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Jack picked up the phone and held it to his ear. “I’ll keep you posted,” he said before answering.
Lydia lifted her hand in goodbye, then fled with her new water bottle and her proposal papers. She wanted to get back to her office, preferably behind a closed door, before she started overanalyzing their interaction. Maybe there was nothing unusual about this. Coworkers got gifts for each other all the time, right?
“Lunch?”
Lydia looked up from her desk to see Kirsten in the doorway, then checked her phone. How had the morning passed so quickly?
Kirsten walked over and snatched the water bottle from Lydia’s desk. “I want a cool marathon water bottle!”
“You didn’t get one?” Lydia asked.
“Yes, but apparently only Jack’srunning buddiesget their names on the bottle.”
“You could have been this cool,” Lydia teased so she wouldn’t flush at Kirsten’s comment. “All you had to do was sign up for the pain and suffering with me.”
“He’s trying to butter you up so you don’t sue him when you pass out from dehydration halfway through the marathon,” Kirsten joked.
“You know, that’s actually a real possibility.”
“As if. I’m obviously going to be there, throwing water and snacks at you from the sidelines.”
Lydia snorted.
“So, lunch?” Kirsten asked again.
“Definitely,” she said, stacking her youth center papers in a pile.
“That’s coming along well,” Kirsten noted.
Lydia grabbed her purse and they headed for the elevators. “Luke ended up inviting me back to the youth center because he volunteers there, and I learned so much from the kids. It was a totally different experience than visiting with the office, and the ideas just started flowing.”
“Wait, Luke? Like the really hot trainer that’s teaching you how to run?”
“I know how to run,” Lydia said. “He’s making me better. But, yeah, the youth center came up during training one day and it was kind of thisoh, small worldmoment. So he invited me for another tour, and we went for nachos after...” Lydia trailed off, trying not to dwell on what came next.
“Oh my God, you slept with the really hot trainer!”
Lydia guffawed. “How the hell did you get there from what I said?”
“Am I wrong?”
She bit her lip.
Kirsten skipped out of the elevator and practically dragged Lydia down 10th Avenue toward their favorite Italian sandwich shop. “Tell me everything!”
Lydia avoided mentioning anything to Kirsten after it happened because part of her felt like the only way to keep things professional between her and Luke was not to talk about it. But then she’d slipped up and told Ashley. And, well... “Before you assume I jumped the man, let me begin by saying that it started off completely innocently.”
Kirsten threw open the door to the shop. “A tour and nachos totally sounds like a date.”
In the lunch line, Lydia lowered her voice. “It was not a date.”
They paused the conversation long enough to order.
As they waited for their sandwiches, Kirsten needled her for more information. “Get to the good part.”
“I suggested we go for a drink. He picked the place because it was his neighborhood and then I sort of kissed him.”
Kirsten squealed under her breath.
