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Hmm, maybe she should get a cake baked just for her. She felt her lips tip up at the edges. Bet Seth would enjoy another slice—or two—served in various ways.
“Uh, Harper, you need to see this.” Jinx’s voice came from behind her.
“Just one sec.” Harper tapped in the requisite merchant’s code, and the order flashed complete courtesy of the café’s wifi. She handed the device back to Nitro. “Go reassure Magda the order will arrive this afternoon.”
She scanned the glass pastry case that sat on top of the counter to her right. “We have plenty of flan to last us today. Drama averted.” If one ever existed. “Nitro, when you’ve finished helping Magda, I need you to—”
“Harper.” Jinx hurried through one of the gaps in the long counter that faced the street, stopping next to Harper. “Honey, is this guy why you didn’t return my message?”
She held out her phone, but it was the deep crease between her brows that caught Harper’s attention.
Taking the device, she glanced at the screen displaying her Facebook timeline with a post tagging the café and her name and showing a photo of Seven Dishes taken from the street. The poster’s name read Seth Justice.
Fat girls are so generous and ready to please if last night was anything to go by. Who needs skinny and pissed off, when you can have grateful and begging. With chocolate cake thrown in. Perfect. Guys, check out the house special at 7 Dishes. It comes in an extra-large serving.
An icy coldness invaded her body, starting deep in her belly and spreading outwards, seeping into her tissues and veins, forming frozen tentacles of sickening dread.
No.no.no.This couldn’t be true. Seth wouldn’t… He’d been so wonderful. And genuine.
But there were the words. Posted by him. Right there on Jinx’s phone.
Mocking her.
How could this have happened? She’d been taken in again? The answer was there on social media for the world to read and laugh over.
Oh God, the comments. Vile, horrible words swam before her on the phone. Strangers venting their poison. A couple of her friends coming to her defense, demanding the offenders go to hell.
“I can’t—” Bile raced up her throat, forcing her to swallow.
“Honey, you need to sit down.” Jinx moved closer, curling her arm around Harper’s back. “Nitro, you guys need to take over.”
Grateful and begging.
Harper blinked at the phone’s screen.
The house special. An extra-large serving.
Last night she’d given Seth her trust, bared herself to him and not thought about size, or body image or any of that shit that some women allowed to fuck with their heads.
“That bastard.” Harper’s cold voice drew stares.
She didn’t care.
“Sweetie.” Jinx’s hand firmed on Harper’s shoulder as the stylist reclaimed her phone and tried to steer them away from the counter.
Harper’s legs locked in place and no amount of gentle tugging from Jinx was going to move her ass.
After a lifetime of her mom scolding her for every bite of food she put in her mouth, how many times had she told herself it was her own opinion of her image that counted and not anyone else’s?
But Seth thought he could publicly state her value as less than another’s because of her curves?
A roaring sound, like the hoof beats of a thousand horses speeding toward battle, filled Harper’s ears. “He doesn’t get to take that power from me.” She stepped out of Jinx’s hold and stormed through to the kitchen, barely missing a startled Abby as she strode past.
Harper ignored Magda, who stood in the center of her square fortress of stainless steel appliances and bench tops. At the small safe under the side bench, Harper entered the code they all shared to store their bags and valuables. Snatching hold of her slouchy black bag, she slung the strap over her shoulder and turned to head back out.
Jinx stood in her way with her legs spread and arms outstretched as if preparing to make a tackle. “Listen to me for a second. I’ve asked Nitro to hide the post from the Café’s Facebook page.”
“Damn.” She hadn’t thought of that.
