Page 56 of Grinch Girl

Nate had seen a lot of my actual life, but I’d seen almost nothing of his. I wasn’t going to be a part of it—not in any way. I was just an out-of-town fling. Something to make the December he spent slumming in small-town Wisconsin a little more pleasant. I sat down hard on the floor of the aisle, blinking back harsh tears and swallowing over a jagged lump in my throat.

The bell above the door rang again. Jesus, we were Grand Central Station today.

“Good morning!” Michael’s warm voice echoed through the shop. “I brought you breakfast.” The scent of warm croissants and coffee drifted into my nostrils.

“Oh, thank you,” Bella murmured, still sounding a little distracted. Bitterness flooded through me, acidic saliva in my mouth. What it must be like to be Bella. To have one man come and deliver exciting career news and another bring her breakfast while gazing at her like she hung the freakin’ moon.

I heard the sounds of coffee being poured into a cup and a bakery box opening. “I have some exciting family news,” Michael said. “Nancy got engaged.”

“No way!” Bella exclaimed. Nancy was Michael’s younger sister. She’d been dating her boyfriend long-distance for two years while he got his master’s in engineering from Northern Michigan. “Tell her I said congratulations.”

“They’ve decided on a destination wedding,” Michael said, slurping some coffee. “The Bahamas. Second weekend in March.”

“So soon!” Bella said.

“Eh.” Michael gave the verbal equivalent of a shrug. “They’ve been dating for years. They don’t see much point in a long engagement.” He paused. “I was thinking…” I could hear him swallow from all the way near the back of the store. “Come with me. To the wedding.”

Still on the floor, I cringed and closed my eyes.Michael, what are you doing? Didn’t we talk about this on the ice last night?She was leaving. They both were.

Bella didn’t answer right away. She would look the perfect amount of surprised and delighted. Maybe a little unsure, in an adorable way. “Oh wow,” she said. “Um…”

Be straight with him. Don’t string him along.

“I want to,” Bella finally said, softly.

“Great!” Michael burst out, way too loudly. He sounded thrilled. Why wouldn’t he? He’d just invited her to a serious family event three months in the future and she said she wanted to go. He was planning for the future with her, and she was acting like she wanted that.

But she hadn’t actually said yes, had she? She just said she wanted to, which let her make him happy in this moment but also gave her the perfect opening to back out later when she “remembered” that she had a work conflict.

Seething, I blocked out the rest of their breakfast conversation. Finally, the bell above the door rang again, signaling Michael’s departure. I got to my feet on shaking legs.

Bella saw my head pop over the shelves and jumped on the stool. “Oh my God, you scared me! I thought you were in the storeroom.”

“Nope,” I hissed. “I was sitting right here, listening to you spout your poisonous bullshit.”

Bella stood slowly. “Excuse me?” Normally, when I compared her to Disney princesses, I thought of Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. The kind of princess with a soothing, melodic voice that woodland creatures danced around. But right now, she was more Elsa: taut and ready to brandish some sort of ice weapon.

“You’re stringing Michael along, and it’s not fair to him!” I shouted. “This is not some melancholy Taylor Swift song about holiday time and roads not taken, Bella. You’re going tocrushhim. He’s in love with you again! And you know you’re just going to walk away when this month is over. You’ll go back to your real life, and you’ll take his heart with you.”

“That’s not true,” Bella protested icily, but her blue gaze slid straight to the floor.

“What part?” I said, charging toward her. “He’s not in love with you? You’re not going to leave? What, exactly, do I have wrong?”

Bella looked back up at me, her voice steely. “You’re being very unfair. You have no idea what it’s like now between me and Michael—”

“Maybe not,” I interrupted wildly. “But I know a lot about what Michael is like after you leave.” My voice grew to a near shriek. “I know a lot about what it’s like to be abandoned by you, Bella.”

Bella’s parted mouth transitioned to a perfect O. “Iabandonedyou?” she screeched. “What world are you flipping living in, Jane? You abandoned me. We were supposed to leave this town together. We’d been planning it for years! Then all of a sudden, I’m off to Madison by myself and you’re not coming. Do you know how scared I was?”

I could feel long-held anger vibrating in waves off of her. If she’d been Elsa, I would have been impaled in the throat with an icicle.

Which I would have melted with the heat of my rage. I honestly began to see red at the edges of my vision, the fury was so strong. She was the one who got out! She was the one living the life we’d both wanted!

“I cannot believe you. You haven’t been back to Falworth in more than ten years and you’re actually trying to make me feel sorry for you?” I was shaking so hard my teeth audibly clicked together. “You are the most selfish person I’ve ever met.”

“Selfish!” Bella howled. “How is it selfish to carry the dreams of half the town? Do you have any idea how exhausting it is? You know nothing about my life, Jane, and you know why? Because you were too scared to try. You talk such a big game and swagger around like you hate this place, but you were too scared to leave.”

Scared? The crimson haze was clouding my entire vision now. I needed to get out of here before I started breaking liquor bottles. Over her head.

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