AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The night before had been a blur. She couldn’t even remember getting back to Gabby’s place. And suddenly she was back at the bookstore. At some point she’d gone on autopilot.
Her eyes flicked to the coffee shop and she glowered, causing the customer in front of her to shift uncomfortably.
“If it’s not available, then I can get something else.”
“Don’t be silly,” she muttered. “Is that everything?”
The young woman nodded.
“Would you like it iced or hot?”
“Hot, please.”
Megan forced a smile she didn’t feel like giving and gestured toward the credit card reader. “That will be four-sixty-seven.” The woman ran her card and stepped back to make room for the next guest. Megan made quick work of filling her order and then she returned to the counter to take the next one.
That was how the day went. She didn’t pay much attention to anything besides how betrayed she’d come to feel.
Daniel had tricked her. He’d made her believe he was in this relationship to help her succeed. She’d thought he was going to support her in all matters and instead, he’d stolen the one thing she’d wanted. She should have known better than to tell him about the book tour. It didn’t matter how close they’d gotten, he would forever be her competition.
Her stomach roiled, churning and making it difficult for her to complete even the most mundane chores. The problem was that she had a hard time faulting him for what he’d done. If the roles had been reversed, she wasn’t so certain that she wouldn’t have done the same. If it came down to her business and her new relationship with him, she didn’t know what she would have chosen.
Or at least she wouldn’t have known up until last night. She would have liked to have said that she would have done the romantic thing and given up what she needed for her book store in order to make him happy.
But now she wasn’t so sure.
By the time she had to close up shop, her head pounded. She hadn’t eaten or drank anything all day, which added to the nausea she was experiencing. Megan wasn’t even sure she wanted to head home. By now, Bo had probably heard about what was going on between herself and Daniel. Everyone might have acted like they weren’t aware of how serious things had gotten between herself and Daniel, but she wasn’t stupid.
They all had to know to a certain degree.
Gabby definitely knew.
Megan stepped out of her shop and locked the door behind her. When she turned around, she jumped. Across the street, Daniel was doing the same. Of course they just had to get done at the same time. She hadn’t wanted to see him. And now that she had, she didn’t know if they should speak to one another.
Daniel’s gaze drilled into her even from the distance that split them. He didn’t make any move to talk, so neither would she. Megan spun around and headed down the street in the direction where she’d parked her car. All she had to do was get home and sneak to bed. That would be easy as long as Gabby wasn’t up and wanting to chat.
The drive home wasn’t soothing at all—mostly because it was the exact same trip she took when she was living in the same building as her now ex-boyfriend. Memories of him were flung at her like dodgeballs from her youth. She couldn’t avoid thinking about him and everything they’d done together.
By the time she pulled in front of the modest home that belonged to her cousin, she’d been crying for a good several minutes. No amount of rubbing at her face was able to hide the fact that she was miserable. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to run into Gabby. At least then she’d have someone she could vent to. Holding in this disappointment for the last twenty-four hours had wreaked havoc with her confidence.
Megan entered the quiet house and surprisingly she was far more disappointed to find that Gabby and Bo had already gone to bed. It was dark, save for one lone lamp by the front door. Megan sighed, slipping her fingers beneath the shade to flip off the light. She allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness before slipping through the house and toward the room she’d been offered.
She’d planned on finding a place of her own within four months of arriving, but it was looking like she’d have to extend that plan. Since she hadn’t gotten the deal with the book reading, she wasn’t sure she’d be making enough to cover those kinds of expenses.
It was just one more reason why she despised Daniel at the moment. Her foot snagged on a rug and her hands flew out to catch herself in case she might fall. But instead of feeling the wall, her hand knocked something off a nearby console table. The object clattered then shattered on the floor.
Upstairs there was a thud then thumping footsteps until a door could be heard being opened.
“Megan? Is that you?”
She winced, pulling out her phone to shine a light on the mess she’d made.
At her feet was a broken frame surrounded by glass. “Yeah,” she called, “it’s me. I accidentally knocked a picture off this table down here. It’s broken. I’ll just clean it up and head to bed.”
If she could have gotten away with it, she would have stomped through the house. It would feel so good to be heard. She would tell Bo his brother was a jerk and Gabby would side with her. She’d come up with a plan to fix what had gone wrong and everything would work out.
But that wasn’t real life.
Megan yanked the broom from the pantry closet and trudged back to the hallway to sweep up the glass shards.
