19. Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
A week later
I hadn’t even bothered to text him. I was pretty sure whatever we had was over.
He left me angry and confused, staring after him from my porch.
But even after calming down, I was mad—angry to my core.
That low simmering won’t-go-away kind of mad.
I didn’t know if I could actually be with someone who would go all Kathy Bates on me.
After fishing out my spare keys and finishing dressing, which took longer than I liked, I headed into town.
By that time, I hadn’t even wanted to go, but it was a matter of defiance.
He really showed me what he thought of me—stupid, can’t take care of myself.
And throwing my mother in my face? That would be the hardest to get over.
So when he didn’t come back or return my keys, I wrote him off.
Hell, I was happy to be working on my blog and helping out the random customer, waving at the teens coming in to check out the latest video games, and eating sticky buns.
And catching up on the gossip when either Evelyn or Reuben came in.
So fuck him and his sexy man-bun and smart clothes and coffee addiction.
He wasn’t very nice underneath all that.
Except I knew that was a lie. I didn’t want to admit it, though.
When I was a mile deep into my next blog post, Eddy stormed in and slammed his hand on the counter, making me jump. “Hey.”
“What? Are you okay?”
He was obviously upset about something. “What are you going to do about Alfred?”
“Uh…nothing.” There wasn’t anything to do. I’d given up.
“Maybe you should. He’s been very grouchy. And I mean very .”
Why did this upset Eddy so much? Oh. Like a lightbulb. “Afraid you’re going to lose him to the big city?” I certainly had been. And if I were being honest, still was, especially now.
“Yes, but more importantly here, I’m more afraid that two of my best friends in the world are breaking each other’s hearts for no. Good. Reason.” He tapped the counter with each of his last three words. But…
“We have good reasons.” I turned back to my laptop, wanting this conversation to end.
Because he actually was right. And my chest physically ached thinking about it.
Alfred said those things because he was mad.
And I had caused it. But I sure as hell didn’t want to face up to that. Would he even accept an apology?
Brock called from the back, “Eddy. Stay out of it.”
“Whatever. I have to go to the office. Bye.” He stormed out, glaring back, probably at the entire store, as he went. He wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t know what the hell to do about it.