Page 10 of Apparently, I’m A B!tch

“No.”

The word was out of my mouth before I bothered to think. Both Tristan and Uncle Henry stiffened, pausing where they were.

“Sorry, I… Tristan knows I don’t like all these changes.”

Tristan straightened and put his hands on his hips, making his black apron stretch against his broad chest and lean waist. He didn’t look at me.

“It’s okay, Nik. I get it.”

Uncle Henry didn’t get it, though. He wasn’t there the day Tristan invited me to see his newly renovated coffee shop for the first time. He didn’t see the way I yelled at Tristan and stormed out. He didn’t hear all the thoughtless things I said, and he didn’t know that Tristan and I were struggling to look at one another since.

His brow wrinkled further as his brown eyes flitted between the two of us. “But what is there not to love? Is so, so, modern.” He gestured around the large room, drawing my strained eyes to the gray and black surfaces and the small pops of color on the framed canvases Tristan had painstakingly painted and hung himself.

My stomach clenched as I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Modern doesn’t always mean better, Theios. I loved it the way it was.” I opened my eyes and looked up at Tristan, waiting until his hard glance slid to my own. “I’m sorry, I just… I want to be honest.”

His face shifted and he smirked, shaking his head. “That’s funny.”

“What is?”

He pushed out his bottom lip and scratched at the small traces of stubble along his jaw. “Well, isn’t lying a standard job requirement for a lawyer, Nik? Maybe you should stop trying to be so honest.”

I took in a breath and lowered my gaze to my untouched baklava. I did it again. Why couldn’t I stop treating him like this? If I hated the way we sniped at each other so much, why did I keep instigating it?

I swallowed against the heavy feeling in my stomach, gripped my mug and lifted it to my lips as the door creaked and tinkled, making Tristan’s head turn. Another customer. He muttered an apology and left us, going back to his counter and offering a smile to the pretty brunette that walked in.

I felt a stab in my chest at seeing his effortless smile directed at someone else. He never looked at me like that anymore, and why should he? I ruined our friendship and I definitely cut down his confidence more than once. That was me. The Cutter. Cutting everyone down with my bitchiness. Jake and Kelly would agree.

My breath escaped and I wrenched my eyes away, focusing instead on Uncle Henry’s puckered and furrowed face.

“Are you alright, Nikki?” he asked, his voice just above a whisper.

“Yes. Sorry, Theios.” I pulled myself up and forced a brightness into my voice. “But you still haven’t told me what you’ve been doing with yourself lately.”

He made a noise between a grunt and a pfft, waving his hand and muttering, “There is an art class on Sunday I would go to, but Lilly, my little Lilly, doesn’t want to go with me.” He met my eye and I found myself genuinely smiling again. “What is an old man to do? I do not want to go alone, with all those young people talking their yick-yack.” I let out a laugh as he kept speaking. “I need someone with me to talk to.”

I tore off a piece of my pastry and said, “Well, if Lilly won’t take you, maybe I can?”

His brows shot up as he leaned across the tabletop. “You would spend your afternoon with me when you could be with your boyfriend, agapi mou?”

I laughed again. “What boyfriend? Really, I want to go. I miss you.”

“But, is for six weeks.”

I shrugged. “No problem, I can fit that in.” He was the only person in this damn city that didn’t hate me. It was the least I could do. I could work my cases around the class. “My mama is always saying I should slow down and do something fun anyway.”

He snorted as he eyed me, that familiar twinkle coming back. “Agapi mou, if you will go with me, then I will do it.” He turned in his seat and looked over his shoulder, yelling, “Tristan, boy, Nikki and I will go to your class!”

My face dropped as Tristan and I locked eyes for the third time that afternoon.