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Once she’d caught a glimpse of him at the grocery store. She’d been in the frozen food section grabbing a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Doggie Delights for Chunkers, and she’d seen him through the glass door. When she closed it and looked back down the aisle, he was gone.
Then another time she’d seen him when she was getting gas. He was running on the path around the lake right toward her. Her tank filled up and she looked down just for a second to remove the spout and when she lifted her head again, he was gone. Vanished into thin air.
And yesterday, she’d walked out of the realty offices and seen him going into Eat Me, the sandwich shop. She hadn’t planned on grabbing a turkey on wheat for lunch, but decided to make an exception. By the time she made it across the street and inside he was no longer in the shop. Which meant he had to have gone out the back into the alley.
He was either avoiding her or she was losing her mind. One of the two.
The worst part of his absence, deliberate or not, was that she missed him. She couldn’t stop thinking about him after their talk. She’d been worried that he was just another broken man, but he wasn’t. Yes, he’d had some bad luck, but he was a fighter. He’d faced so many odds in his life and overcome the obstacles.
From what she knew, he checked all of the boxes on her list. And even if he hadn’t, it didn’t matter. He was better than the things she’d written down. Which made the fact that she hadn’t seen him the past week even more disappointing.
She kept replaying the drive back from the city over and over in her head. Maybe she’d scared him off because he’d heard her list. Or maybe she’d asked him too many questions. Or maybe she and Laura were wrong and there wasn’t any chemistry between them.
“He is filet mignonfine,” Jess emphasized as she began to trim off dead ends.
Kennedy chuckled. Jessa amused her to no end. Although, Kennedy wasn’t sure how amused she’d be if she actually thought Jessa was interested in Seb. If that was the case, it might be a different story. Luckily, the pin-up bombshell was off the market. She was blissfully, happily married to Ethan Steele.
“Did you hear what happened with Amelia?” Jess asked as she continued snipping.
“No, what?”
Amelia co-owned Mane Attraction with Jess. She was the yin to Jessa’s yang. She was actually a lot like Kennedy. She was always on time, was friendly but not outspoken, quiet but not shy, and a firm believer in following the rules.
“Okay so you know she got her masseuse license last year because we’ve transitioned from solely a beauty salon to spa treatments and, just like our beauty treatments, we offer home visits.”
“Right, I saw the post about the new services on Instagram.” Kennedy followed the salon and both Jessa and Amelia on socials.
“Well, last week Amelia showed up to an at-home appointment that was booked online at the apartment above the Snack Shack.” Jess smiled widely, pausing, Kennedy was sure, for dramatic effect.
Kennedy’s heart sank like the Titanic. She knew exactly where this story was going.
“And Hottie Mc Tattooed Tottie answers the door wearing only a towel. Amelia thinks it’s because he’s ready for the massage.” Jess paused again.
“What happened then?!” Kennedy was far too invested in the end of the story.
“Well, they had a little back and forth. Amelia introduced herself, he said hello, blah blah blah but then he seemed surprised when she asked if he was ready for his massage. Amelia was confused but then she spots a pan of Mrs. Weatherby’s—"
“Better than sex brownies,” Kennedy chorused with her friend.
“Better than sex brownies.” Jess nodded. “Yep. And she knew, obviously why there was some confusion. The Needlepoint Mafia had struck again. She apologized and started to go but he stopped her and said he wanted the massage.”
Kennedy felt like she’d just been sucker punched in the gut by Mike Tyson. Was that why he’d been keeping his distance from her? Was it because he’d hooked up with Amelia?
“So then what happened?” Kennedy asked, even though she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Nothing. I mean, she gave him the massage but he was just talking about how he was concentrating on his recovery and that he didn’t have time in his life for anything else. She said that he made it very clear, without actually coming out and saying it, that he wasnotinterested.”
“Oh,” Kennedy breathed a sigh of relief.
It shouldn’t matter to her if he and Amelia had hooked up, but it did. As happy as she was that Amelia’s massage meet-cute had been a failure, it did make her wonder again why he’d been avoiding her all week. If it wasn’t because he was hooking up with someone else, then it had to be because he just wasn’t that into her.
The rest of the appointment went by without any more talk of Seb and when Jess was using the wide barrel brush and the blow dryer for the final touches Kennedy’s phone rang.
She pulled it out of her purse and saw it was Laura calling her. “Hey mamaci—”
“Are you busy?” Laura cut her off.
Kennedy could hear the stress in her bestie’s voice. “I’m getting my hair done. Why? What’s wrong?”
