Entangled with three men

Why did i ask?

It's been two days since I returned from my weekend away with my girlfriends, but the memories of that night with Noah keep playing on repeat in my head. And now, to make matters worse, I find myself working in the same building as him. The agony of seeing him every day after what happened between us is almost too much to bear considering how I left.

The buzzing tone from my phone brings me back to earth. Beth has just posted on our w******p group, a photo of the dresses she wants us to wear as brides’ maids on her wedding day. Carol and Sydney are already sharing their thoughts and ideas. I don’t feel like commenting right now.

I am feeling a little dizzy right now. I need to get something to eat before I pass out. I overslept today, woke up late and had no time for breakfast and I barely ate yesterday, I was in bed all day resting from the trip. I lock my laptop screen before pushing my chair back and getting up.

I hope I can still find the fresh hot donuts in the cafeteria. We have a cafeteria on the fifth floor, and they make amazing donuts and hot coco. Even in the summer, we drink hot coco with the donuts. It’s after 11am and the donuts are usually done by 10am. I hope I find something I can eat.

As I am walking down the office corridor, I suddenly spot Bryan, just a few feet away from me. He is standing talking to someone until he sees me. My heart skips a beat as memories of our past relationship flood my mind.

Looking back, I can’t believe how naïve I was allowing Bryan to control and manipulative me thinking that was love.

When we first started dating, Bryan seemed like the perfect guy. He was charming, charismatic, and made me feel like I was the only girl in the world. But over time, his true colours began to show. He would constantly criticize my clothes, my friends, and even the way I spoke. He made me feel like I wasn't good enough and that he was the only one who could fix my flaws.

I knew deep down that something was wrong with the way Bryan treated me, but I couldn't bring myself to leave him. I was convinced that I loved him and that he loved me just as much. Everyone except my friends loved Bryan, my parents adored him. Over the years I have realized he used to pretend to be a saint in front of my family for them to like him.

It wasn't until Bryan got that job in Toronto and tried to convince me to drop out of school and follow him when the girls stood against it and made sure I didn’t go, and that’s how our relationship ended.

Of course, three years of us dating didn’t end just like that, I still saw him off at the airport and we kept in touch for the first six months after he left. It was a blessing in disguise. It took Bryan leaving for Toronto for me to realize I was in a toxic relationship with him.

With my friends’ help, I found the strength to go on with my life. Looking back, I am grateful for the experience. It taught me to value myself and my own happiness above all else. I learned that love should never come at the cost of sacrificing my own well-being and freedom.

I get into the elevator and try to avoid eye contact as Bryan enters the elevator. Not sure why he is here, I saw him standing around earlier and he is now with me in this elevator not sure where he is heading.

He smiles awkwardly, and I reciprocate with a small smile of my own. "Hi, Laura," he says, his voice sounding a bit strained.

"Hey, Bryan," I reply, trying to sound casual. "How have you been?" The elevator doors close and I press the fifth-floor button.

“I have been well, excited to be here. Lex Co. seems amazing so far.” He says in a pleased tone.

Lex Co. is amazing and all the people that work here are great. He will love working here, I just hope he stays out of my way. It’s bad enough we work on the same floor, I don’t want him hovering over me anyhow.

“Mmh…” I give him a forced smile. “Which floor are you going too?” I ask when I notice he hasn’t pressed any button.

“Wherever you are going.” That creepy smile grows on his face.

He starts laughing when he notices my nonchalant expression. “I am heading to the fifth floor as well to grab a coffee.”

“Okay,”

I ignore him until we get to the fifth floor. The elevator doors open and guess who is standing in front of the elevator.

Noah.

Snap.

How does one person look this good? I didn’t analyze how he was looking earlier, I was too shocked to see the person I ran away from two mornings ago in another town as well as Bryan.

Noah is wearing a charcoal grey suit with a white shirt, and black shoes matching the color of his dashing raven hair. Without making it obvious I take a quick glance at Bryan. His in a navy-blue suit, blue tie and black shirt matching his shoes. His dirty blonde hair is properly combed too. One of the things I loved about Bryan was his good dressing. On several occasions I always felt under dressed around him. But comparing Bryan and Noah right now, I would pick Noah.

“How are the girls? You guys are still friends, right?” Bryan asks bringing me back to earth.

“Ahhh….” Bad timing for my voice to get stuck in my throat.

“Are you getting off?” Noah asks when he notices neither Bryan or I are getting off.

I clear my throat before I embarrass myself again, “Sorry, excuse me.” I say ad then and then get off the elevator.

I walk straight ahead without turning, I can’t look at any one of their faces. This sucks and will continue to suck until the air is cleared.

What doesn’t make sense is how Noah hasn’t acknowledged that we know each other. Bryan has, he even mentioned it to Mr. Kran, but Noah is behaving cold.

“Hi, do you still have donuts?” I ask Sherry the attendant at the cafeteria.

“Sorry Laura, we are all out until later.” He apologizes.

“Okay, may I please have a coco to go then.”

“Sure.” She responds and gets busy making my coco.

My phone starts to buzz repeatedly. I unlock it and find messages from the girls, Beth to be specific asking for my opinion on the dress. I open the photos, it looks pretty decent like she wants.

‘I am okay with the dress, when is fitting?’

‘This weekend, Saturday at 10am.’ Beth responds.

‘Great see you there.’ I say

‘Laura are you okay?’ Carol asks.

I don’t know how she just seems to figure things aren’t okay with me. Carol and I are closer than the rest of the girls. We have been friends since we were ten years old. We met Beth and Sydney in college.

‘What makes you think something is wrong?’ Sydney asks.

‘Laura uses a lot of emojis unnecessarily and she has not texted as much this morning.’ Carol explains.

‘I agree,’ Beth says.

‘Laura, what’s wrong?’ Sydney asks.

I let a deep breath out.

‘You won’t believe who now works for Lex Co.’

‘Who!’

‘Bryan………..and Noah, the guy from this past weekend.’

‘What!!!’ Beth says.

‘Yep, my ex and my one-night stand all in one building.’

“Here is your coco.” Sherry smiles at me while placing my coco on the table in front of me.

“Thank you.” I get my coco and leave for the office.

When I get to the elevator I press the button going up and it immediately stops and opens. Guess who is in the elevator, Noah.

I step in and press the thirteen-floor button. The air is tense as we stand side by side, not saying a word. I can feel his eyes on me, but I keep my gaze fixed on the floor numbers above the elevator doors.

As we ascended to the ninth floor, the elevator continues and doesn’t stop. That’s his floor and he hasn’t gotten off. My mind starts to race with thoughts of what to say or whether to say anything at all. But before I can gather my thoughts, the elevator pings, indicating that we have arrived at our destination. I step out of the elevator, relieved to be out of the confined space with Noah.

Noah is following me, I stop on my track and turn around.

“Are you……”

“Yes, I am coming to your office. Mr. Kran asked me to go through the marketing budgets with you. This was supposed to be done yesterday but I was told the person I needed to see wasn’t in.” he says in a tone that sounds like he is irritated.

I look at his hands and notice a file that looks familiar. The nervousness I was feeling vanishes because of his tone. Yes I was off yesterday and that shouldn’t be a problem.

“Okay, follow me.” I turn around and proceed walking towards my office.

I hate when men walk behind me because I know they are checking me out, but in this moment, I am happy he is walking behind me.

I open the door to my office and walk in leaving it open for him. He closes the door behind himself.

“Please take a seat.” I offer him the seat opposite mine with my desk in between us.

I can't help but feel embarrassed when I look at him. I don't know how to act around him, or what to say. Should I pretend like nothing happened between us, or acknowledge it in some way? I feel like I am walking on eggshells around him, trying to avoid any awkward moments.

It will get hard when I meet him whenever I see him in the hallways or at the water cooler or meet him in the elevator. My heart is racing, and my palms are sweating. I can't stop thinking about that night, about the way his hands felt on my skin, the way his lips tasted. But I also can't stop thinking about the fact that it was just a one-night stand. It meant something to me, but does it mean anything to him?

I wish I could just forget about it and move on but working in the same building as him will make it impossible. I don't know how I am going to get through the day without feeling like a complete mess. I am worried I will do something stupid or say something I may regret later.

I know that I need to face my feelings and confront the situation head-on, but it's easier said than done. For now, I will just focus on my work. Maybe with time, the awkwardness will fade away and I will be able to move on.

“So, the budgets I received yesterday show that you will nee…….”

“Are we going to pretend Sunday never happened?” I interrupt him.

The look on his face is hard to read. He leans back into his seat and stares at me straight dead into my eyes.

“Can we not talk about that now?” he asks.

“I don’t think I will focus right now if we don’t.” I insist.

“Fine, go ahead.” He sounds cold making me feel uncomfortable I even started this conversation.

“I don’t think there is much to say, I mean we met in the club while intoxicated. We enjoyed each other’s company, had more drinks, and later went to my place and had s*x. When I woke up you were gone, it felt like a dream, and two days later, here we are.”

Fuck, why did I even ask?