There was nothing wrong with him. He wasn’t nasty. He didn’t talk over her or steal her credit for work. However, the past year or so, Abby had resented him just for asking her to come into work every day and do the job she was paid to do. She thought back to her chats with Jordan, where Jordan had told her not to forget her dreams. To go after what she’d wanted to do when she was eight and they were friends. In their fake childhood.

Their childhood might have been fake, but their present was very much real. In fact, for the first time in a long time, Abby had been positively glad to come to work and be distracted by it.

It’d been a whole day since they’d got back, and she’d been avoiding Jordan’s calls and texts. Avoiding thinking about her or processing anything that had happened.

Neil was talking, but she wasn’t listening. Did he really think that tie was okay? Had he looked at himself in the mirror this morning and thought, “looking good!” She glanced at his ring finger. Neil wasn’t married. He wasn’t dating. He needed to date someone to get a second opinion on his clothing choices. Although him not getting married was the smart choice from where she was sitting. You needed to be sure you wanted to marry the person you were marrying. You needed to be sure he didn’t then hire a bridesmaid who you were attracted to. And you needed to be doubly sure that you didn’t accidentally have sex with the bridesmaid on the plane home.

Abby closed her eyes.

When she refocused on Neil, he was smiling at her. “So, what do you think?”

Abby sat up. About what? Shit, she was going to have to try to feel her way back into this conversation. “I think it sounds great. Could you just run over the finer points again?”

Neil looked pleased at her answer. That was a good start. “That is terrific!” He sat forward, clasping his hands together on the oval table that could easily seat eight. “So you’re up for heading up the project?”

Abby blinked. Heading up the project? She really needed to listen to Neil. “The Asset Management project?”

Neil frowned. “Of course. Is there another one you’ve been preparing for?”

Wow. She was getting the project. Neil was promoting her. Maybe she could overlook his tie choice, just this once.

“No!” she replied. “That’s great! I mean, amazing, of course I’d love to.”

“And you’re fine with the amount of travel it might involve? Of late-night conference calls? You’d be the lead on this, Abby. The project would be totally yours. The buck would stop with you.”

Abby chewed on the side of her cheek. She waited for the euphoria of her work win to register.

But there was nothing.