Page 2 of Sunset Tides
Ugh. The pastry was thin and flaky, the apple sliced and softened to a perfect crisp. It was heavenly and absolutely perfect.
Tooperfect.
Yeah. It was time to go, sooner rather than later. If she stuck around any longer, she’d end up half a century into a marriage repeating the same line, over and over.
She was too young for that!
The jig was up. It was time to move on. Lucy was sure of it.
Not before she finished the apple turnover, though. She wasn’t an animal.
Chapter Two
Lucy managed to put off quitting until the end of the day. As she closed the shop, she told herself it was now or never. There was no use in putting off quitting or dragging it out. Sleeping on it would only prolong her dread, and she’d quit enough jobs to know the best way to do it: quickly, with no warning, like ripping off a band-aid.
It was always hard to say goodbye, especially when she had a boss she liked. Her last boss had made it hard to quit, but for auniquereason. They’d had a brief romantic liaison, and after that went south, he’d avoided her like a hornet at a picnic. When she’d finally had a chance to hand in her notice, it was actually quite fun.
This time wouldn’t be fun.
She made the walk to Fiona’s office, which was housed in a trailer on the property. Lucy decided against warning her she was coming. Fiona might get suspicious, then ask her if she was quitting, then prepare a whole spiel to convince her to stay. Lucy was always susceptible to convincing, so she didn’t want that possibility in the air.
The walk to the trailer was shorter than usual, and once she got there, she took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
Fiona yelled out, “Come in!”
Lucy stumbled inside, tripping on a chair placed in front of the door. She managed to catch herself before she fell, annoyed to see the chair had been moved to make room for a guest. Amaleguest.
“I didn’t realize you were meeting with someone,” she said. “Is now not a good time?”
Fiona shook her head. “It’s fine.” Her voice was small and tired. Her hair was messed up, too, and half of the collar on her flannel shirt was popped.
Yeesh. What had happened to Fiona?
The guy who’d been occupying the chair stood and offered Lucy a handshake, and she accepted, taking a step back as she did. He towered over her, looking entirely out of place in his tightly tailored black suit.
“Hi there, I’m Rob. It’s nice to meet you.”
She stared up at his face. It was flawless – tanned, dimpled, like that of a collegiate athlete in a recruitment pamphlet, or an airbrushed model in an overpriced cologne ad. His overly-humble smile annoyed her.
“Hi, I’m Lucy. Nice to meet you.” She turned to Fiona. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can come back tomorrow.”
“Please, it’s not a problem. What’s up?”
Lucy shot a wary look at Rob, who continued standing over her and smiling.
She wished he would sit down. Or better yet, leave. “No, it’s okay. It’s kind of private.”
Rob put his hands up. “Hey, I can take a hint, I’ll just – ”
Fiona let out a gasp. “You’re quitting, aren’t you?”
“No!” Lucy said, her voice jumping an octave.
“It’s okay. You’d be right to do it.” Fiona pressed her eyes with her fingers before looking up.
Lucy had never seen her so frazzled. “What’s going on? Is this guy threatening you?”
Rob let out a forced laugh. “Whoa, whoa. No, I’m not – .”
