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I rub my chest, trying to ease the ache that’s taken up root there, but it doesn’t help. I can’t believe I told Caroline that I loved her and she broke up with me.
I head back to my shop in a daze, not sure what to do in this situation. I close early, too heartbroken and distracted to focus on inventory or helping tourists. I’m headed to my truck when I catch sight of Dr. Coleman hurrying across the diner parking lot and assumedly back toward his clinic.
Maybe I shouldn’t bother him. I know how busy he’s been lately, but I need his help.
“Ken!” I call before I can stop to think it over.
He stops and looks at me in surprise.
“Hey, Heath. How’s it going?”
“Alright. Hey, do you want to grab a drink with me? Do you have a few minutes?” I ask as I join him in the parking lot.
“Uh, yeah, sure. I have a few minutes.”
We head down a few blocks to the Fireside Bar and Grill. It’s getting to be closing time for a lot of businesses, so the bar is just starting to get crowded. We take a seat at the bar, off to the side, and I order us each a beer.
“Is everything alright, Heath? Not that I don’t appreciate the beer, but you’re giving off this weird kind of panicked vibe.”
“Yeah, uh, no.”
“What?”
“No, I’m not alright. Caroline broke up with me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he says sympathetically.
“Things were going great, then something happened with Charlotte, and she just bolted.”
Ken nods, taking a pull of his beer.
“So, I was just wondering, in your professional opinion, how do I fix this, because I can’t lose her. I can’t.”
“You know that I’m not a psychiatrist or anything, right? And I’m single, so I’m not great with the ladies, either.”
“I know, but you’re the closest thing I have to a psychiatrist, and I’ve seen the way that Gracie looks at you, so I think you’re doing alright in that other area, too.”
That seems to shock him for a minute and he blinks, frowning as he thinks that over in his head. He takes a long sip of his beer and I let him take his time as he thinks it over.
“So, what do I do now?”
“Well, we’re in a bar, so if you want to move on or find someone else then—”
I don’t let him finish his sentence.
“No. There is no one else for me,” I say, my voice coming out harsher than I intended. “There’s no one else. I just want Caroline.”
He nods like he expected that and I pick at the label on my beer bottle.
“Then let her come to the same conclusion.”
“What if she doesn’t?” I ask, voicing the one thought I can’t escape.
“She will,” he says simply.
“But how can I make her see it faster?”
I’ve wasted months trying to get her to warm up to me, trying to work up the nerve to ask her out and now that I’ve had the real thing, I can’t go back to the way it was before.
