Relief filled me when the electricians came to let me know they were finally finished and I could get back to the drudges of data organizing. Not that I loved it. Far from it, but it was better than sitting in my office not working, because I was trusted with nothing worthy of my actual education.

The worst part about having no responsibilities wasn’t even the way it magnified what my dad thought of me, nope. It was that my mind kept wandering to Parker and that night. The fight was awful, but even as I left I knew that it would someday work out. I mean, we were going to have a baby and there would’ve been no fight if Parker hadn’t wanted us in his life. That part I could get past, or at least rationalize my way around. The part that still gnawed at me was when I woke up.

Two full days I’d been out. And when I finally came to, my mother was at my side and nurses were fluttering around the room. From what I could piece together, they had known I was waking and had been hovering until I did.

But Parker? He wasn’t there. Not when I woke. Not when I was told our baby was gone. Not ever. I’d begged and pleaded with my mom to call him, telling her over and over again which contact to use before she finally admitted to me that she already talked to him and he said we were over. I never cried as much as I did that week and when my phone never showed up when I checked out, I took it as a sign to let go and move on, going so far as to replace it with a new number.

Not that I ever moved on, not relationship wise, but I did achieve my goals education wise. So there was that.

Pushing the memories down, I walked into the room, ready to scan the day away. I’d made some excellent progress and had only a handful of years left to file. Part of me wanted to slow down so I had a few more days to work, but the part of me that loved checking a to-do list wouldn’t allow it.

The box was halfway scanned when I came upon three empty folders all in a row. My father’s handwriting was on them, so I grabbed my phone and shot him a text to see if he had them. It wasn’t unusual for the lawyers to snag a file if it might help them with a current case. Given the name on the files, it sounded real estate oriented, so he probably wanted to show a precedent for some zoning waver or something. When he didn’t respond right away, I went back to scanning, figuring I could go back later and fill in the gaps.

Chances were the scanned docs were just to have a back up anyway. Even the techiest of people in this office lived for the paper files when it came to research. I got that. I read with more attention to detail off screen than on.

The door crashing into the wall made me jump, scattering files everywhere.

“Explain to me why you are noising around files,” my father bellowed into the room. Not that I wouldn’t have known he was pissed off after he threw the door open like that.

“What do you mean? I’m just doing what you asked. Scan. Replace. Repeat.” I might be pushing thirty, but hearing my father like that still made me shake just as much as when I was a kid.

“Your text.” He was livid.

I thought back to the text. Do you have the Greenberg and Geriome Estate files? It seemed benign to me.

“I was just working on that section of files and saw the empty hanging files and thought you might be using them for a new case is all.” Why was I explaining myself? I’d done nothing wrong.

“I am,” he said, his voice faltering. Was he lying to me? Why? This was a side of my father I didn’t like. “Your job is to file not read.”

It was an order, as if I could read all the files and ever get done with this mess.

“Not reading,” I assured him. “ In fact, I should be done today, three days less than you estimated, even with the electrical interruption.”

“Very good.” He nodded before heading out of the room. What the heck? Just as he got to the threshold, he added, “When you are finished, let me know.”

“Will do,” I promised before going back to work.

I spent the next two hours hypothesizing and conjecturing what that entire scenario had been about, coming to the conclusion that he was just being a jerk, when my phone buzzed.

A quick glance put a smile on my face. Parker.

How’s your day?

This was new. Sure we’d had some back and forth texting, but it’s always been about something specific. This felt different.

Good. Ish. Data storage. It’s as exciting as you would imagine. You?

Long, but good. Marcus called.

Marcus called. I’d been avoiding Om after the fiasco I set up there, but it sounded like maybe I did some good? I hoped so.

I’m glad. You wanna talk about it? I doubted he would, at least not in a text but I wanted to offer. Especially since I had been the catalyst of them reconnecting.

Not yet. His answer came after a full couple of minutes. Either he got another phone call and needed to focus on work during the time lapse or he almost took me up on my offer.

When you’re ready, I’ll be here. I typed and then just as quickly erased. We weren’t a couple and pretending we were to myself was less than healthy. I replaced it with a lame: Ok

My assistant is barrelling in here. Looks like I need to make a last minute conference call. See you soon.

Sounds good.

I put my phone in my pocket and went back to work, staying far past the close of business and missing dinner at home, which was for the best. By the time I walked out of the office, the entire project was done and I was ready to eat. If my memory was correct, it was banana cream pie day, which made it practically a fruit, so off to the diner I went to grab some pie before heading back to the emotional minefield I was currently calling home.