“Tuesday!” my mother shouted. “Perfect. We’ll text you the name of the restaurant. Now, make sure to bring Avery.” When my parents and I went out to dinner, they always picked the restaurant and I always paid. It was kind of how it worked—it was the least I could do after all the pain I’d caused. Wait, did she just say “Avery”?
“The hell?”
“Language!” my father boomed.
“Sorry—I meant, she’s busy.” I rolled my eyes.
“Can she cancel her plans?” my mom pleaded and then started sniffling.
“Son, don’t make your mother cry. She’s had an emotional day, what with Fluffy dying.”
“Fluffy’s been dead FOR A YEAR!”
“Still . . .” She sniffled loudly. “Hurts, you know that the Blacks gave me Fluffy before . . .”
Before I screwed up.
Before I ruined my parents’ lives.
Before I moved away.
So I did what idiots always did when cornered—I damned Avery Black to hell and said, “I’m sure she can make it.”
The conversation ended when my mother asked when we were having kids.
I carried the bottle to bed.
Chapter Thirteen
AVERY
It wasn’t a big deal. Just a Monday. I was making it worse than it really was, anxiety building up in my stomach so much that I’d almost puked twice that morning.
He’d actually threatened to fire me—or at least give me such a bad review, I wouldn’t be able to work for the company, the one that had a six-figure starting salary with my name on it and a really shiny company card that would let me charge things like lunch.
Steak.
Business trips!
It was like my imminent homelessness meant nothing to him!
I was exaggerating.
But still!
He was an ass!
But it wasn’t his threat that had been the last straw—it was the look on his face while he’d said it, like he’d just seen a ghost or maybe he was spooked to see a demon when he looked into the mirror. God only knew how many of those he had hanging off his body, what with all the sin he invited. Because I had to face the truth—he was a down and dirty cheater.
I don’t know why I had such a hard time believing it when it slapped me in the face on a daily basis—via his updated calendar notifications on my cell.
There was no way that heaven was smiling down on Lucas Thorn and offering up top-notch guardian angels to do protection duty.
I wasn’t going to get paid for another week, so extras like coffee were out of the question, which just made my anxiety that much worse because I was completely exhausted.
Especially since Kayla had decided to call—again—to ask if she could visit. It wasn’t like Kayla lived in the wilds of Alaska, but she did live in Bellingham, which was a good two-hour drive from downtown. And since Kayla was a horrible driver and had road rage like something you’d see on Cops, it was probably better for everyone in Seattle for her to stay in Bellingham every weekend instead of visiting me.
A nagging voice reminded me that it wasn’t necessarily her driving skills that gave me anxiety—but the fact that I’d have to see her.
Face-to-face.
The girl I could never live up to.
The one who used to make it painfully obvious that I never would.
And the one with a boyfriend she had cheerfully dangled in front of my face. The hard part was she was always so sickeningly sweet, I was never sure if she was malicious or just plain ignorant of the fact that I’d had a thing for him.
Ugh. Four years later. And it still haunted me.
Seeing her just reminded me of all the things I’d tried to forget and put behind me. She was always so passive-aggressive that by the time we were done hanging out, I was emotionally spent.
The office building loomed ahead of me. I squinted up at it, covering my face with part of my hand as the sun cast its glare against the glass.
“What are we looking at?” Lucas whispered in my ear.
I let out a little yelp and jumped away from him, and I would have run into a passing biker if Lucas hadn’t pulled me out of the way with his coffee-free hand.
“Must you be such a pain in the ass?”
“Must you try to kill me?” I fired back.
He rolled his eyes. “Let’s go.” He started walking, hauling me with him.
We weren’t walking in the direction of the office.
“Um, Thorn—”
“I will seriously shove this Starbucks up that skinny ass if you don’t stop talking and just listen for once in your life.”
I shut up and followed, but only because he’d said “Starbucks” and was very purposefully moving in the nearest outpost’s general direction. If I looked pathetic enough, would he buy me coffee?
That was what my life was coming to.
Pity coffee.
My shoulders slumped at the thought when we walked into the building. The smell of fresh baked goods hit me with full force, and my stomach growled loudly, saying to everyone, I’m a hungry bear and may eat my young. Out of the way, please!
I followed Lucas to the line, still tempted to speak, but I figured if he wanted noise from me, he’d say something like, “You may grace me with your voice now, Avery.”
Even though I wasn’t talking, every time I heard someone order pumpkin bread I sighed, loudly, so loudly that the barista eyed me cautiously. Chill, Starbucks, I’m not going to steal a piece of pumpkin bread.
My mouth watered.