After I Saved Him My CEO Said We Were Strangers Chapter 10
The day I left New York, the wind was brutal.
My Instagram feed was full of people complaining that spring had bailed on the city, that April felt like winter.
I sat in the waiting area at LaGuardia, staring out at the gunmetal-gray sky, and was suddenly seized by the desire to go somewhere that actually felt like spring.
Chicago was just as cold as New York.
I canceled my ticket home and bought a new one.
California.
Before boarding, I sent a text to my two best friends.
One was in D.C., the other still in Chicago.
All I wrote was, “Come keep me company.”
They didn’t ask a single question.
Three days later, they were there.
We rented a small house in Napa Valley with grapevines in the yard and roses climbing the walls by the front door.
California in April was warm and bright, the sun a soft weight on my skin.
The wind that swept through the valley smelled of grass and new leaves.
It felt like another world entirely.
At night, we sat on the patio and drank.
Beer, wine, the fruit liqueur our host had made himself—we mixed it all.
I don’t remember how much I drank, only the feeling of my glass emptying and being filled, again and again.
At first, we just laughed.
Nora told a story about her awful manager, doing a pitch-perfect, over-the-top impression of him.
I laughed so hard I collapsed onto the table, tears streaming from my eyes.
Tessa recounted her latest string of disastrous Hinge dates, each man somehow more ridiculous than the last.
I clinked my glass against hers and promised that when I got back, I’d join her in the trenches.
Later, the crying started.
I don’t know who brought up Reed Blake’s name first.
Nora cursed him under her breath.
“How could he do that to you?”