“So, what’s your plan with this place?” My confusion had finally boiled over, and I needed some answers or I was going to burst.
He paused while loading the last plate to look up at me. “What do you mean?”
I frowned. “You look like you’re living a good life. Why are you messing with a small-town diner? What are you going to get from it that you aren’t getting from your life now?”
He studied me for a moment before he dropped his gaze and finished racking the last plate. Then he lifted the basket and set it inside the commercial dishwasher, which had a habit of not starting—much like most of this diner.
Once he’d closed the door, he brushed his hands off as he glanced over at me. Then he sighed. “Listen, my life is none of your business. If we can keep our conversations professional, that would be best.” He held my gaze. “I’m not here to make friends, but to do a job. Can you respect that?”
His words startled me. I blinked a few times as I compared his reaction against the words I’d actually spoken. Had I overstepped? It didn’t feel like it. My questions seemed legitimate given our current circumstances.
But as I chewed on his words, I began to realize that maybe the problem hadn’t been what I’d asked but, instead, that the issue was with him.
He was just a jerk, through and through. Who would get offended by a simple, normal question?
Cole Watkins, that’s who.
His words still stung as they settled in my mind. Tears pricked my eyes from the mixture of his sharpness and my habitual exhaustion. So instead of saying anything, I just turned and walked away.
I wasn’t going to cry over Cole Watkins. I wasn’t going to care what he thought. For a brief moment, I’d thought we might be able to find some common ground. That we might be able to connect through a normal human conversation. But he’d made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t interested in any of that.
Cole Watkins was never going to be my friend.
Ever.
8
ELLA
I hadno intention of giving Chad my phone number when he hit on me at the bar. But after seeing Asher and meeting Coralie, I handed Chad a piece of paper with my number scratched across it, to which he whooped and hollered in celebration.
Never in my life would I have putAsher gets engaged in less than a monthon my bingo card, but here we were. Asher was engaged, and I was pretty certain that I’d lost my best friend for good.
Sure, he wanted to pretend that things weren’t different. But they were. Everything felt different.
I drove myself home from the pub an hour later, unable to stay in the same bar as Asher and his fiancée. Sure, Coralie seemed nice, albeit a little demanding and dramatic, but overall, she was okay. She certainly wasn’t who I would have pegged Asher to end up with—but if I were honest with myself, I hadn’t really spent a lot of time trying to picture Asher with anyone.
It was always just him and me.
Now I felt stupid for not thinking that, at some point in our relationship, he was going to have a girlfriend and get married.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat as I pulled into my parking space. I turned the key in my ignition, and my car’s engine shut off. I pulled the key out at the same time I opened the driver’s door. I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat before climbing out of my car and slamming the door.
My heels clicked on the sidewalk as I made my way to my apartment building and punched in the security code. As I opened the door, I yawned. I rode the elevator up to my floor, and then when I got to my apartment, I unlocked the door and walked inside.
I kicked off my shoes right next to the door before dumping my purse on the kitchen counter closest to me. My mouth felt dry, so I padded over to the cupboard next to the fridge and grabbed out a glass.
After I filled it with filtered water from the fridge, I closed my eyes as I downed the cool liquid. It felt good against my dry throat. I was starting to feel a bit more human when I tipped the last bit of water down my throat and set the glass in the sink.
I grabbed a piece of chocolate from my emergency stash in my top cupboard and made my way into my bedroom, where I unzipped my dress and let it fall into a pile at my feet.
I found my sweatpants and matching sweatshirt and pulled them on. I could feel the stress leave my body as I threw my hair up into a messy bun and washed my makeup off. I made my way back into the kitchen and found my phone, which I’d tucked into my purse, before I grabbed the whole bag of chocolate from my stash and headed into the living room.
With remote in hand, I settled on the couch and turned on the TV. I was exhausted but buzzing from the events of the evening. I needed to unwind, or I was going to spend the entire night tossing and turning.
I unwrapped another chocolate and slipped it into my mouth before I picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels. Once I settled on some reruns ofFRIENDS, I set the remote next to me and collapsed against the back of the couch as I licked the bits of melted chocolate from my fingers.
My phone chimed just as I moved to get another piece of chocolate. My heart picked up speed as I grabbed my phone, half expecting to see a text from Asher. I hated how we’d left things, and I was desperate for things to go back to normal. Back before he’d confessed what he did, and well before he brought Coralie to Harmony.
