Revolution

When I woke up for work Thursday (twenty minutes late) Ashley was no where to be found. I frantically reached for my phone, relieved to see her name on the screen from a text I had missed while sleeping.

Hey won't be home tonight. It's not what you think - I'm literally sleeping on the couch. It just got late and I don't feel like heading back at this hour. Fill you in tomorrow. 

I looked at the time stamp on the message, 3:34. Sheesh. I quickly typed a reply.

Meet me for lunch, no excuses! Roast on 7th at 1pm. 

I hastily dressed for work, grabbing an apple from the fridge on my way out the door. The biggest plus of Ashley living with me had to be her good habit of picking up groceries once a week. It was something I had always failed miserably at, preferring the simplicity of ordering online to the tiresome task of actually going to the store, and then lugging the heavy bounty all the way home. I'd seen many a grocery bag break on the street and send people's food rolling all over the dirty sidewalk. No thank you.

As I approached work, the familiar pit returned that had made a home in my stomach the last few days since the Elena drama started. Her coldness was making work almost unbearable. My heels clicked across the lobby floor and I quickened my pace when I saw that an elevator was just about to close it's doors. I slid in at the last second and then immediately regretted rushing when I saw that the only other person in it.. was Jeff. 

Clearing my throat, I turned around and settled as far away from him as I could get. "Hey," I said shortly, keeping my gaze locked on the metal doors.

"Morning," he said, his voice laced with just as much discomfort as I felt. I willed the numbers to go faster and tried to focus on what I had scheduled for that morning instead of on the human I was sharing precious air with. 

Thankfully the doors opened to the 28th floor without Jeff trying to discuss anything that had happened. I practically leapt out of the elevator, narrowly missing a collision with the receptionist. "Sorry!" I squeaked, sneaking by her and heading for my desk.

I had given up on trying to interact with Elena, so it surprised me when she pulled out a chair next to me at our morning staff meeting. I gave her a puzzled look which she countered with a warm smile. "Want to grab lunch today?" she asked, as if the last week of my life had been a dream.

"Um.. I have plans," I answered skeptically. 

"Oh," she said. She didn't have a chance to say more though, because just then one of the senior editors, Colleen, started the meeting. We went over a few pieces that would be featured in the October issue, followed by a lengthy discussion about a lack of advertisers. I was pondering what Ashley and Steve could have possibly discussed last night when I heard my name said - apparently for the second time.

"So are you up for it?" Colleen was directing this question at me, clearly annoyed that she had to ask twice.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking about an angle for our next Twitter chat," I heard myself lie. "What did you say?" 

Colleen all but rolled her eyes at me before replying, "I asked if you would be interested in handling the blog while Kristen is on maternity leave." 

I felt my spirits lift tremendously at this question. Our blog had tons of traffic, and Kristen was the one who chose and wrote almost all of the posts. I had contributed a handful of times and always got a thrill out of seeing my byline. Not to mention the amount of shares these posts got. 

"Absolutely!" I said, nodding my head a little too enthusiastically. 

"Great," she said shortly, turning her attention to Kristen. "So you two set up a time to go over anything Danielle needs to know, since you're leaving in a few weeks." I glanced over at Kristen who definitely looked like she was about to pop. I felt giddy as potential topics started to flood my mind, and I made a mental note to scribble them down into my iPhone as soon as I got out of the meeting. 

As we filed out of the conference room nearly 30 minutes later, I was excitedly heading towards my desk when Elena interrupted. "Congrats," she said sounding genuinely pleased for me. 

"Thanks," I replied. I grabbed my purse and headed for the elevators to go meet Ash for lunch, all while typing ideas into my phone.

"Dani?" I heard Elena's voice again. I turned around to face her, but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry.." she said. I shrugged, really unsure of what to say. I was mad at her for how she had acted, but I didn't want to start an argument over it right now.

"It's okay," I said, knowing we would have plenty of time to talk about it later. She smiled in response and I continued on my way out of the building, nose buried in my phone.

As I stepped out into the day, the heat encompassed me from head to toe. We had finally reached the 90s in New York and the sweltering heat clung to every inch of your body. New York in the summer is where blow outs come to die.

As I approached Roast, one of Ash and my favorite lunch spots in the city, I saw her standing outside people watching.

"Hey you!" I greeted excitedly, my spirits still high from the staff meeting.

"Hey," she replied. "I'm starved."

I led the way into the air conditioned restaurant. We both ordered salads and settled in at a table near the window to enjoy them. 

"So," I said, digging into a bite of the caesar with spicy chicken. "What made you go over there?"

"I don't know," Ash sighed. "Everything felt so... unresolved. Plus I missed Murph," she said, referring to their shared dog. 

"What did you two talk about?" 

"Me and murph? The usual, milkbones, the dog park, this poodle on the 3rd floor he's trying to bang.."

"Ashley," I said, stifling a laugh. "You and Steve." 

"Ugh. Everything... I told him about other times I had cheated. Maybe it was selfish to do that, but I felt so guilty carrying that around. I felt like I couldn't start fresh until I came clean to him completely."

"Wow, how did he take it?" I asked. Realizing that she hadn't gone over there to win him back afterall like I had thought. 

"Not too well but it's not like he can dump me twice," she said with a small smile. 

"Didn't you dump him?" I asked, half joking.

"Minor insignificant detail." 

I rolled my eyes, but laughed.

"Anyway," she continued, "I feel like we could really start to be friends. I mean it was totally normal when I woke up there this morning. We made breakfast and it felt... comfortable. But not like I wanted to hook up with him. You know?"

I didn't know, but I nodded my head anyway. I couldn't imagine a time where I would be able to stand next to Nick and not want to jump his bones. 

"Did you ask about the new girlfriend?" 

She shook her head, "No, and he didn't mention her. But his phone did go off a few times." 

"Well I'm glad you got that closure," I said. 

"Me too, now it really feels like a fresh start."

"Well what better place to make your fresh start than Sea Isle?" I said, referring to the New Jersey beach town we were headed to this weekend. A lot of my college friends and Ashley and my friends from home had houses in Sea Isle and Avalon, so we were taking the weekend to go celebrate two of our close friends birthdays. 

"Exactly!" she said. "Speaking of, what time train should I buy for Friday?" 

"I already bought us both seats on the 6:20, can you make that?" 

"Yep," she said, a piece of lettuce hanging out the side of her mouth.

"Learn some proper eating etiquette before you go on your next date," I laughed, nodding to her chin. 

The rest of lunch was spent laughing and planning outfits for the weekend trip. I was excited to get out of the city for a few days. I needed some space to clear my head and get the creative juices flowing for when Kristen went on maternity leave.