Chapter Four
Myra
“You, okay?” The waitress asks me as she sets my giant stack of nachos in front of me.
“Yeah, I’m good, thanks for asking. Sorry about that, I don’t know him by the way. Well, I almost hit him with my truck earlier but that was all. If you’re, I mean if you and he are a thing, I’m sorry.” The waitress steps back laughing.
“Girl that man comes in here about three times a week, sits at the bar, orders his drink, and ignores anyone who approaches him. I’ve never seen him flirt with a single person.
I tried flirting with him earlier when he first got in, because girl he’s fine as hell, but you know what he said to me.
” Now I’m confused, I thought for sure there was something between Dax and her, or they had at least flirted a time or two.
“I have no idea what he said to you. Probably something completely inappropriate and flirty back.” I was even more baffled when she shook her head looking down with a knowing smirk on her face.
“Girl that man said and I quote, “The only thing I want is for her to be taken care of. She’s had a long day and deserves it.” and he was talking about you.
He never took his eyes off of you. He paid for your entire meal in cash including the tip.
You might have just met that man, but he’s completely smitten with you.
And I won’t lie, I'm a little jealous. I’ve been trying to snag his attention for months with zero luck.
Then in you walk and that man can’t take his attention off of you.
I hope you got his number. Let me know if you need anything else.
” I’m dumbstruck, gob smacked and discombobulated all at the same time.
She just blew my mind with what she just told me.
A tiny part of me thought maybe she’s lying, or he put her up to it, but I watched him as he left and they didn’t talk at all.
She had no reason to lie about something like that.
He’d really cared, not like trying to get in my pants cared either, but like when you care enough to send the very best kind of caring.
If it was just about getting in my pants he would have told me he paid for my meal.
He would have made sure I knew what he’d said to the waitress.
Men who just wanted to get in your pants didn’t care if you were taken care of or that your day was long and you deserved a break.
They only cared about getting in your pants. Nothing more, nothing less.
As I sat there picking at my giant nachos, I started to feel a little guilty for treating him like every other guy who tried to hit on me.
Maybe I’d been too quick to judge simply because he was good looking, and charming.
But I had my reasons, and they were very good reasons even if they only made sense to me, they were good reasons.
At the moment though those reasons were looking less and less important. This man had me questioning my reasons!
Maybe he wasn’t just trying to get laid, maybe he was actually interested in me.
How was I to decipher whether he was a good guy or a bad guy?
Steven had broken my instincts to tell the difference.
I thought he was a good one and look where that had gotten me.
Broke, single, and watching another woman have the life I had dreamed of with my ex.
Yeah, my picker had been broken since Steven and there was no way I was willingly putting myself out there again.
I was meant to be single for the rest of my life because my instincts were broken when it came to men, it was just that simple.
So, I’d be lonely for the next seventy years or more.
Yes, I planned on living till I was at least a hundred if not more, because I refused to believe otherwise.
I’d become the crazy cat lady at the end of the block, or a hermit living in some shack by the ocean or maybe become a swamp witch who lived in the woods scaring children away.
Okay, that last one probably wasn’t going to happen because I love kids and wouldn’t want to scare them.
But you get the idea, I was fully prepared to live alone for the rest of my life.
So, it was okay that Dax left when I asked him to, it didn’t bother me at all.
Nope, definitely wasn’t second guessing asking him to leave, not at all, not even a little.
If you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona I’ll sell you cheap.
Damn it, I think I just let a good thing walk out of my life forever!
After coming to that realization, I didn’t have much of an appetite and decided to head home shortly after.
Pulling into my new driveway, my headlights reflecting off the front windows I was still amazed at how perfect my new home was for me.
I’d been living in a tiny apartment that felt like a shoe box for the last several years.
It was all I could afford after Steven stole all my money out of my accounts.
This place was huge by comparison and the little bit that I brought with me didn’t even fill up one room when I unloaded it.
Sitting in my truck I thought about how my life had taken so many different twists and turns over the years.
I can still remember my mom telling my grandmother that she just couldn’t do it anymore the day she dropped me off at her doorstep.
I don’t know if that meant she couldn’t take care of me anymore or she couldn’t be a mom anymore or she just couldn’t be an adult anymore.
When you’re six you don’t fully understand what’s going on but somehow, I knew I’d never see her again after that day, and I didn’t.
My grandparents didn’t even blink an eye, didn’t hesitate even a second.
My granddad scooped me up, hugged me tight, and shut the door in my mother’s face without even saying goodbye.
I could tell he was angry with my mother.
My grandmother even scolded him for shutting the door in his own daughter's face.
My granddad simply looked at me with a warm smile and said she lost his sympathy and respect and there was no getting it back.
Grandma got sad and nodded her head in agreement before she reached out a hand to rub my back.
After we lost Granddad to a heart attack, Grandma held on and cared for me, until she needed me to care for her.
I’d just finished high school, I was preparing to go to college, when she had her stroke.
We spent the next nine months between rehab and home.
Her lungs would fill with fluid, and they would drain it, only for them to fill again a few days later.
I spent nights by her bedside listening just to make sure she was still breathing.
She was the only person I had in the world, she was my world, and then she was gone and I was all alone.
I met Steven three months after I said goodbye to the only person who ever loved me.
Looking back now I can see Steven for what he was, he was a predator, and I was his prey.
He knew about my grandmother’s inheritance, he knew how much I craved love, and he used it to manipulate me.
If I hadn’t been so needy, or so desperate for love maybe he wouldn’t have been able to get away with it for as long as he did.
Maybe after the first time I caught him cheating I should have kicked his ass to the curb and used my grandmother's inheritance on myself instead of him. But then Steven wouldn’t have been able to clean out all my bank accounts.
I wouldn’t have met Alia when I was desperate for a job to keep myself from being homeless, and I wouldn’t be sitting outside the cutest damn cabin in the world right now.
So maybe things happened for a reason. Maybe I just needed to sit down, shut up, and enjoy the ride.
I’ll admit that when Alia first took Mr. Anderson’s job offer to run his charity organization I figured she would dump me as her personal assistant.
After all I was hired by the law firm she used to work for and they were a bunch of creeps and assholes.
Okay, to be fair Alia was the one who hired me, but it was through the law firm's HR when she did it. The day she walked into the office to put her notice in and asked me to join her was one of the happiest days of my life. I’m still not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet.
To someone like me who always felt like no one saw her, who was always picked last, and always felt like no one valued her, it felt like being picked first for the dodgeball team or getting the first slice of chocolate cake at someone else’s birthday party.
Alia saw me, Alia picked me, and Alia valued me.
I couldn’t ask for a better boss or friend than her and I was going to prove to her every single day she made the right decision by bringing me with her.
Walking inside my perfect little cottage the first thing I notice is the brand-spanking new air mattress sitting there in the box waiting to be blown up.
Deep down I know tomorrow will be a long day and I should set up the air mattress, take a shower, and go to bed.
Unfortunately, I also notice the boxes sitting on the counter in the kitchen that need to be unpacked.
Then I remember the boxes I left in the bedroom and the bathroom that need to be unpacked as well.
I know I won’t be able to sleep until everything is in its proper place.
Pulling out my phone, I start up my workout playlist and hit play.
It’s only ten at night; I should have plenty of time to get everything put in its proper place and still get enough sleep to function tomorrow.