Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Chet the personal trainer barked orders, and Amelia rued the day she ever decided bootcamp was a good idea. Gasping for breath at the last whistle, she lay on the grass and stared at the blue sky, wondering if the past week had been a fever dream.
“Are you going to tell us what happened? You’ve been so quiet. You barely even showed up in our group chat all week.”
Amelia turned her head to see Camilla’s brows drawn together. Her coppery hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, her emerald-green headband somehow looking elegant and stylish even with her exercise-reddened face.
“Yeah,” Lucy complained, flopping down on the ground on Amelia’s other side, “you’ve been MIA.”
Amelia grimaced. “It was a weird week.”
“Weird good or weird bad?” Camilla flicked the mouthpiece on her water bottle and started sucking.
“Weird bad, I think,” Amelia admitted. She’d been in a daze since yesterday morning. Leo had dropped her off and just…left. As if they hadn’t had a connection. As if what they shared hadn’t been real.
Was Amelia delusional? He was Pestilence, after all, even if his nickname hadn’t strictly been earned the way the rumors said. Had she totally played herself by falling for him?
“Do we need to shiv him?” Lucy asked. “I can start sharpening the end of my toothbrush.”
“Who are we shivving?” a new voice cut in. “And can I join?”
Three heads turned to see a gorgeous, voluptuous woman with medium-brown hair pulled back in a high pony. She planted her hands on her hips. “Is it Chet? Because I’m down. That man is evil.”
Camilla gave the other woman a wry smile. “He’s not that bad.”
“He’s awful,” Amelia groaned. “Anyone who tells me to do burpees automatically goes on my hit list.”
“Amen,” the new woman agreed, then grinned. “But I’ll still come back on Wednesday for another session. I’ve seen you three here every week for a couple of months. Thought we should finally meet.”
Amelia smiled in agreement, then introduced herself and her friends. “Sit down.” She gestured to a patch of grass. “I’d say we should get up and go grab a coffee, but I need at least another five minutes before I can move.”
“You’re the new florist on Wilson Street, right?” Lucy asked, squinting.
“That’s right. Scarlett Westbrook.” She shook hands all around then leaned back on her palms, tilting her head to the sun. “Gearing up for wedding season. I hear the summer and fall are crazy in Stirling for weddings.”
Amelia couldn’t help the groan that escaped her. “Please. Don’t tell me about weddings. I don’t want to hear that word again for a long, long time.”
Scarlett arched a brow. “Bad experience?”
“Not exactly. But my sister just got married, and I’m in my early thirties so my social media feed is weddings, babies, and advertisements.” And I think I might be completely heartbroken .
“Girl, don’t even start.” Scarlett laughed. “That’s one of the reasons I had to move. My mother won’t stop asking me when I’m going to give her grandbabies.” She looked at the three of them. “The answer is never. But I want to hear about this shivving business. Who are we murdering?”
Amelia couldn’t help the smile from curling her lips. She sat up and found herself relaying all the events from the bonkers company retreat. When she told her friends about yesterday morning, she was met with gasps of outrage.
“He just left you there?” Lucy asked, blue eyes wide. “Just drove away, hasn’t said a word?”
Amelia pinched her lips and nodded.
“I think he’s panicking because he cares about you,” Camilla proclaimed.
Amelia groaned. “Don’t, Camilla. I can’t handle it right now.”
“Can’t handle what?” She reared back, offended.
“Your romantic heart. I feel…” Amelia shook her head. “I feel scraped raw. He’s gone, and I just need to deal with it. I fell too hard, too fast, and now it’s over. The end.”
Camilla frowned. She didn’t agree, Amelia could tell. But she said nothing.
Scarlett plucked a blade of grass and started peeling it into tiny strips. “I once dated a guy for four years. We were a completely committed couple: holidays with each other’s families, vacation plans, planning to move in together, jokingly discussing baby names for our hypothetical kids…” She met Amelia’s gaze and gave her a grim smile. “Then one day, out of the blue…he ghosted me.”
Amelia couldn’t help her sharp inhalation. “What?”
Scarlett nodded. “Yep. I was freaking out. I thought he was dead. Finally, after two weeks, I got through to his mother and found out that he was perfectly fine, he just didn’t want to talk to me anymore. His. Mother . He broke up with me through his mommy . That was almost worse than being ghosted.”
Camilla had a hand over her mouth. Lucy’s eyes were wide.
Amelia just stared at Scarlett and shook her head. “I’m so sorry.”
“What did you do?” Camilla asked.
“I went through a major slut phase,” Scarlett replied, eyes glinting. “ Major .”
Lucy giggled. “Well, that’s one way of dealing with it.”
“I might still be going through it,” Scarlett admitted. “I haven’t decided if it’s over yet.”
“Your sex life is going to take a serious nosedive if you stay in Stirling,” Amelia noted. “The pickings are slim.”
“Hey, it’s an hour-and-a-half drive to Boston. I’ll deal. I can always have an emergency sexcation weekend away.”
The four of them laughed, and Amelia felt slightly better. As their giggles died down, she let out a long sigh. Camilla put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed.
“I feel so stupid,” Amelia admitted.
“Are you going to go out with Ben?” Lucy asked, angling her head toward Amelia’s phone, where it rested on top of her workout towel. Amelia had told them about his text message.
“I don’t know.”
“You have to!” Scarlett exclaimed. “Best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. I know from experience.”
Amelia grimaced. “I don’t know if I’m even into Ben. I had such a big crush on him and within half a conversation it just…died.”
“You could just go and practice your new flirting skills, see if there’s a spark. There’s no harm playing the field,” Camilla said.
“I recommend the slut phase approach,” Scarlett added. “It’s highly effective.”
Amelia snorted. “I’m not sure I have it in me.”
“Oh, you would have lots of things in you. That’s the whole point.”
Laughter burst out of them all. Amelia fell back onto the grass, slapping her hands over her face. Camilla wiped her eyes. Lucy’s entire face was bright red. Scarlett just cackled along with all of them, then jumped to her feet and pointed to the coffee truck at the far end of the park. “Let’s get some drinks. I need caffeine.”
An hour and a bit later, Amelia was back at home, showered, and gearing up to sit at her computer. It was strange to be back here, in her little apartment, sitting at her laptop. She had a mountain of work to do, with two potential new clients looking for a call with her to discuss their needs. It would be so easy to slip into her pre-Leo life, where her business was everything and data was her only companion.
But as she sat down and began to work, it was difficult to slip into that state of flow that used to come so easily. She’d start pulling data from clients’ websites, and her mind would wander to something Leo said, how he made her laugh, how he’d slip his hand in hers like it was the most natural thing in the world.
This felt like a breakup, but that was ridiculous. They didn’t know each other. Not really. They’d had a deal, and now the deal was done.
Why did that make her want to cry?
When all the numbers on her screen began to blur, Amelia sighed and pulled up Ben’s message. She still hadn’t answered. Her fingers hovered over the screen. Her indecision frustrated her.
Why was she so hung up on a guy who would treat her the way Leo did? What right did he have to toss her aside as soon as the retreat was done? They’d opened up to each other. Their time together had meant something. And he was just going to throw it all away?
A flash of anger had Amelia’s fingers moving. She accepted Ben’s invitation to dinner and asked him if he was free the coming weekend.
When his reply came through a couple of minutes later, setting a time and place, Amelia let out a huff. There. She had a date. The deal was well and truly done.
She could move on from Leo, once and for all.
Clinging to that thought, she went back to work and tore through half of her to-do list. She only stood and stretched her body when the sun’s rays told her it was late afternoon. Moving to the window, she watched the world go by, still feeling hot and angry and sad.
Little kids played in the park across the street, their peals of laughter ringing in the air. A moving truck pulled away from the curb, and Amelia wondered if she had new neighbors. A warm breeze shivered through the trees and ruffled her hair when she lifted the window sash, and Amelia inhaled the scent of late spring.
Life went on. This Monday was no different from last Monday. She’d had sex. She’d kissed a man. She’d realized that she could be attractive and sensual if only she got out of her own way.
The best thing for her to do was move on from Leo, from the drama at Goodhew Inc., from Cora and Ari and all the crazy people that had filled her week. She had a business to run. More pressingly, she had dinner to eat and TV to watch.
But in the very depths of her heart, Amelia knew the truth.
She missed Leo so much she ached with it.