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More Successful

Monday morning Hadley was up bright and early working on everything that Duke had asked her for.

She still wanted to pinch herself that life was working out for her.

Well, not totally working out. Just not crashing and burning as it had for so long.

The first order of business was to get the desserts picked out and what she needed for them. Then she could text Duke right away and he could add it to his order.

She flipped through recipes she’d used before, made some selections, typed up her ingredients and measurements for one serving and he could figure out what to buy based on the servings he wanted her to make.

She felt bad leaving it to him, but she wasn’t sure what he had in mind. She was doing this for the whole week. She made sure she had what she needed for Tuesday’s dessert and she’d make double because she wasn’t working Wednesday, but then was on the rest of the week.

Once that was sent off, she got to work detailing what she thought would work for social media. He’d have to set some of them up and get her the passwords if she was posting. She could post on the FB page easily enough by just tagging them.

After she set up a bunch of example posts with pictures of cakes and desserts she’d been making, she shut her computer down and decided to get some lunch. She hadn’t realized she’d been working for hours and the time got away from her.

She was just biting into a sandwich when there was a knock at her door. Not that she had far to go or it could be anyone other than her parents, but she yelled for whoever it was to come in.

The door opened and her father was standing there. “Hi,” he said. “Am I interrupting anything?”

“Nope,” she said. “Just eating some lunch. Can I get you something?”

“I ate about ten minutes ago. Mom ran some errands and I thought I’d check in on you to see how things were going.”

Her father walked in and sat on the couch, she moved over to the chair. Her laptop was on the coffee table. Her two choices to work were the living room or the pull-down table. She hadn’t used that once yet. She knew she’d want to start trying new recipes here, but she’d been too busy working and then coming home and dealing with the rest of her life.

She didn’t even have a washer and dryer in her place and had to go to her parents and felt bad doing that, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth that she was living rent-free.

“They are going well,” she said. “I’m working more than I thought and enjoy it. The tips are good.”

“That’s good to hear. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it as successful as Duke seems to be doing.”

She didn’t want her father to feel bad about that. “This was a dream for you and Mom and you’ve done it for years and had fun, right?”

“We did. It met the needs and goals we had, but everyone wants to be more successful in life.”

She’d never really felt that way. Was there something hardwired wrong in her? Eddie made her feel that way at times. Jokingly picking on her for not experiencing much in life. Then he’d coax her into trying things. Most times it was fun, other times nerve-wracking and uncomfortable. He’d kiss up and praise and push her like a parent did a child until she gave in.

She had no clue if it was her or him, but her goal in life had been to be stable. She didn’t think that was much to ask. Now she decided that she wasn’t doing anything unless she really wanted to.

“Not everyone, Dad.”

His father sighed. “We just want you happy, Hadley. How are you doing? Really doing? I know it’s hard to lose someone you love. Then to find out you got stuck with all this debt on top of it.”

She didn’t want to tell her parents that she and Eddie had split before his death. She hadn’t even told them about the money until she moved home. If they knew Eddie did this to her and then they weren’t together it’d be worse.

There was no way she was going to say the other things Eddie did either.

She wasn’t one to talk ill of the dead even if at times she had those thoughts for the mess she was in.

She’d never learn, it seemed.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“You lost your boyfriend,” her father said.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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