Page 112 of Maid For Each Other

“Yeah, it also works in real life for women with stalker exes who show up at their places of employment. I don’t want to put her in that situation.”

“It’s already been poured,” Carol said again from where she was leaning on the bar, probably shit-talking me to the bartender. “Sure you don’t want it?”

“Just the check, please,” I bit out.

“Okay, so then what do you do?” Roman asked.

“Does your friend want it?” Carol yelled.

“I don’t give ashitabout that beer,” I yelled back, needing the world to shut the hell up so I could think.

But the entire bar shut up then, as it seemed every eye in the place was on me.

Looking at me like the asshole I truly was.

“Sorry, Carol,” Roman yelled, pointing at me. “This one’s in love and losing it. Please forgive him.”

That made her laugh, and the killer glares from around the restaurant softened just a bit. I was grateful for my idiotic friend’s quick thinking.

“So,” Roman said, grinning like he was having the very best time. “I think I have a plan.”

43

There He Is

Abi

I knew it had to happen sometime.

Still, it felt like a gut punch when I checked the schedule and saw I had to clean Declan’s apartment that night.He must be in New York, I thought, which I couldn’t let myself think about because even though I was healing, anytime I thought of our trip, or pictured his beautiful SoHo apartment, it was impossible to keep the emotions at bay.

I hadn’t heard a word from Declan.

Not. A. Word.

Because I’d blocked his number.

I knew hearing from him wouldn’t be great for me.

Because as I wrote the Daphne story, filling in all the gritty details that made it work, I realized I needed to be stronger. Daphne had been susceptible to the charms of Connor and his family because she was weak and lonely. She let them in because she’d been hungry for love and attention.

And I suspected I’d been the same way.

But Daphne’s ultimate failure had been her inability to learn once things started changing; she’d been incapable of even considering that Connor and his family weren’t worthy of her trust.

The brief dalliance with Declan had weakened me momentarily, like Daphne, because before him, I didn’t have delusions of romance or daydream about love.

That was something my mother did.

I was more of a work-my-ass-off-and-make-things-happen person. I was working two jobs and going to school because I was going to be a college professor, own my own home, and depend on myself for the things I wanted.

I’d seen my mom spend her entire life being reactive, moving about the world in hopes of something—or someone—giving her the things she wanted, and that was bullshit.

But I’d become a version of her—and Daphne—when I was with Dex, daydreaming and begging for heart crumbs, and that was unacceptable.

I mean, I’d almost walked away from a great story idea because I’d lost the ability to disseminate truth from fiction. Somehow, Daphne’s story had felt a lot like mine, so much so that I couldn’t think about it without crying because it’d made me feel empty inside.

The brief Declan chapter in my life had been self-indulgent, where I’d allowed myself to absorb him into every empty hole and crack in my life, taking them and expanding them but filling them more in turn so thatafterhim—when his existence in my life quickly disappeared—my aloneness felt more amplified than it ever had before, and the holes left larger and empty once again.

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