One Step Away (A Bedford Falls Novel Book 1) by Sydney Bristow

currently worked on different
floors, they met for lunch daily. She didn’t realize how much she
needed his presence, his quirky jokes, and his unwavering belief in
her. Then she recalled their unexpected conversation this afternoon
outside Lance Albrecht’s office, and she felt nauseous.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “I’m glad, but—Alexander got a new job. He’s
going to be the new director at Vista Heights.”
    “Oh. Well, maybe that’s a good thing. It
gives you both a chance to move on.”
    “What do you mean?” Marisa asked, surprised
by the resentment in her voice.
    “Nothing,” Lauren said, scrambling for an
explanation. “It’s just…I always felt that he kind of had a thing
for you.”
    Another spasm rippled through Marisa’s
stomach. But Lauren’s remark explained why she would never give up
on their friendship: Marisa counted on her friend to say the things
that she couldn’t or wouldn’t admit to herself, even if she did so
at the most inopportune times. After all, Lauren had known—and
liked Alexander—for as long as she had known him.
    “I could tell you never wanted to admit it,”
Lauren said. “So now that we’re talking, how do you feel about
that?”
    “Like I’m going to be sick.”
    Lauren, who now looked like she had secretly
wanted them to get together, lowered her gaze. “Only not
love-sick?”
    Marisa shook her head, dejected.
    “What happened?” asked Lauren, picking up on
the unsaid.
    Marisa sighed. “He told me he loved me.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t know what to say, except that
workplace romances are a terrible idea and that I didn’t want to
lose his friendship. But he’s hurting right now. And it’s my fault.
And I can’t help him get through this.” She paused. “Isn’t that
what best friends are for?” Then, after a few seconds of silence,
she looked up at Lauren to see her discouraged expression. “Oh, I
didn’t mean that you weren’t also—”
    Lauren broke into a rare smile. “You two
were always closer than we ever were.” But melancholy gripped her.
“You two have this thing…whenever you’re together, you’re on the
same frequency. And no matter how hard anyone else tries to get the
same reception with you, they can never find the same signal.”
    Marisa felt so touched that Lauren wanted to
have a closer relationship that she pulled her into an embrace.
    “Wow,” Lauren said in a dry tone,
“uncomfortably intimate much?”
    “Shush,” Marisa said, releasing her.
    “What are you going to do? About
Alexander?”
    Now that he had shaken the core of their
relationship, Marisa couldn’t pretend that it had never happened.
She’d never disrespect his feelings like that. But what could she
say? Should she wait for him to bring it up? And if so, how much
should she say? She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but there
didn’t seem to be a way around it.
    Once more, indignation roiled inside her
because, in a sense, Alexander had hijacked her best friend. Her
abdomen clenched tighter. “What should I do?”
    “You have to talk about it,” Lauren said.
“You can’t get around it. If you value his friendship, you have to
be firm and direct. You can’t leave any room for misinterpretation.
You have to tell him that he is your best friend. And nothing
more.”
    If she did that, Marisa couldn’t predict how
Alexander would react. And that worried her. After all, if she
couldn’t call upon her intuition to guide her this time, how could
she claim to know him as well as she thought? It reminded her of
her own mother’s indifference to relationships.
    “But…” Lauren said, leaving the sentence
unfinished.
    “What?”
    “If you tell him the truth, and you should,
you have to be prepared for the fallout. That you’ll lose his
friendship.”
     
    *
     
    After Brad excused himself from Marisa and
Lauren, he made his way toward Alexander, the ever-present grin
pricking his lips upward.
    “What a hideous smile,” Damon said