Page 75 of Roman and the Hopeless Romantic
She’d never told Charlotte and Hadley just how bad her issues were, but by their lack of surprise, she assumed Jesse had. Relief washed through her at the thought.
“We don’t have to go in,” Charlotte whispered.
Hadley nodded. “We could get in the car and head to the beach where it would be just us.”
For a moment, the idea tempted Cassie. She imagined never having to walk through those automatic doors into the busy store, and the thought calmed her.
But it wouldn’t bring her any closer to reclaiming her life.
She shook her head. “I need to do this.”
Releasing a long breath, she stepped forward, swallowing back the bile rising in her throat. Her breath came rapidly as she entered the alcove between the two sets of doors, her friends at her sides.
The second set of doors slid open, revealing white tiled floors stretching all the way to the back of the store. They entered into the grocery section, not releasing each other’s hands.
Somehow, having friends with her grounded her and kept her from running back the way they’d come.
As she walked farther in, her breathing evened. People glanced at them as they passed, grumbling when the three girls refused to break contact to let people by.
“I’m here,” Cassie whispered more to herself than anyone else. She’d walked into a store, into public, and didn’t fall to pieces.
Maybe the girl she’d been before wasn’t buried as deep as she thought.
“Is this when we start streaking?” Hadley asked.
A laugh broke free of Cassie, followed by another. She couldn’t stop the sound rolling through her.
Charlotte’s lips quirked up, and Hadley grinned.
A crack sounded against the tile, and Cassie froze. Another crack and she was back in that alley outside the furniture store in Tampa with bullets ripping through the air.
She couldn’t breathe.
Her feet froze at the end of an aisle. A young boy threw cans onto the ground. Even as her eyes saw the source of the sounds, she couldn’t stop thinking of that day. She sucked in a long breath before releasing it, calming herself as Annie taught her.
There were no gunshots, only an ornery kid. A woman ran toward him, probably his mom, and forced him to stop.
“You okay?” Charlotte asked.
Cassie managed to nod, her heart rate slowing. “Yeah, I think I am.”
They walked the entire perimeter of the store, not buying a single thing. After the incident with the cans, everything else seemed easier, and Cassie even found herself enjoying looking around with her friends.
When they reached the parking lot again, Hadley let out a yell and pulled both Cassie and Charlotte into a hug. “You did it!”
She did. In that moment, she felt like she could do anything.
They cranked up the music in the car, but as Hadley sang at the top of her lungs, Cassie’s thoughts drifted to someone else, someone she hadn’t allowed to be there.
Because now that she’d crested the top of her largest, most jagged mountain, there was only one person she wanted to tell.
* * *
Cassie’s hearthammered against her ribs, but it wasn’t fear racing through her, not this time. She thought of the words she’d said to her dad, the ones she’d tried to make herself believe.
She didn’t want to risk losing Roman, but hadn’t she felt like she was losing him already? She’d pulled away from him. Again. It was what she did, and she didn’t want to be that person anymore.
Hadley dropped her off at the curb in front of her house. “We’d stay to hang, but I need to take Charlie to the rink to see her dad before tonight’s game.”
