Page 93 of Falling Madly
“Morning!” I hung my jacket by the door and connected my laptop to the external screens.
“Great to see you!” She beamed at me, reaching for a pretzel. “I was worried I’d have to sit here all alone today. Sorry,I’m snacking all day. I was feeling yuck this morning, skipped breakfast and now I’m starving.”
“Pregnancy sounds like fun.”
“It really is!” She rolled her eyes. “Do you want to ditch work and go get coffees?”
“Where? Outside?”
We usually made a cup of instant in the tiny kitchenette, too busy to fetch coffees.
She bit her lip. “I need to talk to you.”
I was instantly tense but forced a smile. “Sounds serious.”
“It is.” She put on a smile. “But don’t worry. It’s good, serious.”
What did that mean? I glanced at my laptop, weighing the most urgent items on my to-do list. If I was honest, there wasn’t too much there. I’d worked so hard for two weeks, that we were ahead of schedule. I should have been relieved, but instead felt hollow and lost, like I had nothing to hold onto.
We pulled on our jackets, and I followed Bess down the road to the nearest coffee shop. It was busy, mostly catering to the takeaway crowd, but offered a couple of tables and long bars with barstools by the window. We hopped onto the stools with our takeaway cups, as if ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
I missed the pace in Cozy Creek. Not feeling like the weirdo if you chose to sit down and spend some time eating, drinking and digesting what you bought.
“So, how’re you feeling?” Bess asked.
I chuckled softly, taking a sip of coffee. “Can we start with an easier question?”
“Okay… what happened with Kyle? I wanted to ask you earlier, but we were so busy, and I felt like you needed a bit of time.”
“I did,” I admitted. “Thank you.”
“Can you tell me now? I’m worried. About you, about Trevor, about the company. Everything.”
“Why? We’re okay. We’re on schedule. Ahead of schedule. I just sent the first drafts to?—”
“I’m not talking about work! You can’t just pretend nothing happened.”
To be honest, that’s exactly what I was pretending, at least to myself. I didn’t want to think about my past and how much certain individuals in Cozy Creek hated me, or how I’d watched my boyfriend making out with someone else, or what an idiot I’d been at Kyle’s. Or how Trevor now knew my dirty secrets, and no longer wanted to see me or talk to me.
“Things happened,” I said tentatively. “I’m trying to put them behind me.”
“I thought you liked Trevor?”
“He’s great. He’s… amazing.” I smiled, despite myself, thinking of our time together.
I thought about the Scot every day, every night, every morning when I woke up.
“He’s been in love with you for a long time,” Bess said quietly.
“He didn’t even know me.”
“I bet he knows you a little now.”
I gave her a wry smile. “And he hasn’t called or messaged me outside of work once. He left me on ‘read’.”
“There’s only so much rejection a man can take. Even Trevor.”
“He has this lumberjack dream… of hunting and fishing and splitting logs. That’s why he bought the cabin. And now he knows I’m not welcome at Cozy Creek. He knows?—”
