with Travis and h
urt by his actions that I was tired of pretending that everything was a
l
l
right
.

“
I’m sure
my opinion
doesn’t
matter to you,” he sai
d
coolly
.
 
“
After all,
I’m just a dumb jock.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”
I asked, bewildered.

“It means
exactly
what it sounds like.
  You know, you should really be more careful what you say,
Maddy
.
”
His voice was
bitter, yet somehow
matter-of-fact
.
 
I felt the pinpricks of tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes, and I prayed that I didn’t start to cry in front of everyone.  Travis sat there, stone-faced, seeming to assess me. 
I willed myself to hold back my tears and swallowed, not saying anything.

“Okay, guys,”
Marissa
said
hastily
,
trying to change the subject
. “Can we just focus on the project for now?
  Let’s wrap this up
and get going.
”

I
glanced
over at her,
relieved to finally be looking away from Travis’s harsh gaze,
but it was
Elizabeth
’s alarmed expression that
caught
my attention.
  I stared at her, confused, but then
gathered my thoughts and
turned back to
Marissa
.
 
“Fine.
Le
t’s meet on Monday to finalize this.” 
I stood up and began to
hurriedly
collect
my things. 
Marissa
and
Elizabeth
rose
as well
, but
Travis
remained seated
, still looking
grim
.
  Finally
,
he
slowly pushed back his chair.
Silently,
I
wonder
ed
to myself
what
Travis’s
problem was
. 
What
on earth was he talking about
?  He’d been acting so strange all week, like he w
as furious at me, and yet I’d done nothing wrong. 
What did he mean I should watch what I sa
y
? 
Marissa
ushered me out the door
,
but
Elizabeth
hovered
behind,
waiting
to walk out with
Travis. 
As I headed back to my office,
I
wondered
if she found
his behavior as odd as I did
.

***

The rest of the
day
passed
quickly. 
I had a pile of reviews to insert into the publication mock-up
, and that
kept me occupied
for most of the afternoon
.
I had so much work to do that
I
barely had
time to think about
anything else, much less
Travis’s strange behavior earlier. 
At least if I was stuck at my desk
I wouldn’t need to worry about running into
him
.  He was probably in his office
, complaining to
Elizabeth
about me
.

Later that evening, I dropped some copy for the website off with one of the web designers
before I got ready to leave
.  M
ost people had
already
gone home
for the day
, and as I
got ready to shut down my computer
,
I checked my
email
one last time
, clicking through the new messages that I’d gotten over the afternoon and deleting a few that I didn’t need.
 
Marissa
had sent me a quick note
when I’d been away from my desk
.

I’m headed out…call me later tonight!

She was probably
having dinner
with Rob right now
.
  I wondered if she wanted me to call her to find out about her date or
if
she wanted to talk about
my argument with Travis
earlier.
I also wondered about
Elizabeth
’s strange look at the end of our meeting, like she
had just figured something out
.  I doubted she really knew what was going on either
,
though.  After all, she was the one who had insisted the other morning that
Travis
really liked me.  His recent behavior made it
clear that wasn’t the case
.

I sighed, deciding that I would never really understand
what had happened
.
 
I finally shut down my computer and turned out the light in my office. 
W
alk
ing
down the hall
way
,
feeling slightly defeated,
I
was relieved that
al
most everyone had left for the night
. 
I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone right now
.
 
At least tomorrow was Friday. 
I waved goodbye to Jennifer, who was talking on the phone, as I
went
by her office.
 
As I
rounded the corner
into our reception area
, I
was surprised to see
that
Elizabeth
was still here.  She
was standing at the entrance
,
holding the door open
.

“He just needs to get his keys,” she said,
laughing a little as I walked closer,
and I wondered what she
meant and why it was funny
.
 
As I approached,
I started to
thank her
for holding the door
for me
,
when Travis suddenly
walked in.
  I
came to a complete stop
,
taken aback
.
 
Travis seemed just as startled to see me.  He stopped in his tracks and stared down at me, his large frame
filling
the doorway.
 
As I stared at him
,
the realization of what was happening
slowly clicked into place. 
Elizabeth
had been waiting for him to walk back in, not holding the door open for me.  He’d forgotten his keys.  She’d been laughing because she knew we were
about to run into each other.
 
I stood there,
momentarily
bewildered, and
instantly felt the hurt well up in me again
.
In that moment I didn’t even notice if
Elizabeth
was still there, because
as my heart beat faster and my body froze,
the only thing I was awa
re of
was
him
, standing just a few feet away
.

He neither said anything nor moved out of the way.

I felt a surge of panic
rising in me
and wondered if he could see that I was visibly upset. 
Why wasn’t he moving? 
Why hadn’t he spoken
? 
My breathing became shallow as I struggled to maintain my composure. 
I thought for sure everyone was gone
for the evening
by now, and I certainly didn’t expect to see Travis again tonight. 
Why
did I have to run into him
?

It felt like an eternity passed,
like time had just completely stopped,
but at last I managed to find my voice.

“Excuse me,” I
finally
mumbled, turning
sideways to
get
past him.

He turned slightly to let me by
.

A
s I stepped forward
,
I
finally cast my eyes up toward his face
, and a
s his eyes met mine, I
w
ondered why his looked so sad.

He didn’t say a word to me as I
slid
past him.

I didn’t
look
back.

The sound of my alarm did not
hing to
improve my mood t
he next morning
.
I had
n’t
slept very well,
both
from the stress of the deadline looming and the strange confrontation that I’d had with Travis
yesterday
.  I groan
ed
as the memories
came flooding
back. 
Too bad it wasn’t just a bad dream. 
At least it was Friday,
and
then I’d have the weekend to distract me.  I
took a quick shower and
searched through my closet, trying to figure out w
hat I should wear.

S
ettl
ing
on dark
jeans, a white v-neck tee shirt,
and
a black cardigan
,
I walked back into the bathroom to finish drying my hair.  Taking one last glance in the mirror, I was relieved that at least I didn’t look as exhausted as I felt. 
I quickly ate
half a bagel
and gathered my things before
rushing
out the door. 
I
hurriedly
walked to the metro and luckily caught a train just before it pulled away from the station. 
The ride to work was peaceful at least.  T
he metro wasn’t crowded this morning
—I
guess that was to be expected on a nice spring day, and a Friday at that. 
All the lucky people had already taken off for the weekend.

The bright sunlight
and clear blue sky
greeted me as
I
rode up the escalator
that
exited the station. 
Office workers crowded the streets, holding briefcases and laptop bags, cups of coffee in hand.  Maybe
Marissa
and I could sneak out for a quick coffee break this morning—sit outside, enjoy the nice weather. 
My phone buzzed just then, and I realized she had just texted me
.