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“Do you want to go with me?”
Her mouth drops open, and she leans across the counter to smack the side of my arm. “Shut up! Are you serious?”
I laugh and shake my head at her. “Of course I’m serious. I don’t really know them, other than meeting Tess one time. It will be nice to have someone there I’m already friends with.”
“Oh, this is gonna be fun! This will definitely help with your little problem. I’ve heard every single issue those girls have ever had in life has been magically fixed with a Sip and Bitch. It’s probably island lore, but who knows?” Melanie shrugs. “Let’s get you some Summersweet magic and a monster cock.”
“Jesus, Melanie!” I mutter, quickly looking around to see if anyone heard her.
Sal just shakes his head as he looks back down at his plate and takes a bite of his toast.
She laughs, grabbing her notepad and a pen out of her apron pocket and moving down a little ways to help another customer who just sat himself at the counter.
Finishing off my muffin, I take a drink of my coffee before flipping open my sketchbook. I try to work on a sketch for an order that came through my website this morning while the diner fills with more people and Melanie gets busier, but now all I can think about is trying to subtly flirt with Ryan again, just to see if she’s right and maybe there could be something there.
I can’t keep pretending like I don’twantmore, and it’s honestly stupid I’m not taking this risk. I walked away from my life in Chicago without a second look back. I already made the first move and kissed him when he was a complete stranger. Since when am I such a wuss about something that scares me?
It’s either the best idea, or the absolute worst, but I’ve never been the type of person to shy away from a challenge before.
“I can’t believehow selfish you’re being. This has gone on long enough, Tinsley.”
The good mood I’ve been in all afternoon and early evening disappears in the blink of an eye. I angrily slam the door to the dishwasher closed, biting down on my lip to stop myself from screaming.
My first mistake was thinking I could actually live my life and be happy, assuming my family would leave me alone and just be glad I’m finally out of their hair.
My second was allowing my good mood to distract me and not look at my caller ID when I answered my phone.
“You need to come back to Chicago, and you need to do itnow. Get your fucking head out of the clouds, and help your family,” my father orders.
I can’t believe I actually thought he was calling to make amends, or to just check in on his only daughter and see how she’s doing. I haven’t heard one word from him since I left, and all he’s done since I answered his call is criticize me.
Closing my eyes with a sigh, I lean against the counter with my phone pressed against my ear, tuning out my father’s voice as he continues to tell me what a disappointment I am. I’m happier than I’ve ever been, and I’m surrounded by people who let me be myself without any apologies. I refuse to let his words make me feel bad for the choices I made to finally get to this point. Opening my eyes, I move over to a cabinet and pull out two plates with my free hand as I finally cut my father off.
“How are you doing, Tinsley? Is everything okay? We haven’t heard from you in a while, and we were just concerned, because we love you so much,” I say in a fake cheerful voice as I set the plates down on the placemats I already put on the kitchen island, not even understanding why I’m bothering to try to make him see what an asshole he’s being.
“Now is not the time to make jokes,” he replies, proving what a waste of time this is. “You need to come home, and you need to work things out with Asher.”
This time, I let out a real laugh that comes from deep in my belly.
“It’s nice to seeyou’vestill got jokes, Dad. That’s now the third time you’ve mentioned Asher. I don’t know what your sudden obsession is with the two of us getting back together, but it needs to stop. You also keep mentioning I need to help the family, and yet you refuse to explain what is going on or why. This has been a lovely chat, but I need to finish making dinner.”
“Tinsley Danica Brewster, don’t you dare hang up on me!” I hear my father shout through the line as I start to pull my phone away from my ear and, in fact, hang up on him.
“Please, Tinsley. I’m sorry,” he continues when I regrettably press my phone against my ear again. His rare begging and apology give me pause. My father has never apologized to anyone in his life, and he would be caught dead before begging foranything.“You have no idea what’s at stake here. If you’re still mad over this little art hobby of yours, I’m sure we can work something out. I just need you to talk to Asher and get back to Chicago where you belong. He’s a good man, and he still loves you, even after the way you hurt him.”
Again with the fucking Asher thing!
Rolling my eyes, knowing he’s not actually sorry for anything, still doesn’t give a shit about me nor my feelings, and just wants me to do what he orders like always, I walk over to the oven and bend down to check on the lasagna.
“Not gonna happen. But thanks for your concern over my well-being and for asking me whatIwant,” I tell him, slamming the oven door closed a little too aggressively when I stand back up. “Give Mom my best. Let her know I’m still alive and that I’ve really appreciated all her messages and phone calls checking in on me.”
The sarcasm is thick in my voice, and I hear my dad sigh loudly through the phone as I continue. “You can also tell your piece-of-shit, golden-boy son to stop messaging me about Asher as well.” I walk over to the fridge and pull out the container of parmesan cheese. “I’m hanging up now, unless you want to actually explain to me what all this is about.”
There’s a few seconds of silence before he replies, “It’s… complicated.”
“Of course it is.” I shake my head with a humorless laugh. “You’re now the second man in the past few weeks to give me that excuse. The difference is,he’sactually a decent human being who cared and respected me enough to give me an explanation.”
There’s a long pause that reminds me just how much my father cares about and respects me.
