Page 28 of Right With You
“Thank you for agreeing to meet here. I thought it might be best if we keep our interactions simple these first few times.” She grabbed her phone, then set it down without looking at it. “Sorry. Force of habit to grab that thing, but I’m trying to get better.”
“I understand completely. Sometimes, I feel like it’s another limb.”
She smiled, small but genuine, and it eased a nameless ache that’d set up residence in my chest since arriving.
“I thought we could do twenty questions? We don’t necessarily need to know every detail about each other, but if the goal is to make this believable, we need to know the basics, and I thought this could be the fastest way to get there.”
The doorbell rang, and she startled so violently, it sent me to my feet, racing toward the door of her apartment and ripping it open.
“Hey man, how’s it?—”
I snatched the bag from the unsuspecting delivery driver and tossed him a twenty-dollar bill as I shut the door in his face. Generally, I had better manners, but I was tired of seeing her anxious. I set the food in the kitchen and unwrapped it, then searched for plates.
Elise approached, eyes wide.
“I didn’t mean for you to order food. I?—”
“I just ordered a few things I hope you’ll like, and if not, we’ll order something else.”
My words emerged clipped and irritable, which I wasn’t proud of. But I didn’t know how to get what I needed from her—the truth. Recognizing my own idiocy, I exhaled and turned to her.
“I apologize for my curt response. I’m concerned for you. I realize you don’t know me well enough to trust me with whatever is happening with Callum, but I worry for you.”
Her shoulders slumped and she leaned a hip against the counter about a foot from where I stood.
“He has a stake in Glazed and he’s pressuring me about it.”
My eyes narrowed. “Pressuring how? What does he want?”
She huffed. “Great question. I think he’s trying to use it as a way to push me into being with him, but I’ve made it clear that’s not happening. So now he’s…” She swallowed hard, grinding her teeth as she found the words. “I think he’s trying to scare me with threats to sell the shop. At one point, he mentioned meeting with a chain out of Salt Lake, but I’m not even sure what all he can do. There weren’t terms about me repaying him this quickly. I—” Her head fell back and she appealed to the ceiling. “I never should’ve involved him.”
Her frustration was understandable, but all I felt was relief. Financial issues I could solve. That said, I’d learned my lesson the last time I offered any kind of assistance in that regard, even if it was in payment for her help.
“I’m sorry. That’s awful of him and shows his character even more.”
Her lashes fluttered and she seemed truly baffled by my response for a few seconds before her mouth tipped up at the corners. “Right? So… a fake fiancé won’t be the fix, but it might help. Sure can’t hurt.”
The hint of a smile from her sent me into a full-blown grin, the triumph of having said possibly the right, or at least not the full-on wrong thing, a genuine reward.
We chatted as we dished up the food I’d ordered—sandwiches from the diner I may or may not have had Jess’s help with selecting—and settled in at the table to begin our questioning. We covered favorite colors and movies and music and travel destinations. Every answer she gave made me want to collect a dozen more.
Despite vastly different upbringings, as adults we had a surprising amount in common. We both liked to read, both preferred running to other forms of exercise, and both liked the desert mountain climate of Silverton more than anywhere else we’d lived.
She talked about her friends and her love for them shone through so clearly, it hooked into my chest. She felt for them how I did for my friends—they were more than that.
As she relaxed into the comfort of conversation and good, if simple, food, that fire of hers shone through, and it relaxed something in me.
It also solidified a plan.
I didn’t know how to navigate building a relationship from virtually nothing so it’d be believable, but tonight felt like steps toward that. Small, but important steps.
Where I had no doubt was my plan to help her. She might not want to be paid, but I had resources at my disposal, and I could alleviate the threat of her ex with a little bit of maneuvering. I could neutralize him indefinitely, not just as a fake boyfriend or fiancé… and I intended to do just that.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Elise
The reading room at All Booked Up had never been so welcome.
