His jaw hardened and he looked away.
“How long have you been covering for him? Why are you letting him take this away from you?”
He looked bored. “Is that all? Because this could have just been a message left with my assistant.”
I blinked.
No. I don’t offend easily. Not anymore.
“I know how much you love it. And that it probably hurt like hell to give it all up again to Troy.”
His head snapped to me. “What do you mean again?”
“I have a feeling this isn’t the first time you covered for him. You’re the reason he made it there in the first place, isn’t it?”
He stood, turning toward the window and I had my confirmation.
“August, why would you do that? This…” I stretched my arm out across the lavish space, “isn’t you. You’re wasting…”
He came around the desk but didn’t approach me. “Don’t talk to me about wasting away. I’m not the one waiting for someone to come knocking on my door while I swirl lattes. You have a talent that you chose to do nothing with too, so don’t come barging in here pretending to be the wiser of us both.”
His words were cutting—but I pushed through, my voice painfully smaller. “I’m not pretending to know more. I just know you’re letting him take it away.”
“Enough, Harper. This isn’t a joke. This is a place of business. Not a coffee shop. I do real work here. You can’t just burst in demanding answers from me on something you know nothing about.”
My eyes pricked. “You don’t have to be so mean,” I whispered. “I know you’re upset with me for playing along—”
“Exactly. You played along, pretending I was my brother.”
“You have it all wrong,” the words dragged out of me like a broken record. “I just wanted you to be you.”
“This is who I am Harper,” he howled, spreading his arms around his office. “I’m not warm, I’m not gentle. I’m not the man I was with you.”
I stared blankly, lost for words. When my eyes began to prick, I swallowed hard. “So…now you’re—” I was going to say breaking up with me but maybe he already had, and I didn’t realize it? Maybe we were never anything for there to be a breakup?
“Now, I’m waiting for you to leave so I can get back to work with adults. Not children who just can’t seem to move past a five-year-old broken heart.”
My chin lip began to tremble and I pressed my lips together.
There was immediate regret in his eyes and he ran a frustrated hand across his face as he moved back to his chair.
He reached for a pen and pulled on a stack of papers, dipping his head to review them. “I can’t imagine why you’d be coming here again, but if you do, I’d appreciate if you waited outside like everyone else—until I’m ready to see you.”
A burning ache swelled in my chest, but my face was perfectly still. The tears I knew I’d eventually shed were swallowed down hard. “I can’t imagine why either.”
26
IturnedoffTheLittle Mermaid late Sunday night when the credits started rolling. “Love that crab.”
It was five days since August threw me out of his office and four days since I’d stopped crying over it. Over his harsh words, icy glare, and complete disregard for everything we’d been through together.
I allowed the tears to shed for one day. He wasn’t worth more than that. Instead, I woke up the next morning, brushed myself off and went to work. Nic let me make the specialty coffees for a few days while she handled customers. I realized I’d been missing out all this time. The hands-on labor of mixing drinks was much more satisfying and helped keep focus on the task rather than everything else.
Proud of my progress to self-heal, I treated myself to one more scoop of ice cream and chopped some Twizzlers over it as I reexamined my mother’s list.
“How many times can I check off watching a Disney movie?”
There was a knock on my door that made me jump. Checking my appearance in the hall mirror, I rubbed a hand down my chocolate-stained t-shirt, straightened the bun over my head and checked the peep hole.
