Not wanting to dissuade Pippa in the meantime, I stand up straighter and move into my professional mode.
“I won’t let you down, Pippa.” She looks uncertain but doesn’t stop me. “Can you show me around while we talk about what exactly you want to have done?”
“Great,” she says, more chipper than seconds before. “Maybe we can start at the thermostat that’s been out all morning.”
Laughing, I sweep my arm in the air, indicating for her to walk first. I’m not an electrician, but I’ve spent enough time working on job sites to have learned a thing or two.And I’m looking for any extra brownie points I can get, in case Calypso flat out refuses to ever see me again.
Chapter Eight
Calypso
Standing with my hip against the bakery counter, I rub my hands down my face. It’s been a long day, and it’s only ten a.m.
After Liam came in for his morning coffee and pastry—the best part of the day, as much as I hate to admit—it went downhill from there.
I had a missed call and voicemail from an unknown number after he left just before seven. Assuming it was a new customer, I played the voicemail on speaker. Chuck, Juanita, and Ana were in the kitchen with me when Stefan’s voice rang through the air. Of course one of the few mornings that it’s a full house in the kitchen is when Stefan had to call me.
“Calypso,”he said with a familiar superiority.“We need to meet for dinner and talk like adults. That’s never been your strong suit, but now that I’m back in town, trying to create a life with Ruby, I won’t let you embarrass me. And my ex-wife being seen with that… that brute is certainly a humiliation. Call me back, and do it soon.”
In the three years of him trying to reconnect with me, he has never called me. I changed my number the week ourdivorce was finalized, but knew it would be simple enough for him to get it when he wanted.
To answer Liam’s question about why I haven’t told Mia or the police: he hasn’tdoneanything. I know enough about how hard it will be to get a protective order against him. Nothing he has ever sent me was threatening in the least, just a fucking nuisance. Updates on his life, jewelry I’d love to receive from anyone other than him, black dahlias (previously my favorite) on my birthday and Valentine’s Day, things a heartbroken lover would send the desire of his affections.
Outside of the office our divorce took place in, he always played the role of a scorned husband. I was the young, wild woman who lured him in only to dispose of him later. The town never believed it, and Mia saw firsthand what a load of shit it was, but it didn’t stop him from portraying me in such a cruel way.
That voicemail though…
It feels like the start of his old, jealous behaviors.
Chuck is so angry that I’m hiding in the front of the store where he knows better than to talk about Stefan. He’s upset that I didn’t tell him Stefan was contacting me, and I understand that. If one of my siblings were in this situation, or Lexi and our employees, I would want to know and shield them. Hell, I wish I could save Ruby from this fate.
The thing is, I’m the oldest sister and it has always been my job to protect them—everyone really. I can handle Stefan too. I’ve done it since I was sixteen.
There’s this greasy pit in my gut telling me that maybe, for the first time, I can’t handle my ex-husband’s volatility on my own.
For two years after our divorce, Stefan left me alone. At least I thought so; maybe he looked into me and Brighter Daze, but he never bothered me. It was too good to be true, but I started to believe he’d let it be a clean exit.
I mean, that came after three years of a torturous divorce. Another one of his manipulative power moves—make sure I spend as much of the trust my dad left for me in his will. His parents paid for every God-awful hour of mediation and negotiations.
We didn’t even have that much to split, other than the house we owned together. He made it hell.
Then one night, on the anniversary of our divorce, we saw each other at The Siren’s Cove. He was entering the lounge after what I assume was a business meeting, and I was entering the elevator with a nameless man at my side.
I anticipated his letter that came two weeks after that.
There have been other men before Liam—my one-night stands and a few flings that lasted a couple months at most. None of them were serious, and I guess Stefan knew that.
Something about Liam pisses him off, though.
Unfortunately, it only makes memoreattracted to Liam. If I was even an ounce less jaded, I’d give him a chance. A real one that exceeds only the physical aspects.
If I could go back in time and ask sixteen-year-old Calypso who she imagined herself marrying, Liam would have been pretty damn close to the fantasy. Maybe with the skater boy haircut, but it was 2006, so that’s a given. That would have been before I met Stefan and my desires slowly morphed into his, until it finally felt too suffocating.
At thirty-two years old, I am jaded. I can’t imagine that changing anytime soon.
I’ve felt off since hearing the voicemail. I dropped a tray of cupcakes, made the wrong drink three times, and snapped at Gavin who is an angel of an employee and friend. If we didn’t have multiple orders due tomorrow, including those cupcakes, I’d cash in one of my sick days that have piled up over the years.
Knowing I have to meet with Vivi and Grady to do cake testing this morning has my already fried nerves on high alert. In a perfect world, I’d only feel joy and excitementfor my baby sister. But the closer we get to their wedding, the more it feels like the walls are closing in around me. Stefan’s presence has created a dark cloud over my entire life in less than a week, and I despise that he still has even that much power over me.
