Chapter 38
AVERY
The opening weekend of The Season can’t come soon enough.
This week has been a weird one. For three weeks, I got used to looking for Max and being excited to see him. Now, I’m doing everything I can to avoid him.
No, I’m not ducking into the back room when he comes in for his morning coffee, instead, I have conveniently chosen possible burns from using the panini press just so I don’t have to face him directly.
The whole situation is confusing, and I haven’t had much time, or haven’t given myself time, to dissect it. I have, however, gone through another half of a twenty-five-pound bag of flour, though.
I’ll be hiring Lila as an employee, but I might need another in the coming weeks depending on the amount of people we have coming in. Having someone free to wipe off tables and clean up spills would be ideal.
“I haven’t seen Max lately,” Sarah says, loading some of the napkin holders.
I haven’t told her anything about what happened, about the interaction with Max’s father and his bribe attempt. I haven’t heard about any consequences from not taking the money. Should I be waiting with bated breath?
“He’ll probably be in, I’m sure,” I say, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. I can’t complain about the owner of the building coming in to get coffee whenever he wants. He’s paying for it.
“No, he hasn’t been in for a couple of days. Do you think he finished his project and headed back to New York? You’d probably know,” Sarah says, looking at me with raised eyebrows.
Shaking my head, I say, “We’ve been pretty busy here, and we haven’t had a chance to chat in a while.”
Maybe he finally flew back to propose.
I let the floodgates open with Sarah there, hoping the anger will conquer every other emotion, but instead, I’m left feeling a little jealous—and a whole lot like one little touch will cause me to shatter like glass.
How do people put themselves back together after betrayals?
“I went to the diner last night and someone said he’s engaged to a wealthy heiress or something.”
I breathe deeply, trying to keep my smile plastered to my face. Sarah just keeps jabbing the metaphorical knife into my chest.
“I hope all goes well for him,” I say. What I really want to do is take a vacation to somewhere that doesn’t remind me of Max for just a day or two.
“What happened between you two? You were so close for a bit.”
“We had some fun times together, but our lives are so different. It was better to just move on.”
I barely make it through my shift before I head back to the apartment, trying not to look at the door across the hall. But it’s open, and my eye catches on the furniture inside.
It looks like a completely different space, like all signs of my time spent here with Max are just a memory.
Talia turns and sees me hovering near my door but looking inside the opposite apartment.
“Hey,” she says, walking out of the space. “I was just bringing up the last piece.”
I frown. “Did he get rid of the other furniture?”
“Yeah,” she says with a smile. “He says he needed something that would work with a beach rental. I had a few pieces ready and have been working on a few more while I wait for the permits to come in for the other buildings.”
I blink a few times. “Are you done with the ones upstairs?”
“Not yet. Flooring is on backorder, and I’m waiting on a new paint gun to come in. The one I bought from Frank died after finishing this one.”
“You’ve done a great job. It will be nice to get some more people in here.”
“You should see if you can move to one of the ones upstairs,” Talia says pointing.
“We’re good here,” I say.
“A little birdie told me you sleep on a pull-out couch when your sister is in town. The two apartments on the third level have three bedrooms. They aren’t huge, but they have closets.”
It’s like the mention of more bedrooms causes my back to think of mornings after sleeping on the pull-out couch. Then again, sleeping on Max’s old couch was worse.
A pang in my chest hits me as I think about him.
It will get better. I’ll be able to function normally again and move on.
Except I can’t keep my mouth closed to get that process started.
“Did he head back to New York?” I ask.
“Yeah. He left yesterday, I think.”
“I’m sure Victoria will make him a very happy man.”
Talia frowns at me. “Who’s Victoria?”
I wave her off. “It’s not important. I’ve got to clean up my apartment, but it was really good to see you, Talia. We’ll have to hang out sometime.”
“You want to hang out with me?”
I sag against the wall. “Yeah. We can start up a club called Women Who Survived Frustrating Men.”
“Max is one. Who else are we talking about?”
I pull my lips in, trying not to spill the beans. If she can’t see Aiden likes her, then I’m not going to be the one to tell her now.
“I’m sure we can round up a few others. See you,” I say, ducking into my apartment before I say something else I’ll have to explain.
At least I have my own business to keep me from wallowing too much during this heartbreak.
It almost sounds true when I say it out loud.
Almost.