Chapter 10 #2
“Damn, girlfriend. You’ve been through hell in your young life,” Gypsy said, and walked around and gave her a hug, which Willow sucked up.
“Apparently.” She finally sighed.
“So, is that why you always tell us no when we offer you alcohol to drink?”
“Yes.” She got up and refilled her water glass, and as she took a sip, she saw everyone wince. “What?”
“How can you drink that?” Paul shuddered as he saw all the lemon slices floating in the glass.
“The medication I’m on makes me nauseous, while sucking on a real lemon helps, it doesn’t look good, so I cut up four lemons for the water, and I’m killing two birds with one stone, drinking plenty of water and keeping me from throwing up.”
“Wow, never would have thought,” Gypsy said, and took the glass from her and sipped. But she shuddered. “I have ice water with lemon when we go out to restaurants, but this is just too much lemon for me.”
“Sorry.” Willow grinned and took a sip. She looked at Paul. “You heard what my sister had to say, is this a legally binding document?”
“I’m guessing yes. But why don’t you let me look into this as much as I can, and we’ll wait until your parents get here and we’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on?
But I have to warn you, if this is a legal document, you’re going to have to obtain a lawyer.
I don’t do divorce, but I can recommend someone for you if you’d like. ”
“Please. I only know Megan Riley, she helped me when I set up my business.” Willow went to the refrigerator and took her card off the front and handed it to him.
“I don’t know her, but as I said let me look into this.”
“Okay. Now that Mr. Evans is gone, I’m going to say thank you for coming to my rescue and kick you out. I’m going to order some Chinese and call it a night.” They all gave her a hug and told her to call if she needed anything, and Mick locked the door behind his friends and turned to Willow.
“Walk Gypsy and me out through the connecting door and lock it behind us. I don’t think Mr. Evans will be back tonight, but you never know.”
“Then shouldn’t I leave it unlocked in case I need you quickly?”
“Unfortunately, we’re heading out to a party at a different location. You caught us as we were getting ready to leave. But yes, I’ll leave our side unlocked and if you need to get away, just slip in and lock your side behind you.”
“Thanks, Mick,” she said, and hugged him again.
She locked the door and went back to call her order in.
As she waited, she wandered her apartment.
But it was big enough to be a whole house.
Years ago, when she’d met Magnolia, and found her calling in making pottery, she had been looking for the perfect location to set up shop.
She’d found this old warehouse that was huge.
When she’d put an offer in on it, it had become a bidding war between her and Mick and Gypsy.
At one point she’d found who she was going against and talked to them.
They had only wanted half of it for a motorcycle shop and maybe a couple of rooms. With her own real estate agent, along with theirs, Willow had invited them to all walk through, and they discussed what they wanted to do.
She told them her plans, wanting to open up a pottery shop where she could work and fire her clay but sell it off-site.
However, she would convert the upstairs offices into bedrooms and actually live on the upper floors. Mick didn’t want to live on site.
After much discussion, they had pooled their money, and both purchased the building and divided it.
Willow had agreed to be like an onsite night security person.
So once the purchase had gone through, Mick had several of his men convert the offices on the second level to huge bedrooms and on the third floor, they’d made her own bedroom and en-suite bathroom.
He’d also hooked up a security camera showing the outside of his bike shop, and the monitors were on Willow’s side of the building, and if she saw anything suspicious after hours, she was to call Mick. So far it had worked out.
What she loved about the situation was that the bike shop was in front of the building and they had all the glass windows so people driving by could look in and see the bikes on display.
She had taken the back, which used to be a delivery bay and converted it to her shop.
All deliveries for her and the bike shop came to her.
Still worked out well. The delivery men had learned that if it was for the shop next door to put it in a particular corner.
And when Mick or one of the guys came over, they’d automatically stop and see if they had anything.
It had taken two years for the bike shop to become fully functional, so now someone was there all day.
It took pressure off Willow, and she only monitored things at night.
When her food finally arrived, she settled in at the kitchen island and ate a solitary meal.
Usually, it wouldn’t have bothered her, but tonight, for some reason, it did.
As she ate, she wondered what it would be like to have an actual husband.
Someone who came home every night and they shared a meal and talked about their days.
She had never given this a thought, but for some reason, as she looked around her lonely kitchen, she could picture Mr. Christopher Evans sharing the space with her.
After her meal, she picked up her book, but found she couldn’t concentrate, so she picked up her sketchbook instead.
Hours later, she stretched, and after double checking the locks, made her way to bed.