Page 24 of For the Love of Art

CHAPTER

FOUR

The bell over the cheese shop door sang my arrival.

“Oh, thank God!” An exasperated sounding Frankie exclaimed from behind the counter. “You’re here.”

“I spend the majority of my Mondays here.”

“You’re not cute or witty, Isla Diaz.”

Moments like these reminded me why I loved Frankie. Although I hadn’t legally changed my last name back to my maiden one, he stopped using Watts as soon as I told him Don and I were separating because he impregnated another woman.

I grabbed an apron and tied it around my waist.

“Okay, fine. Why are you so excited I’m finally here?”

“Honestly, I would’ve preferred Lianne, but you’re here, and you’ll do.”

I narrowed my eyes at him as I pulled out some cheese for the sample platter.

"Okay, you remember Saturday night?"

Frankie was waving his hands around wildly, which I knew meant he was about to hit a ten out of ten on the out-of-control emotions scale.

I nodded and hummed as I recalled our night at Rocky’s. A night I was desperately trying to forget.

“I was a little drunk and–”

“A little drunk?”

I turned the knife upward, causing a chunk of the cheddar I cut to fly behind me. Our eyes followed the cheese as it rolled, catching dust and dirt before finally stopping in front of one of the large front windows.

My eyes darted to Frankie, catching his. We looked back at the cheese, then at each other again. Neither of us moved to pick it up.

“Anyway, maybe a little drunk is too kind.”

I went back to cutting.

“It’s more than too kind.”

“Okay, I was completely obliterated!” Frankie threw his hands up in the air. “Are you happy?”

“No.”

Frankie clicked his tongue.

“I texted Derek.”

“What?” I slowly looked at him. “Like, Derek, your ex that we hate Derek?”

Frankie nodded as he clicked through his phone. He turned the phone and handed it to me. “He texted me back.”

I looked down and immediately regretted it. I dropped his phone on the counter.

“Oh, shit! Frankie!”

Frankie scrambled for his phone.