Page 38 of Monster Diner

“Oh.”

“I told you from the beginning, I’m just having fun.”

“You did.”

“And I am planning on leaving after Halloween. If we’re going to continue this”—she gestured between them—“I think we need to be on the same page.” She said the words all in a rush, bracing herself for him to explode or yell or something.

Instead, he was silent for a few beats. “I wanted to be your perfect man.”

She inhaled and exhaled. What did she even say to that? Knowing his past, knowing she wasn’t ready to commit. “No one is perfect, Victor. Even you.”

He flinched. “But I wanted to try. I’ve been in love with you since high school. I’ve been working up to this confession and now everything has gone wrong…” He dragged a hand through his hair and looked away from her, towards the diner, and then back again.

Her heart fluttered at the confession, and every inch of her was screaming to return it. To fall into his arms. Victor was quite literally her dream man—thoughtful, caring, compassionate. But fear was nagging at the back of her mind. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Frank Jr. had left the house and diner to both of them. Not when he could have easily left it all to Victor. Not when he was apparently an empath.

“Did Frank Jr. know about your feelings?” she asked.

Victor’s face blanched of color and that was an answer in itself, but she waited for his confession.

“He never said it, but I suspected he had an inkling. There was a stipulation in our contract. He could have left everything to me.”

She nodded. It was as she had suspected. Nothing had been her choice. Even starting to fall for Victor hadn’t been entirely up to her. Everything had been orchestrated. It was someone else’s will bearing down on her. Maybe her dad had had a secret softness for him. Maybe he loved her and regretted their estrangement, but his will laid upon her shoulders. Another obligation.

“I know I should have told you from the start. I didn’t want to taint your memories of your dad and⁠—”

“You didn’t want me to feel entrapped by you.”

Victor was silent. The wind rustled through the trees, and a few copper-colored leaves fell to the ground between them. She thought she loved the diner and this town, but what if she was just falling into those same old patterns, letting others manipulate her, contorting herself to please them because she was so afraid of being alone? She didn’t even know what it meant to be alone anymore. The numbness was rising in her like a tide for the first time in days and threatening to swallow her whole. And this time when she sank beneath its depths, she feared she wouldn’t rise out of it again.

“I’m sorry, Victor, I think we need to end this. I can’t give you what you need.”

Victor inhaled sharply. He looked as if he wanted to argue and she braced for it.

“You’re perfect. The diner is thriving, Brayden and I are closer than ever because of you. Is it me who’s not enough?”

She resisted the urge to reach out to him to comfort him. “You’re plenty, Victor. I just—” She took a shaking breath. “I need time and space to think.”

“I understand.”

She bit her lower lip. “Yeah.”

“What about the diner?” He gestured between them.

“I’ll stay through Halloween to help with the rush and the festival booth, and after that, I’ll leave.” It made her heart twist, but it had to be the right choice.

He nodded slowly. “I guess this is the end then.”

They lingered a moment as if neither of them was fully ready to give up. But then Vivianne came out the back door of the diner.

“Sorry to bother you, but it’s the ice cream machine. It’s not working.”

She looked between them, a question on her face.

“Duty calls.” He laughed and turned his back on Lizzy. Perhaps Vivianne saw something in his expression because her mouth down-turned and she looked at Lizzy with a raised brow.

Guilt was eating Lizzy up. But she swallowed it down, as she always did. She couldn’t let fear dissuade her. She’d set out to be more independent, to find a life that centered herself and not others. It felt like an unattainable goal, because she realized she had no idea what she wanted.

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