I sat there for a minute, trying to soak his words into my head. I felt like I was having Deja vu, especially since this whole scenario had happened with my ex. How could he feel that way about the only two women I had ever fallen in love with? Sure, he was right about my ex, so right that sometimes it stung, but what were the odds that I found another woman that was the same exact way, and John caught on to it? It was impossible.
“You might have been right once, but you won’t be right again,” I said with a slight chuckle. “You are freaking out abou
t my love life more than I am. Amanda is an amazing girl, and you haven’t said more than two polite words to her in your life. How in the world could you come up with that conclusion after watching me with her for a few hours? Do you have these feelings about all of your friend’s girlfriends?”
“She is your girlfriend now?”
“Yes, she is my girlfriend now,” I said. “Why is it so hard for everyone to believe that I just might be happy with one girl? I let go of all the shit from the past. Now that I have, my best friend has become some kind of relationship Buddha. You really should open up a shop and start doing psychic work.”
“I’m serious,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m not trying to ruin anything for you. I want you to be happy. What would it do for me if you were unhappy? Yes, I might have only spent a few minutes with her, but that was enough for me to know that there was something off about her.”
“Maybe there is something off about you, John,” I said, irritated. “This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. I know Amanda better than you think I do, and there is nothing wrong with her or our relationship.”
“You’ve known the girl five seconds,” he said. “How can you know anything about her in that little bit of time? Do you really think she would stop and go, ‘Hey I’m using you?’ Come on, man. Open your eyes, and at least think about what I am saying. If I’m wrong, then great, but I really think you are being blind right now.”
“And I think that you are being paranoid as hell,” I said. “Look, we both have a ton of work to get done. I don’t have time for this right now.”
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” he said, standing up. “I am just trying to be a good friend. You told me you never wanted me to hold back on any of this ever again, and I’m not. I came to you to tell you what I thought. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
I looked up at him and sighed, watching him leave the office and walk down the hall. I got up and walked over to the door, slamming it shut. John had taken something perfect in my life for the first time ever and ripped the rug right out from under me. The last thing I needed was for someone to start putting those kinds of thoughts in my head. I felt completely pissed, not even knowing what to do with myself. I couldn’t talk to Amanda about it, she would forever feel weird around John, and I really had no one else to confide in. I had a hard time believing that she would be that close to Jordan and Lindsey, and he wouldn’t tell me if something odd was going on.
I walked over to the window and looked out over the city, trying to calm myself down. It wasn’t often that I got mad, but when I did, it completely clouded my judgement. John’s warnings were doing exactly what he wanted them to do, plant a seed of doubt in my mind so that everything started looking suspicious with Amanda. I was not going to let that happen. I cared about her way too much for someone else to affect us like that. I knew that John didn’t mean to be malicious, he was just looking out for me, but he was being irrational. It might be out of his character to act that way, but people really had a good way of surprising me when I least expected it.
I walked back over to my desk and picked up my cell phone. I scrolled through the messages from Amanda, and it helped to ease the stress. I wanted to see her, to find solace in her arms and words. I scrolled down to her number and pressed send, pulling the phone to my ear.
“Hey,” she said, answering on the second ring. “Shouldn’t you be working?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I should be, but this cute little vixen keeps running through my mind, distracting me from my work.”
“You should tell her you have a girlfriend.” She giggled.
“Can I come by tonight and see you?” I asked. “I really want a kiss.”
“Aww, I do too, but I’m doing things for the wedding with Lindsey tonight and tomorrow night,” she said. “We can get together on Thursday night, though. I really miss you, and when this wedding is done, I will have all my nights reserved just for you.”
“Alright,” I said with a sigh. “Thursday night, it is.”
“Okay, baby,” she said. “I have to go. We are going in to see the planner. Call me later.”
“I will,” I said. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said.
I hung up the phone and set it on the desk, staring down at it. I was disappointed, but I understood. She was Lindsey’s right-hand man for this wedding, and she was determined to make it a special day for her. That was commendable and showed that she was a good friend. Still, John’s words were rattling around in my brain, and I wanted to see Amanda face to face to make me feel better about it. I would just have to deal with waiting until Thursday, hopefully dodging anything to do with John for a couple of days.
Chapter 11
Amanda
“Wait, what do you mean?” Lindsey asked with anger boiling in her tone. “I want you to repeat yourself, but slowly.”
“We don’t have your catering list on file anywhere,” the girl behind the counter said. “There is no way that we could put it together under such short notice. I’m sorry about this, but there is nothing I can do here; my hands are completely tied. You say you put in the order, but there is neither a file in the cabinet or a record of it in the computer. Did you pay a deposit?”
“Of course, I did,” Lindsey yelled. “My wedding is looming here, and you are telling me that you have no way to feed my guests?”
I put my hand on Lindsey’s shoulder, trying to calm her down. She was livid, angrier than I remember seeing her in a very long time. Neither of us could wrap our heads around why something like this would happen. We had spent hours and hours with these people, finalizing the perfect menu for Lindsey’s big day. Even the event planner was under the assumption that everything was on track and there wouldn’t be any issues. All we had to do was come down and sign off on it before all the food was ordered. There was no way anyone else could pull this together in that short amount of time. I completely understood why Lindsey was so mad.
We stood there for over an hour, arguing with the people at the catering company. The girl turned the monitor around on the screen and typed everything in just as Lindsey spoke it, but still, there was no record of her order. We were completely perplexed.