I brought the bacon to the table, along with a fresh cup of coffee and the pancakes that I’d had warming in the oven.
“Did you have fun after I left?” I asked.
“Not really. After the fight, the energy changed in the place. It was all anyone could talk about.” She bit into a piece of bacon and shook her head. “I can’t believe my future brother-in-law was almost arrested. Who knew you liked the bad boys?”
Future brother-in-law? Bad boys? My sister was a menace. I pointed my fork at her. “Shut up.”
“You shut up,” she countered, acting like the thirteen-year-old girl she was before I left for college.
My phone chimed with a text notification and then a second one immediately after. I put my plate in the sink and gathered my phone from the counter. I expected to see two back-to-back messages from the same person, but that wasn’t it. A message from Eddie came in at the same time as a message from Luke.
A swooping feeling overtook my belly at the sight of one of them. It wasn’t the one it should have been.
Eddie: Morning beautiful. Are we still on for Friday?
Eddie had never once told me I looked pretty. Something about his greeting felt forced and inauthentic—like he was trying too hard. He certainly didn’t give me butterflies and make my heart race.
Luke: I’m pretty sure I got run over by a bus. But don’t tellanyone. It’ll take away from my street cred.
I chuckled at Luke’s message, replying immediately.
Me: Your secret’s safe with me.
Me: Do you need anything? An ice pack or some pain relievers?
Luke: No. I’m just kidding. Kind of. I’m fine. I’m actually heading into work in a bit. Are you working today?
Me: Yeah. My shift starts at 3:00 p.m.
Luke: Perfect. Then I’ll see you later.
I looked at my phone, rereading the messages. The swooping sensation in my chest continued to flutter.
“So, Luke’s feeling okay?” Aurora chuckled, “That’s a shame. You could have offered to go over there and ice his big, strong muscles.”
Heat crept up my cheeks. I had essentially offered to do just that, but I had no intention of telling Aurora that. I rolled my eyes and switched to the other message thread. Eddie still needed a response. The longer this went on, the more unfair it became. I didn’t know if anything would ever happen between Luke and me. It was probably just a fantasy. The same one I had been hung up on for the past four years. But I knew that my future wasn’t Eddie. Killing time with him—and that’s all I was doing—was wrong.
“Hey, I’ll be back in a few. I have to make a call,” I told her.
I took my phone with me into my bedroom and shut the door. Instead of responding to his message, I called him.
“You’ve reached Eddie Paisley. How can I help you?”
“Hi, Eddie. It’s Scarlett.”
Did he not have caller ID on his phone or something? He had to know it was me calling, so why act like he didn’t?
“Hi. Did you get my text?” he asked, sounding a little annoyed. It hit me that I was calling him at work, in themiddle of the day on a Wednesday. I worked such odd shifts I forgot sometimes that other people had standard Monday-through-Friday, nine-to-five jobs.
Maybe I shouldn’t have called. I should have waited until later when I knew he was off work. But then, I would be on shift. There was never going to be a good time to have this conversation.
“Yeah. I won’t be able to make our date on Friday. I just wanted to call to let you know.”
“Oh, sure. No problem. Does Saturday work better?”
“Um, no. I don’t think it does.” Shoot. I shouldn’t have called him while he was at work. I wasn’t even thinking. “Why don’t I call you later. When you’re not busy.”
“You called for a reason, Scarlett. You can say what you want to say.” His voice gentled, a hint of resigned expectation lacing his words.
