Bennet ended up extending his trip by almost another week, but today was the day he was supposed to be returning to the office. Maddie was nervous and excited to see him. She had spent the last week focusing on her new cat Rascal and helping him get acclimated to his new home that she hadn’t really spent any time thinking about how it would be to see Bennet again.

She laid in bed scratching Rascal’s head as he purred and kneaded the blankets, they had bonded instantly.

“Sorry buddy but I have to go to work.” She gave him a kiss on the head then headed to the shower to get ready.

The entire train ride was an emotional rollercoaster…she nervously bounced her knee, tapped her foot and drummed her nails at the same time. Should she just approach this as completely professional? What if he acts like everything is ok should she go along with it?

She deliberated the best way to handle it…ultimately she agreed that the office wasn’t the place to deal with their personal issues so she would be respectful of his boundaries but she couldn’t go on without telling him exactly how she felt.

He was already in his office when she got to work, now that she was on the same floor as him she could see for the most part when he came and went. She needed him to sign off on some major design changes on the Lawson file as well as some expense reports. She had scheduled a meeting with him via Janice for today so she gathered her notes and headed towards his office.

“So I already sent these over to the Larsons and they signed off on the new designs and agreed on a deadline for the campaign.” She handed him printouts of the contract details as well as confirmed that she had sent Janice everything via email as well.

“Thanks Madeline I appreciate it. I’ll make sure these are signed and returned to Mr. Lawson this week.” She nodded her head, gathered her things and headed back to her office.

She wanted so badly to tell him she was sorry, to tell him that she cared for him and missed him; that she needed him in her life. He seemed so cold and distant, nothing like the man she had grown to know and….love? She couldn’t bring herself to admit it, not when she had lost him. She would continue to be the best employee she could be and extend her friendship to him at any chance she got.

The days started to blur together, one right after the other was just the same. Every day she went to work, hit the gym and tried to avoid Bennet as much as possible. The only constant source of love and joy in her life at the moment was Rascal. He greeted her every day at the front door, rubbing against her and purring loudly. She had upped her boxing workouts to help distract her and get her mind off of any guilt or sadness she felt but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Maddie…Listen, I’m going to say this with honest love and concern. You don’t look good. You’re thinner than normal, you look pale and you have become a full blown cat lady. The last three times I’ve tried to schedule anything with you, you blew me off for your cat.” Maddie stared blankly at the floor as she unwrapped her wrists. “Have you tried to at least talk to him about what happened?” She nodded her head no, trying to fight back the tears.

“No, I haven’t. He seems so cold and distant Jaz, like it pains him to even look at me!” She plopped down on the bench in the locker room with a loud sigh.

“Well I can see why, he honestly cared about you and you basically told him that he was too old and a stuck up billionaire only using you for sex.” Jazmine looked her right in the eyes, “Maddie at some point you need to start taking responsibility for your actions, you can’t live in this closed off bubble thinking you aren’t hurting anyone. It’s not the case, clearly as evidenced by this recent situation with Bennet.”

Maddie hugged her knees to her chest and sucked in a shaky breath. She knew Jaz was absolutely right, she had tried to put up walls thinking that if she never let anyone in she would never get hurt…turns out, that wasn’t the case.

“So how do you think I should approach this? Just show up at his house? I don’t think work is the best place.”

Jazmine smiled, “We’ll figure it out I promise, and no work is not the place! Now let’s go work this out over pizza to completely ruin this workout we had and pretend the calories don’t count.”

Maddie pulled Jazmine to her in a tight hug, “Thank you for always being so wonderful to me. I know I’m difficult and undeserving of the love you show me…You really are amazing.”

Jazmine squeezed her back, “Maddie so are you, you’re more than just my best friend. You’re the sister I never had.”