Daphne sighed and sat down at the bar next to Holly. After a weekend of looking at jobs and very nearly giving up on one she could just nearly qualify and apply for, she’d gone to work on Monday morning and immediately was reminded why she needed a new job in the first place. Trevor had assigned her even more work, and this time, it was Holly who had offered to give Daphne a hand.

  Thank goodness for Holly, Daphne thought looking over at her with a smile. If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably have been at work until eight this evening.

  “What can I get for you ladies?” the bartender asked, coming up to them. He had an enormous fluffy red beard, despite being completely bald.

  “I’ll have a rum and coke,” Holly said with a lopsided smile.

  “A sex on the beach for me, please,” Daphne said. “If you can make it, that is,” she added.

  “Of course I can make it,” the bartender replied with a grin. “If you ladies don’t mind, I will need to see your IDs.”

  Daphne nodded and pulled her wallet out of her purse and fished her ID out of her wallet. “Fancy drink,” Holly commented as she handed her ID to the bartender and he inspected it.

  Daphne handed her own ID to the bartender as well. “I never knew about it until Friday,” she said. “I went out for drinks with my sister and she had me try it. Apparently I’ve been missing out.”

  Holly chuckled as the bartender handed their IDs back. “I’ll be right back with those drinks,” he told the pair.

  “Thank you,” both Holly and Daphne said.

  “Have you not tried a lot of drinks?” Holly asked, turning back to Daphne.

  “I haven’t,” Daphne confirmed. “I didn’t get invited to many parties, or bars once I was legal.” Daphne smiled tightly.

  “I can understand that,” Holly said, a crooked smile growing on her face.

  “What do you mean?” Daphne asked, knitting her eyebrows together. She wasn’t sure if she should be offended or not.

  “Well, I just think that you’re a bit unapproachable more than anything,” Holly said. “Or at least that was the vibe I got.” The bartender placed their drinks down in front of them. Daphne took a quick drink through her straw.

  “What do you mean ‘unapproachable’?” Daphne asked. As she finished asking the question, one of the groups that was in one of the corner booths started roaring with laughter. It was enough to make Daphne jump and bang her knee on the bar. “Ow,” she glowered.

  Why is it so loud in here for an early Monday evening?

  “Sorry,” Holly said, looking a bit sheepish. “Irish bars tend to be noisy, even though there’s not a lot of people.” She swirled her drink and looked down into it, grimacing. “But that’s why they’re my favorite.”

  Daphne smiled. “It’s okay,” she said. “It just surprised me more than anything.”

  “You don’t hate it?” Holly asked, looking up at Daphne.

  Daphne felt her stomach flip flop a little. “It doesn’t bother me that much,” she said, shifting in her chair. “Though, admittedly, I don’t like sudden loud noises.”

  “I’m glad that it doesn’t bother you much,” Holly said, a relieved smile on her face. “No one else in my life likes Irish pubs. So, you can be my Irish pub buddy.”

  Daphne felt her heart skip a beat as Holly’s braids shifted across her shoulders as she took a sip from her drink. It’s been so long since I made a friend.

  “I’d love that,” she murmured, taking another of the fruity drink.

  Holly was still smiling. “To answer your question, though, I always thought you believed you were better than the rest of us when it came to work. You always had so much work that you were doing.”

  Daphne swallowed hard. “I really came off that way?” she asked.

  Holly shrugged. “I’ve wanted to try to talk to you for a long time. But you never tried to connect with anyone from work or participate in any of the team get togethers…” she paused.

  That must have been why she asked to sit together at the team lunch before I came back to the past. I really never did go to any get togethers…

  “You always looked like you were drowning and you never asked for help,” Holly added, pursing her lips and slightly nodding a little bit before taking a sip of her drink.

  Daphne took a gulp of hers, wishing the alcohol would work its magic just a bit faster. “Yeah,” she admitted. “I am pretty bad at asking for help…”

  “Why did you take on so much work anyway, if you were so overwhelmed?” Holly asked, her eyebrows raising as she leaned towards Daphne.

  Daphne felt her own eyes go wide. It was everything she could do not to have her mouth drop open at Holly’s question. “…is that what it looked like?” Daphne asked.

  Holly squinted her eyes at Daphne. “If it wasn’t you taking on extra work…was Trevor assigning you excess work like he has been lately?” she asked.

  Daphne swallowed hard. Did my coworkers of the past…really not know that Trevor was dropping excess work on me? Were they truly not acting maliciously? She did her best to think back. The only coworker that Daphne knew for sure was malicious was Fiona.

  Daphne nodded at Holly. “He’s always given me more work and overloaded me,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

  Holly shook her head. “And here I was, going to try to comfort you and say that he probably would stop as soon as someone else made a mistake and upset him.” She sighed. “Little did I know, you’ve always been a target…”

  Daphne felt her heart squeeze, her stomach twisting a bit. “You…you believe me?” she asked.

  Holly blinked rapidly. “Why would you lie about something like that?” she asked. “Plus the entire time you’ve worked there, you’ve been extremely overworked. I just wrongly assumed that you had been kissing Trevor’s ass this whole time.”

  Daphne’s eyes burned a little, and she chewed on her lower lip, staring into her drink. “Thank you,” she said.

  “I’m at least glad you’re asking for help now,” Holly said with a small smile while swirling her drink in the glass.

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  Daphne nodded. “Me, too. It was only recently that I found myself even able to ask for help.”

  Because I know I’ll die if I don’t change, Daphne silently added.

  “You weren’t able to ask for help?” Holly asked, raising her eyebrows before taking another drink.

  “I guess I should probably clarify,” Daphne replied, rubbing her neck. “I was under the impression that everyone felt the same way about me that Trevor and Fiona did. So, I wasn’t sure if I could ask for help.”

  Holly’s upper lip pulled back at the mention of Fiona. “Ugh,” she said. “Fiona.”

  “Do you also not like her?” Daphne probed.

  Holly chuckled. “I don’t think anyone in the likes Fiona except for Trevor,” she said. “Honestly, that would have been a safer assumption.”

  Daphne grimaced. “Because of their relationship?” she asked.

  “Of course!” Holly exclaimed, hitting the bar with her fist. Her lips were pulled back, bearing her teeth. “He gives her less work than anyone else in the office! She gets extra perks and benefits for no reason at all!” She let out an exasperated breath. “It’s ridiculous that someone so incompetent is our manager in the first place. But to have him be so useless and sleeping with one of the employees?” Holly practically growled. “What is the world coming to?” she shouted, before taking the last swig of her drink.

  Daphne chewed on her lip. “I honestly didn’t even realize what was going on until last week,” she said.

  “What!” Holly exclaimed. “You didn’t know? How is that even possible?”

  Daphne pursed her lips and nodded slowly. “I don’t know how to explain it except to say that I had my head buried really deep into the sand.” She swirled her drink and then took a sip.

  “Buried deep in the sand?” Holly asked, concerned. “What do you mean?”

  “I was using work to escape my life,” Daphne said. “That’s part of why I was looking to get some work life balance.” She took a gulp of her drink, starting to feel a bit of a buzz. The tension in her shoulders was starting to loosen.

  “How come?” Holly asked. “Was there something wrong with your personal life?”

  Daphne chewed on her lip, flashes of her mother’s face floating through her mind. “I mean…no,” she said.

  Holly narrowed her eyes. “Fine, if you don’t want to talk about it, we won’t,” she said with a sharp nod.

  “Thanks,” Daphne murmured, grateful for Holly deciding to not press further.

  “But did Trevor overworking you cause strife in your life?” she asked.

  “I don’t know about that…” Daphne said, hesitating now that things had changed with Gary. “Kinda? My boyfriend and I broke up on Friday. I thought that he needed to spend more time with me, but it turns out he had been cheating on me all along.” She nodded several times and then turned to at Holly. She looked horrified, and Daphne could feel her eyes stinging again at the thought of what Gary had done to her.

  “Why did you even come to work today?” Holly asked. She looked serious, and her braids shook everywhere. Daphne had to hold back a laugh.

  I don’t know the last time someone who wasn’t related to me was angry on my behalf.

  “I have responsibilities to our team, to Landon, to all of the stakeholders whose projects I’m working on.”

  Holly looked incredulous at Daphne’s words.

  “Another one miss?” the bartender asked Holly.

  “Yes, please!” She told the bartender. “I’m going to need another one to understand her logic.” She gestured over to Daphne. Daphne felt her face heating, and the bartender laughed.

  “Have you considered that you also have a responsibility to yourself?” Holly asked as the bartender walked away.

  Daphne nodded. “I have,” she said. “That’s why I’m trying to not let the breakup get to me too much.” She nodded and took another sip of her drink.

  Holly shook her head slightly, tilting it to the right and squinting her eyes at Daphne. “That’s what you think your responsibility to yourself is?” Holly asked.

  It was Daphne’s turn to narrow her eyes. “Is it not?” she asked.

  Holly turned and looked at her fresh drink and breathed out heavily. “Whew,” she said. “Who the fuck messed your head up so much?”

  Daphne felt her eyes go wide and her chest tightened despite the alcohol. Did I just mess up?

  “What do you mean?” Daphne asked.

  “I mean taking care of yourself, crying, not burning yourself out, brushing your teeth, getting some rest…?” Holly said. “That kind of responsibility to yourself… Taking care of yourself so that you can hold up your responsibilities to the rest of us over time. It would be like coming to work while you’re vomiting.” Holly shook her head at Daphne. “No one would expect you to work well when you can’t hold any food down. We’d want you to get better before you come take back everything we covered for you.” Holly gave Daphne a brief side eye. “And don’t you ever dare come to work when you’re vomiting.”

  Daphne let out a small giggle. “I won’t,” she promised. “Am I allowed to rely on you all like that, though?” she asked. “I was always taught otherwise.”

  Holly rolled her eyes, shaking her braids at Daphne. “You should be the highest priority in your own life. Everything else should be second place or lower. Whoever told you otherwise is an asshole,” she said, crossing her arms.

  Daphne felt her face heating again, and did her best to cover it with her thick hair as she took another big pull from her drink, nearing the bottom.

  At least I didn’t mess up the relationship like I thought I did. She chewed on her lip. Admittedly, it feels pretty good to have someone angry for my sake.

  Swallowing a giddy smile, Daphne looked up at Holly’s grumpy face. “I guess I never thought of it that way,” she said.

  “I hope whoever taught you that isn’t in you life anymore,” Holly said with a small pout. “If they are, drop them on their ass ASAP.”

  Daphne chuckled a little, swirling the little bit of her drink that was left. “Don’t worry, they’re not,” she said.

  “Good,” Holly replied. She took another big gulp of her drink. “On another note, at least it seems pretty likely you won’t have to look too far for new potential partners,” Holly said, a smirk creeping onto her face.

  Daphne shook her head, her heart sinking a little at Holly’s words. “I appreciate that,” she said. “But I don’t think most people would want to date me after getting to know me a little.”

  Holly scoffed. “What’s wrong with you? Are you terminally ill or something?”

  “No,” Daphne replied.

  “Physically incapable of bearing a child?” Holly asked, raising her eyebrows.

  Daphne’s face flushed. “I…I don’t know,” she said. “What’s wrong with that anyway?”

  Holly shrugged. “Nothing, obviously, but that’s kinda the point…” her voice drifted off.

  Daphne shook her head. “No, it’s nothing like that.”

  “So it’s terminal uniqueness disorder?” Holly asked.

  “What’s that?” Daphne asked, cocking her head.

  “Whatever it is, it doesn’t make you undatable,” Holly said. “The only thing that makes people unattractive is when they don’t care for themselves. Otherwise, everyone’s taste is different. And there is at least one man at work whose taste is Daphne Woods, without a doubt.” She winked and took a swig of her drink.

  Daphne gulped. “Who is that?” she asked.

  “Landon, obviously,” Holly said, rolling her eyes. “Anyone with eyes can see he’s really into you.”

  Daphne shook her head. “He has a girlfriend, Holly,” she said. Daphne wrinkled her nose. “And he’s a bit young for my taste.”

  Holly stuck her tongue out at Daphne. “Fat chance that relationship is going to last much longer. With a girlfriend like that, he probably won’t have one for much longer.”

  Daphne scrunched her face up, and then took a quick drink, finishing off the alcohol. “I don’t want to get involved in that relationship at all,” she said. “He’s also not really my type.”

  “Is there anyone at the office who is your type?” Holly asked, squiggling her eyebrows at Daphne.

  She scraped her upper lip with her teeth and nodded. “Asher is,” she said.

  Holly made a look at Daphne, that implied she should pursue him. Daphne replied by looking grumpy back. “What about you, Holly?” Daphne asked, squinting her eyes. “How long have you been with your husband?”

  “I’ve been happily married for five years,” Holly said, a cute smile growing on her face.

  Daphne couldn’t help but let out a groan. “Everyone around me has found happiness,” she grumbled.

  Holly let out a single laugh. “I wish it was that easy,” she said. “But I’m sure you’ll find your way to happiness.”

  “Thanks,” Daphne said, staring at the ice melting in the glass. Inside, her stomach was swirling with the possibility that she could die unhappy…again.

  “Are you free next weekend?” Holly asked, taking the final swig of her rum and coke.

  “Of course,” Daphne answered.

  “Do you want to go out and go shopping with me?” Holly asked, raising her eyebrows.

  Daphne felt her eyes widen. “I’d love to,” she said. “I’ve honestly never been out shopping with a friend before,” she said.

  “Ugh,” Holly responded, pressing her fingers to her temple. “The more I get to know you, the more obvious it is that you’ve never lived,” she said.

  Daphne swallowed hard, her stomach beginning to knot up. “Sorry, I won’t know the proper protocols for things or anything.”

  “Stop,” Holly said, putting her hand up in Daphne’s face. “I wasn’t complaining about that. If you’ve never gone before, you have even more reason to go.”

  “That sounds great, then,” Daphne said, a small smile lighting up her face.

  “Fantastic,” Holly replied, smiling back.

  Daphne’s heart was still aching a little from all that had happened since her return to the past. It feels like no matter what I’ve done, nothing has gotten better. But maybe…just maybe…things will start looking up soon.