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“I need to prep the invitations for the bulk mail. That involves sorting them by zip code into different trays. It’s going to be tedious.” Which was why I’d been avoiding it all day.
“Yeah, all right. Let’s do it.”
“Why?”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want help. Or need it. But while Noah hadn’t been ready to take things outside and beat the stuffing out of me like Wes, he definitely hadn’t been excited to find out about my trip to New York City with Megan.
“Because you’re my best friend, man, and I might not like how you went about things, but I also kind of get it. And it’s been obvious to me for a long time that you and Megan should get together. Or at least explore the water some.” Noah looked over at the pile of boxes that held the invitations and his eyes seemed to bug out. “Uh.”
“Yeah. I know. You don’t have to help if you’ve changed your mind. I appreciate the offer and the spirit behind it.” I didn’t bother to sigh. The reality was that the gala was my problem to deal with. If there was anyone else at the office who could’ve been put in charge of it, I was reasonably certain they would have been chosen in the first place.
“No. No it’s fine. I offered.” He frowned at the pile. “Why don’t I go see if the conference room is available.”
“That’s a good idea.” I smiled and pushed back from my desk. “I’ll get these somewhat organized.”
If I’d known what I was doing, I would have kept them in zip code order when Megan and I were stuffing them. The labels had printed out that way. I just hadn’t had enough knowledge to understand why until it was too late. I was hopeful that there might be groups of them still in the right order, since Megan and I had each taken a page of labels to work on. I guessed we’d find out.
Noah poked his head back in the doorway. “We’re good. I asked Alicia to block it off for the rest of the afternoon for us. She said that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Nice.” I stood and moved around my desk to the stack of boxes, then bent and hefted two. “Grab a box or two and let’s go.”
I carried my boxes down the hall to the conference room and set them on the edge of the table. Noah came in behind me with three boxes in his arms. “Showoff.”
He snickered. “If it’s any consolation, I won’t do it again. Why are they so heavy?”
“Tell me about it. Let’s get the rest.”
“There’s only one more box?” Noah followed me back to my office.
I gestured to the stack of empty mail trays that I’d picked up at the post office after I finished reading up on how to do a bulk mailing. It honestly felt like there ought to be someone at the office to take it over from me at this point. They sent out a monthly newsletter—that was the primary reason we had a bulk-mail permit—so why they couldn’t handle mailing the gala invites was beyond me.
But I’d been soundly put in my place when I’d asked.
So yeah. Yay me.
At least the lady at the post office had been friendly and explained the process to me. And hey, bonus, I had to drop them off at a different place at the PO, so I wouldn’t be annoying anyone in the drive-through drop-off line like I had with the save-the-date cards.
I set out the zip code trays and then consulted the printouts I’d made. “Okay, I have the zips listed out. Each tray gets invites for a single zip code, so I’ll slide the paper with the zip under the front of the tray. We flip through the invites and put them in the appropriate tray so, hopefully, I can take these all to the post office tonight before the bulk-mail drop closes. Otherwise, I guess I’ll do it first thing tomorrow.”
“Sounds easy enough.” Noah reached into a box, pulled out a handful of envelopes, and started flipping through them. “So. How was NYC?”
I grabbed my own handful of invitations and fought not to hunch my shoulders. “It was really nice. Have you ever seen a show actually on Broadway? I figured it wouldn’t be much different than the Kennedy Center—but man, it is.”
Noah looked over, his eyes full of laughter. “Yeah? You becoming a thespian?”
“No. Probably not. It was, of course, a musical. But Megan sure ate it up. And watching her enjoy herself was nearly better than the show itself.”
“Wow. You’re completely gone over her, aren’t you?”
I nodded. I didn’t see the point in denying it. “Have been for a while. Which was stupid, since I didn’t think she would give me the time of day.”
Noah dropped the envelopes into the appropriate trays and grabbed more from the box. “So Broadway. Dinner? Where’d you eat? If you say you got a hotdog off a street vendor, I’m going to kick you.”
“No. I wouldn’t do that.” Although we had done just that for lunch on Monday. Maybe it was best not to mention that part. Megan had insisted it was part of the experience. I’d been planning to take her to the deli thatWhen Harry Met Sallymade famous. Megan was a sucker for the older romcoms, and I thought she’d get a kick out of it.
“Good. So?”
I named the place.
