Page 6 of My Guarded Valentine

“What do you mean, are you not eating with me?”

I paused as I looked down at her face. She looked so earnest when she asked me that normally I didn’t eat breakfast. I had my coffee in my hand and I was ready to stare at the screen for a few hours. Sometimes I made breakfast and took it with me, but I never ate it here for breakfast.

“Normally there’s no reason for me to eat breakfast here,” I explained.

She smiled weakly and bit her bottom lip. “Now you do. And last night you were so adamant that you had to treat your guest right. I can’t believe you were gonna make me sit here by myself in the dark in the cold, just like this.” She giggled before Mitzi pushed her bottom lip out in an overexaggerated pout. I sat beside her. Mitzi turned to me, and our eyes locked. She smirked.

I waved to the windows. “It wasn’t going to be dark in here. There’s ample sunlight pouring into windows, and it’s reflecting off the snow on the ground, which means plenty of light. You practically need glasses to be in here.”

She giggled as she stabbed her fork into her pancakes. “Don’t make me eat by myself,” she replied.

I sighed. I got back up and grabbed a plate, and filled it up with plenty of pancakes with a slab of butter on top. She pushed the chair out beside her as if she hinted that I should sit beside her. As soon as I did, she leaned over my plate, looking at her plate that was bereft of coffee. The scent of her filled my nostrils and a blossom of heat bloomed inside me. I tried to push those feelings down.

“Do you have one of those fancy cup makers or do you have a pot?” she asked. “Of course. I hope you have some good beans in there. You know that’s key for a good pot of joe.”

I chuckled. “There is a pot. It’s by the microwave over there. Do you need me to get it for you, or can you handle it on your own? There’s cream inside the fridge. That’s about all I have other than sugar.”

She stood up and poured herself a cup of coffee. I couldn’t help watching her hips tilt to one side as she slowly stirred the cup with her cream inside it in a manner like she does this every day staring into her cup of ambition. She turned around and sat beside me. Mitzi started to eat her pancakes and moaned lightly just like she did last night, which was ever so tempting. Either my celibacy was making everything erotic or she was the most beautiful woman I had ever encountered. I couldn’t help my attraction to her. I knew I had to be better than that. There are some people that deserve all the love in the world. I wasn’t one of those people. I don't even deserve the air I breathed.

“I only need to work for a few hours. Then, if you want, we can stop by Mitch‘s and see how your car is. He’ll probably text me in the meantime, but you can talk to me yourself.”

She groaned. “I am not excited about the bill. There’s a reason I was avoiding it, especially since I’m about to be jobless.”

“Don’t worry about that, I told you I’ll cover it.”

“Why would you do that? I’m a stranger!”

“Like I said, Mitch has been through some shit. If me getting him to work on your car helps him out in the end, I don’t care. He doesn’t want handouts and all my cars. All my machines are on top order because of Mitch. He has a newborn baby and he can’t seem to get a job around here. I wanna help out as much as I can.”

Her mouth for a perfect oh as her fork was suspended in the air. She looked at me in shock. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. God, I need to find a guy that is as nice as you.”

But it couldn’t be me.I chuckled. “So you’re telling me you’re single?” Why did I ask her that? I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, but I couldn’t help myself. The old me seemed to pop up around her.

The burst of giggles interrupted my thoughts as she covered her mouth. She radiated pure happiness. Even though last night she was pretty angry about her job, I wanted to give her the world.

“Yeah. Single as a Pringle. Do people still say that? God, I’m lame. Forget I said that.”

“Maybe when we’re in town, we can find some people like you said last night. There has to be some sort of story in there and people love heartwarming filled small town stories.”

She nodded as she started drinking her coffee. The rest of our meal was filled with small talk and light flirting. After we ate, I went to my office, but I couldn’t get my mind off Mitzi.

Chapter 5

Mitzi

After we ate, he wandered into his office. I never asked him what he did. But I had a feeling he would not tell me either. I sighed as I stared at my phone. I realized there was one thing I had to do that was to tell my boss that my plan article would not happen and that I was working on a backup. Considering the vibe of the stories he gave me, I unfortunately realized that Buck was right. A small town story would be perfect. He didn’t want a hard-hitting expose on the potential crime of O’Brien in industries. No, they wanted something that could inspire people or something. Something that gave Hallmark feelings, something that would make people think there’s better in the world. I had this crazy thought that maybe if I wrote this groundbreaking article, it would somehow be picked up from a different publication, and my life would change. My life needed to change. I wandered around Buck’s living room before I texted my boss to explain to him the article on O’Brien Corp wasn’t happening.

I pulled out my laptop and searched for different places in Hope Peak. Nothing I found showed me a story that could save my job. Was my job even worth saving at this point? Accordingto Nadia, they would always find a way to screw me over. Next time, what’s gonna happen? There will always be a next time.

I took a break from my laptop and looked around his living room. My fingers caressed the spines of his books and I admired the bricks of the fireplace. That’s when I saw it. Due to my research on O’Brien Corp, a picture of a man that I saw before. This was a picture of the brother of Connor O’Brien. Why was his picture here? He’s been gone for fifteen years. My brows furrowed as I tried to figure out what could’ve happened. Why was his picture here?

I pulled it apart to see if there was anything written on the back. There was nothing. I laughed at myself like I expected a key to fall out or a written letter on the back of it. All of a sudden, there was a commotion from Buck’s office. I put the picture back inside and flipped it back down on its face. I tried to look normal as he climbed down the steps.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I smiled uncomfortably and walked towards him. My hands waved towards the fireplace. “I was admiring the brickwork of this fireplace. I watched a whole deep dive video about mason work and different styles of masonry and I was curious what style this one was in. Unfortunately, I forgot that I don’t remember hardly any of it because obviously I’m just saying mason work four or five times,” I babbled. I laughed nervously and twisted my hair on my finger.

Buck chuckled before he grabbed my forearm and led me away. “Unfortunately, I don’t know much about masonry or brickwork or different style choices like that, so I can’t really answer those questions for you. But I thought you would like to go into town. We’ll talk to Mitch. Mitch lives right above the diner and we can grab a bite to eat. Maybe Mrs. Dolly might know of something interesting. You could write for yourmagazine. She knows all the hub bub. I don’t think she could fail us.”

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