Good Together by Valentina Heart Page A

at first. My mind was filled with unuttered questions of what might have happened if I'd picked up the phone just once, or if I'd answered one of the many texts Adam had sent. Countless possibilities passed through my head of what could have happened between us, how well we could have fit together.
    I regretted it. The way I'd covered my head with a pillow, not unlike a child hiding from trouble and kept convincing myself it wasn't my phone ringing. The way I'd deleted so many of his texts without even reading them, and how I pretended that those I did read, didn't break my heart not even a bit.
    Still, a part of me felt anything but regret. It was the right thing to do. To just stop before either of us could get hurt. To stop acting as if I deserved someone as good as Adam, or that I deserved someone to genuinely care for me. In the end, I probably did do the right thing.
    So even as I read, I miss you. Please answer the phone, text me, anything. Just tell me what I did wrong. Please? I imagined those words had been written for someone else. I told myself that every We can be great together. Company to each other during those long nights, support when the world pushes us down… was bordering on stalker behavior instead of expressing an outline of a dream. I stomped on Adam's every word, as I struggled to move on, to convince myself I couldn't have gone about it in any other way.
    I allowed the days to turn into weeks. Michael's calls were gently rebuffed and Gabriel's invitations postponed. Then a month had passed and over half of a second one, the invites stopped and I found myself missing them.
    I'd taken work home on too many nights and buried myself in numbers over entire weekends that it was hard to remember a time when my life had been different and when it had been all right to seek company and comfort.
    "Work drone!" Kay startled me as she knocked loudly against my slightly open office door. "Are you coming?"
    "Where?" I looked at her somewhat owlishly not even sure what day it was let alone the occasion.
    "It's Linda's birthday party. You even bought her a gift. How did you forget?" She stared.
    "I buy those in advance so that I don't forget. What day is it anyway?"
    "Friday! What's wrong with you? You've been working your ass off for the past couple of months and I heard the boss mentioning either a raise, promotion, or a nervous breakdown. If even he's noticing the state of you, you should be worried, Troy." Kay leaned against the doorframe, not taking her gaze off me.
    "I just… I have a lot on my mind. I don't think I brought any change of clothes," I mumbled, looking around as if a nicer pair of pants and a shirt would just pop out of thin air.
    "Don't worry about it. You can go as you are. She wants to go dancing, so we'll just crash a club and take most of it off you anyway." Kay grinned evilly and motioned for me to get up.
    "I have to save the work first. Give me a second," I said as I started clicking and eventually rose from my chair.
    "Is the dancing mandatory?" I asked as I joined her at the door.
    "You better believe it. But don't worry, we'll get you drunk first. Isn't that right, girls?" She yelled the last part and the female majority of the employees happily confirmed it with a shout.
    I was out of my element as they herded me toward the club and said little, but since I was surrounded by mainly women, it didn't look like I even needed to participate much. They asked and answered for me, and when I did manage to reply, it usually went against the general opinion and the women won either way.
    It was still rather early when we got to the club and only a few of the patrons were dancing. But I knew from past experience a birthday party was something that tended to last long into the night. So I cradled my first drink and did my best to stretch it out, hoping that the shots would pass me by and I would actually remember going home this time.
    While I might not spend much of my off time with my