Decision Time

**Instead of dividing this into two posts for a bonus tomorrow, just giving you an extra long one today. Hope that's okay! Have a great weekend, xoxo**

Jeff and I set up a time for me to come into their offices (although he said that calling it "offices" was a stretch), early next week to meet with the two founders of Grindr. They were both buddies of his from college- Luke Fisher and Noah Duval. I did a quick google search of the both of them which turned up a few articles about their "forward-thinking new application", and some press releases about all of the funding that their company had recently received. I found a few photos, but they were all of the guys in groups with investors so I had no idea who was Luke and who was Noah. 

Since I was meeting them on Tuesday morning, I had to come up with an excuse to get out of work. Now I'm a pretty good liar when it comes to anything having to do with my friends or family, but lying to your boss is a whole different ballgame. On Friday afternoon, I tentatively headed into Colleen's office, armed with a vague excuse about a doctor's appointment. When I walked in, her chair was turned away and I could hear that she was on the phone. I started to walk out when something that she said caught my ear. 

"That's a huge cutback Scott," she said, and I realized that 'Scott' was most likely Scott Anderson, our Executive Editor. She listened silently for a few moments before speaking again. 

"Well I don't know why I was never included in those meetings since it affects half of my department. You can't just expect me to concede on these issues when all I've gotten is a handful of phone calls and no answers," with that, she spun around and slammed the phone into its cradle. I stood there like a deer in headlights, and the expression on her face was a combination of shock and rage. 

"How long have you been standing there Danielle?" Colleen asked me in a steely, cold voice.

"Just a few seconds," I said, trying to keep my voice as stable as possible. "I.. uh wanted to talk to you for a second about my schedule next week."

Colleen looked like she was suppressing an eyeroll, but nodded to the empty chairs facing her desk nonetheless. I perched lightly on the end of one and dove right in. 

"I have this doctor's appointment Tuesday morning and normally I wouldn't schedule something like that during work hours but I couldn't get another time," I said, realizing I was probably giving out more details than necessary. Rule number one of lying: be as vague as possible. 

Colleen didn't even look up at me. "That's fine," she said. "Just make sure that intern of yours has assignments to do while you're out on your.. errand," she said, saying errand as if I had told her I was skipping work for a mani/pedi. 

"Yes she already has plenty of writing assignments to keep her busy," I said, feeling the need to justify my managerial technique. Colleen continued to study the papers in front of her. 

"Will that be all?" she asked me, maintaining the same chilly tone she'd been using.

"Yes," I said, standing up. When she said nothing further, I headed out of her office and walked back towards my desk with my tail between my legs. I swung by Elena's desk, grabbing her arm and yanking her with me.

"Hey what the-", she said, stumbling along behind me. I drug her into the break room relieved to find that it was empty.

"I just walked in on the weirdest conversation," I said, as Elena mock-held her arm in hurt. 

"With who?" she asked.

"Colleen. I walked into her office to ask her something, and she had her back turned to me on the phone. I think she was talking to Scott Anderson. Anyway, she said something about cutbacks, half of her department, and that no one had been running things by her. She sounded really upset."

Elena's face grew serious and her already large eyes grew even wider. "Do you think there are going to be layoffs?" 

I shrugged. "I don't know, but it was really weird." 

"Shit," Elena said, leaning against the counter. "Shit." 

I nodded. "But maybe it's something else entirely. But then I remembered that weird company-wide meeting they have scheduled for next Thursday," I said. 

"Oh my god," Elena groaned, placing her face into her hands. "We're going to be fired."

"Calm down," I said with an eye roll. "We know nothing yet. I just needed to tell someone." 

Elena extracted her hands and took a deep breath. "You're right. And if there do happen to be layoffs, at least we're the cheap youngins. Don't they usually fire the larger salaried people first?"

I shrugged again. "Who knows," I said, walking past her to pour myself my third cup of coffee for the day. "So what are you doing tonight? Are you still seeing Trey?" I asked in an attempt to change the subject. Elena and I hadn't had a chance to catch up in nearly two weeks. 

"Yeah," Elena said with a face-splitting grin. "We're going to dinner tonight."

"Wooow," I said. "It's been like, a month now hasn't it? I thought you said it was going to be casual." 

"It is!" she defended. "We only hangout like once a week, but he wanted to take me to dinner so I said yes," she said, standing up taller. 

"Well that sounds fun," I said, stirring some milk into my coffee. 

"Is Dylan around this weekend?" she asked. 

"Yeah, he's coming down tomorrow morning." 

"And what about Nick?" she asked. 

"What about him?" I replied with a laugh. "I haven't seen him since the premiere." 

"I've been watching the show," she said, and I couldn't bring myself to turn around and face her. 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah, it's pretty good. He gets a lot of camera time." 

To be honest, I hadn't watched any since the pilot. I avoided the show like the plague - any reruns, E! tweets, or internet gifs even remotely related to The Real Wolves of Wallstreet and I ran the other way. I had no real justification for it, but I just didn't want anything to do with alternate reality Nick. When I didn't answer, Elena spoke again. 

"Do you like the show?" 

"I haven't seen it past the pilot," I said sheepishly. 

"Really?!" she asked incredulously. "Why not?" 

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head slowly. "It just feels too weird. Plus, when I tell people - like my crazy college friends - that I don't watch it, it gives them less to go on when they're texting me about it." 

"I'd say that makes sense, but I have no famous exes to compare it too," she said with a wink. 

"Okay I should get back to work," I said wistfully. "Do you want to go to yoga on Sunday? I'm going to drag Dylan." I gave an evil smile.

"Oh man, he has no idea what he's getting himself into," she said with a laugh. "I'll text you to let you know if I'll make it."

When I returned home that evening, I had every intention of ordering chinese and curling up with a rom-com. Unfortunately, Ashley had other plans. Immediately after opening our apartment door, she bombarded me with a barrage of plans and I couldn't keep up with what she was saying. 

"...so we have to be there by 9, which gives us like less than an hour to get ready but I already picked out an outfit for you and it's on your bed. It'll go great with those over the knee boots you just got but I couldn't find them, did you leave them in Philly? Anyway there's an open bottle of red on the counter if you want some and I need to go fix this eyeliner situation but..." 

"Ashley!" I yelped for the fourth or fifth time. I hadn't even gotten my coat off. Finally, my whirlwind of a roommate took a breath and looked at me for the first time in two minutes. "What is going on?"

"I told you, dinner with the guys!" she said, speaking to me like a toddler. 

"What guys?" I responded, shrugging off my coat and heading for the wine she had mentioned. 

"Trevor and Nick," she said, heading down the hall. 

Oh, no she didn't. I followed her into her room where she had sat down at her vanity to fix her makeup. "Excuse me?"

She didn't dare meet my gaze in the mirror, and I knew she had been debating how to weasel me into this all day. "Trev wanted to go to dinner, but I guess he hasn't gotten much time with Nick since the show started. And this was Nick's only free night. So he called me and asked if you wanted to tag along and we could make it a foursome."

"That's a fancy way of saying double date," I said, sitting on her bed. "And I have a boyfriend. Have you met him? His name is Dylan. He's coming over tomorrow. Because we're in a relationship. And when one is in a relationship, they typically don't go on double dates."

"It's not a double date," Ash said, "I really want to see Trev, and Trev really wants to see Nick." 

"So see Trevor tomorrow!" I said, exasperated. 

"He's going to Akron for three weeks tomorrow," she said. 

"Akron?" 

"I dont know, it's in Ohio. For work or something." She turned around so that she was facing me. "Please D? Pretty please. You are the one who was so excited for me and Trevor! If I don't see him tonight he'll probably forget about me while he's gone. Then it'll all be ruined, and then I'll blame you, and then you'll have to deal with me being depressed and playing Adele 24/7." 

"That is like the worst argument I've ever heard you make," but as I said it, I could feel myself conceding.

"Please?" she repeated. I sighed.

"Let me call Dylan. And don't give me any crap about being whipped, because I'm running this by him and if he says it makes him uncomfortable then I'm not going," I said, pointing my finger at her. 

"Deal," she replied. 

I walked into my room, already dialing Dylan's number. I knew he was working late tonight, which was why he hadn't been able to come up until tomorrow. 

"Hey babe," he said, and I could hear typing in the background. "What's up?"

"Hey," I started, not sure where to begin. "Sorry to interrupt you at work... but I just wanted to tell you something."

"How excited you are to see me tomorrow?" he asked, and I could detect a smile in his voice. 

"Well duh," I said, smiling too. "But remember how I told you that Ashley is dating Trevor.. uh, Nick's roommate?" 

"Yeah," he said, still typing away. 

"Well I guess he's going out of town for a few weeks tomorrow, and tonight is her last chance to see him. But he's doing dinner with Nick, and so she wants me to come so it's not weird. It's not a date or anything, mainly I'm just being Ash's wingwoman. But if you feel weird about it, I won't go. I mean it's freezing out anyway..." I said, a part of me hoping he'd tell me not to go. 

There was a long pause and even the strum of his fingers on the keyboard stopped too. "Dyl?" I asked. 

"Sorry. Hey. Um... I mean, I guess it's okay," he said. 

"Really?" I replied, not sure if I was surprised or not.

"Yeah. I mean you tolerate me hanging out with Kara. And I appreciate that you asked me first."

"Okay, thanks," I said, trying not to dwell on the 'hanging out with Kara' part. 

"Just do me a favor and call me when you get home?" he asked. 

"Of course," I said. 

We spent a few more minutes chatting before hanging up. I surveyed the outfit that Ashley had laid out for me, a high necked, sleeveless lace white top and black jeans. She had even accessorized it for me. Walking back into her room, I decided to mess with her before giving her the good news. 

"Hey," I said, as she looked at me expectantly. 

"Well? What did your ball and chain say?" 

"He wasn't cool with it, sorry Ash," I said. 

Her shoulders slumped and she dropped the mascara she'd been holding. "Okay," she said gloomily. 

As she reached for her phone, presumably to call Trevor, I stopped her. 

"Oh wipe your tears I'm kidding!" I said loudly. She looked at me like a confused puppy who had just been punished for no reason. 

"What?" 

"Dylan didn't care," I said. Ashley leapt up and flung her arms around me, squeezing me a little too tight. 

"Thank you thank you thank you!" she yelped. "This will be great! I promise! Not awkward at all. Okay now go get changed!" 

I laughed and retreated to my room to get ready. 

A few hours later, the four of us were sitting around a dark table at a mexican restaurant hear our house. We had finished dinner and were on our third round of margaritas, laughing and reminiscing about college. I felt badly since Ash didn't know half of the stories, but she seemed to be content just being next to Trevor. 

"...and you had piled the furniture so high she couldn't even get out!" Nick said, wiping away tears of laughter. In my buzzed state, I couldn't stop looking at his mouth. The curve of it when he laughed, the stubble lining the top of his lip, the whiteness of his teeth. Had he had them whitened for the show? I wanted to ask. But I kept my mouth shut and my hands in my lap, even though they itched to rest on his knee. 

"Should we get another round?" Trevor asked, and I glanced at my Marc Jacobs watch. It was nearly 12:45 and Dylan was due in at 9 a.m. 

"I should probably be heading back," I said. My remark was met with groans from the group. 

"Her lovah is coming in the morning," Ash interjected, which was the first mention of my boyfriend all night. Was it me or did I feel Nick stiffen next to me at the mention of Dylan? 

"We can head back to our place," Trev offered, more to Ash than anyone else. We settled up the bill, the boys splitting it between them against Ashley and my protests. 

We stood in the lobby of the restaurant, delaying the moments until we had to go back out into the blistery New York evening. 

"Are you sure you're okay to walk back?" Ashley asked me. We were only about a 10 minute walk from our house.

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Gotta walk off all of that food," I said, smiling and giving her a farewell kiss on the cheek. I hugged Trev then turned to Nick. As I stood on my toes to hug him, he pulled back. 

"Let me walk you," he said. 

"No, really, I'm fine," I protested. 

"Danielle, it's past midnight. You're not walking alone," he said, and I recognized the stern face he was giving me. I wouldn't get my way on this one. 

"Fine," I said, turning back to Ash and Trev. "See you guys," I gave them a small smile and pushed the door open.

We walked about a block in silence. 

"You didn't have to walk me you know. I'm a grown woman." 

"It's not safe, plus I didn't want to be the third wheel as those two made out the whole cab ride home," he said, sending me a half-smile. 

"True," I said. We spent the rest of the walk discussing safe topics - work, the weather and the upcoming holidays. 

"Well, thanks," I said to him, as we approached my door. I dug my keys out of my coat pocket and stood in front of Nick awkwardly. 

"Do you love him?" Nick asked, taking me completely off guard. 

"Nick..." I said, knowing I wouldn't give him an answer. 

The silence hung over us for a while before he spoke again. "Can I at least come in for a night cap?"

"Who says night cap anymore," I said with a laugh.

"Gentlemen like myself. And as a gentleman, I hereby promise not to try anything on you if you let me inside."

"Nick..." I said again, feeling myself weakening. Before I could answer, the air broke with the shrill ring of my cell phone. I knew it was Dylan without even looking. Apparently Nick could tell too. 

"Have a good night, D," he said, giving me a kiss on my cheek. With that he turned and walked away into the night. 

Later on as I laid in my bed, I finally allowed myself to think about the situation I had been avoiding for weeks. I still had feelings for Nick, and it was clear he felt the same way too. But I was head over heels for Dylan. I made the executive decision to have a serious talk with Dylan when he got here. If he had turned down a transfer once, who is to say he won't do it again. We needed to lay the groundwork for our relationship before someone ended up getting hurt.