AllFreeNovel
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“Sweetheart?” Devon asks me, raising a brow.
“Devon, I swear to god—”
Luke interrupts me and reaches out to Devon for a handshake. “Devon, lovely to finally meet you.”Lovely? Finally?Who the fuck is this guy?
“And you are?” Devon shakes his hand, but keeps a scowl on her face, not giving him an inch.
“I’m Luke.”
“Mm.” She loads the single hummed syllable with unmasked judgment.
“So, what the fuck?” I ask, pointing at my displaced furniture.
Luke has the audacity to act confused. He looks back and forth between Devon, me, and the tables and chairs. He furrows his brow. “You know you have furniture in front of my shop, right?”
“I have furniture onmypatio.”
Luke braces one hand on the table behind him, leaning back against it. “Andalsoin front of my shop.”
“The whole damn patio isTurbine’s.” I barely resist the urge to stomp my foot.
His brown eyes spark, and his brows raise in a look that oozes arrogance. “Not anymore.”
This fucker.“You can’t just decide it’s not mine anymore.” My hands clench into fists at my hips. My ears, cheeks, and neck are all hot with an angry blush, but I’m holding my ground.
“I didn’t justdecide.” He crosses his arms low over his hips and drapes one foot casually across the other. “I own this building. It’s all my patio.”
I’m about to lose my shit on this guy.I know he owns this building. It’s all I can think about. That doesn’t mean he can take it away from me early, though. “And you have to honor my lease.” My voice is barely concealing my anger, volume just this side of yelling. “I am here for four and half more months, so forfour and a half more months my tables will stay right where they were.”
“Allie, I am honoring your lease. It doesn’t include the patio.” The look on his face borders dangerously on pity.
“Of course, it does.” I enunciate each syllable.
Luke closes his eyes and presses the heel of his hand into his forehead. “It’s not my fault you never read your lease.”
“Don’t tell me what I have and haven’t read, you jackass.” It’s been years since I read it, but I shouldn’t have to memorize it.Fuck’s sake.
He points at a seam in the sidewalk that follows the same line as the windowed wall, effectively separating the patio into two. “You can keep using the patio from this line over.” Before I can respond, he stands up and starts walking away.
“You can’t touch my stuff!” I yell after him.
Devon breathes a silent laugh, and only loud enough for me to hear, she says, “Are you five? ‘Don’t touch my stuff?’”
“That’s not helping,” I admonish her, but I’m giggling too. “I hate that motherfucker.” I whisper-yell at her and point in his direction.
Devon looks across the patio to Luke, and she gives him her version of adon’t fuck with me stare. It’s way more intimidating than mine. I wish she was here all the time to do that. “We’ll move the rest,” she says, making one swift sweeping movement with her hand, shooing him inside the building. He nods and disappears inside the door.
“It’s like he’s taking everything he can away from me,” I say to Devon, my mind beginning to spiral, heart beating faster.This is actually happening. I am losing my building. I’ve lost my building. I don’t have a new plan. I only have four—
Devon interrupts my impending breakdown, stepping between me and the door Luke just disappeared into. “Allie. This is okay. Youare okay.”
I nod, taking a deep breath.Fuck. Maybe I do need a few days off.
“I’ll make this work. It’ll be a cozier patio situation now.”
“It’s fine, Dev. I’ll find places for everything.”
“Can’t let you do that,” she scoffs. “Turbine Caféis featured prominently on my website. I can’t have people driving by and thinking I just threw the tables out here haphazardly into corners.”
