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“You told Ivy about the glasses I wanted that were too expensive for me to buy.”
“I never said a word to Ivy about the glasses,” I said with enough adamance that he surely must believe me. “Why would you think I’d even bring it up to her?”
“Because she bought me a pair!”
I took a step back because it wasn’t excitement spurring his reaction, it was anger. “Lance, it’s not uncommon knowledge that those glasses exist. Ivy could find them in less than thirty seconds online. Wait. You’re saying Ivy bought the glasses?”
“Actually, Cameron did,” he said with great sarcasm. “You know, the guy who has no investment in me whatsoever but bought the five-thousand-dollar glasses so I could get a promotion I don’t even want at a restaurant he doesn’t even own.”
Oh boy. I could see I was going to have to handle this one delicately. I wouldn’t let my anger get the better of me here. He was upset and I had to be patient with him until I understood the situation.
“Promotion?”
He nodded, his hair flopping over his forehead. “I’m sure you wished you were there, Indigo.”
Oaf, he was using my full name. Good indicator he was more than a little bit mad. I stayed silent and he spoke again.
“It was a touching scene. First, Ivy brings out the glasses and waves them in front of my face. I can have them if I agree to be her new diner manager. Wasn’t that sweet of her?”
“I’m sure she didn’t mean it that way, Lance. I know Ivy and she wouldn’t buy a device that would better your life and then hold them over your head. You know that too.”
“Shows what you know. You’re right, maybe Cameron was the one who forced her to hold them back. Either way, I’m not accepting the position.”
“Why? Glasses or no glasses, you’d be an excellent manager. You love working there and you love feeding the people of Bells Pass.”
“That’s right,” he agreed, but I could see tears in his eyes now. “I loved working there and feeding the people of Bells Pass. I was happy as a cook and confident in my skills as one. She forced my hand, and I had no choice but to quit. I lost my mother and my job in the number of months you’ve been in my life again. Something tells me maybe we never should have let things get this far. We just aren’t right for each other.”
“No,” I said immediately. “You don’t believe that Lance. You’re just upset. I understand that, but I had nothing to do with this and you didn’t have to quit! You could have just told Ivy you didn’t want to be the manager.”
“I did!” he exclaimed. “But you know Ivy. There was no way she was taking no for an answer. Why can’t a guy just be happy doing what he’s doing in life without people assuming he’s not? I gotta go.”
“Lance, you can’t just leave. We need to talk about this.” I could see the tears running down his cheeks and I didn’t want him to leave when he was so upset. I grabbed his coat sleeve, but he shook me off.
“I can’t right now,” he said, his voice breaking. “My heart is so broken I don’t know what to do, Indie. Don’t you understand how much that job meant to me?” he asked, poking himself in the chest. “I can’t do this right now.”
This time I let him go when he ran through the backroom and out the back door. When the door slammed shut, I couldn’t help but think it was indicative of our relationship. My phone rang at that moment and I pulled it out, tears in my eyes and hope in my heart that it was Lance calling to apologize. It wasn’t. It was Ivy. I didn’t want to talk to her, but I knew if I didn’t answer, she’d just come over here.
“Hey,” I said, clearing my throat of the tears threatening to fall.
“It’s Lance,” Ivy said, and I could hear the tears in her voice too. “He quit, Indie!”
“I know,” I whispered as the first tear fell. “He came into the bakery, accused me of having something to do with it, and then stormed out of here mad just a second ago.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you held the glasses over his head as a way to make him take the promotion, so he quit.”
Her gasp was so loud on the line I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “I did no such thing! The glasses were his no matter what he decided to do. They’d be just as beneficial to him in the kitchen as they would be as a manager.”
“I suspected that he was making it into something it wasn’t just because he was upset that Cameron turned him into a charity case. His words, not mine,” I clarified.
“Cameron purchased the glasses from his nonprofit because he gets them tax free and because that’s what his nonprofit is set up to do. It’s set up to help people with disabilities in the workplace. It would be no different than if Becca needed a new prosthesis in order to keep working but couldn’t afford one.”
“I know, Ivy,” I promised, wanting to make her feel better. “I think the idea of the promotion overwhelmed all of his senses and he felt trapped. His brain injury involves more than just not being able to read and write. He also can’t think quickly on his feet when he feels unprepared.”
“I guess I didn’t give him any warning before I talked to him about it. That’s the thing, though, we were just talking.”
His words ran back through my head and rang in my ears. “Ultimately, what I got from the conversation, was that he was happy as a cook. He was good at being a cook. He was confident being a cook. He wouldn’t feel that way about managing the diner because that’s not where his talent lies.”
