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Chapter Twenty-Three
Amelia
Amelia woke up and her mind was racing. She hated it when she got like this. It only happened when stress was piling up, much like her email inbox had been the last few days.
People weren’t taking the gossip reminder well, and she still got curious glances or cruel glares in the hallway. On top of that, there was an employee who wasn’t happy about their allotted breaks, and she’d been the one to deal with the mediation for it.
Her medicine could stop a lot of things, but it didn’t fix it all. And when her brain ran wild, it didn’t matter that she was on it, her mind would never stop.
It was going to be a long day.
And worse, Daniel would probably notice.
“Hey,” he greeted her in a soft voice. “We’ll need to get ready to go soon.”
She groaned. The day had barely begun and she was already exhausted.
“I made you coffee and breakfast.”
“Thank you,” she said, forcing herself to get up. After a cup of it and her food, Daniel disappeared to the bedroom. There was something she needed to do, but she couldn’t remember what. Instead, she followed him to get ready as well.
By the time they were done, he kissed her on the cheek. The action sent butterflies down to her stomach, which then prompted her brain to remind her that this was fake and that he wouldn’t stay after he knew about her ADHD, and how much she wanted him around forever.
Daniel offered to drive into work, asking if she wanted anything else before they went to the office. The kindness brought tears to her eyes because he was so sweet, and she was going to miss this when he was gone.
The food helped her mood, but her brain was still a mess. She talked in circles, and she could tell he was having a hard time following her. When she got to work, she struggled to read emails. She got extra coffee, knowing it would help, and was maybe able to squeeze a few minutes of focus out of her brain. She had to pause and restart tasks a million times that day, which made everything more and more frustrating.
On her third walk of the day, she went up to the break room. She ran into Stacey, who was holding her face in her hands at a table. Amelia stopped when she saw her and then considered leaving Stacey to deal with whatever she was going through.
But that didn’t feel right, so she walked up and sat next to her.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Stacey looked up with wide eyes. They were red-rimmed.
“Oh, God,” Stacey said, her voice thick. “I know I should be working. I’ll get back to it.”
“No,” Amelia said. “I wasn’t asking you to get back to work. What’s wrong?”
She seemed to consider what she wanted to say. “My boyfriend is cheating on me.”
“Oh. Oh no. I’m so sorry.”
Her brain gave her a dozen other things she could say, ranging from, “Why would he cheat on someone so nice?” to “Kill him.”
But none of it was helpful.
“It’s okay. He’s been distant but . . . I found out last night, and right now, he’s packing up his things.” Stacey laughed humorlessly. “He sent me a photo of our apartment . . . It’s nearly empty.”
Amelia placed her hand on Stacey’s shoulder. “That’s terrible.”
She took a shaky breath. “It wasn’t going to work out anyway, but I just couldn’t deal with work stuff while I was upset.”
Amelia could definitely relate.
“Why don’t you take the day off?” she offered.
“I can’t just leave,” Stacey said. “I’m needed here.”
