AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nope, no boyfriend,” Noah tells Sunday just as the door closes behind me.
Sunday is a pain in my ass. The black coffee I pour myself won’t fix that. I sit at the little table that wobbles. I lean on it and thumb through my phone.
Facebook: full of shit I don’t care about.
Email: full of people that need stuff from me and a plethora of spam messages.
I have a text from a supplier. I’ll get to that later.
I don’t care about any of it.
Noah isn’t even in the room, but somehow, I can still smell her cake-batter scent. The lingering smell both elevates and worsens my mood. It’s the strangest thing. I can’t get enough of the fragrance wrapped around me, but at the same time, the notion that I crave it startles me. I need simplicity in my life—work, Sunday, sleep, and a few beers here and there. It’s been working for me, and the thought of disrupting that and tilting my world with anything more isn’t what I want. Women take work, relationships need nurturing, and all of that is complicated. I don’t want complicated.
I can’t.
I want her, but I can’t.
I’m her boss, and that rules out anything casual between us.
With Noah, it would be all or nothing.
At this point, I can only choose nothing.
“Are you really going to brood in here all day?” Sunday makes a dramatic entrance into my hiding spot.
“Are you really going to keep needling this Noah thing?” I counter.
“Are you really going to deny the fact the we both know that girl is perfect for you?”
“Am I attracted to her? Yes. I’m not going to lie to you because you know me, so it would be pointless. Perfect? Sunday, I just met her. Neither of us knows anything about her. You are jumping way ahead of yourself.”
“I might be on fast-forward, but I want you to be happy. Maybe overdrive is what you need. Don’t lose the opportunity with her before someone else comes and scoops her up while your head is up your ass.”
In her heels, Sunday is almost nose-to-nose with me, and her glare holds me stiff.
“Do you really need me to spell it out for you? You’re my priority, Sunday. There isn’t room for anything else while we’re dealing with everything going on!”
I throw my hands up in the air, and Sunday rocks back on her feet.
It isn’t often that Sunday gets quiet. She always has something to say.
Right now, her eyes drift down, and she rubs at her arm with nothing to say.
Maybe I could have phrased it better. Maybe Sunday doesn’t want to hear that my life is on hold until she’s safe, but if she isn’t going to let this go, then she needs to understand why. If I hurt her feelings, then so be it. Keeping her safe is even more important than using kid gloves with her.
“You can’t put your life on hold because of me, Brazen. It isn’t fair to either of us, and it isn’t good for our friendship. I never asked you to make these sacrifices. I don’t want you to.”
The thunder outside roars and plays as a soundtrack to our heavy conversation.
This seems to be a recurring topic for Sunday and me.
Her estranged husband rules our lives.
“Honestly, Sunday, it doesn’t really matter what you want. My choices aren’t sacrifices. They’re a necessity and ones I won’t change my mind about. If we don’t fix this, Matt is going to do something to you that you can’t come back from.”
“I’m handling it. I’ve told you that.” Her forehead crinkles, and her lip turns up.
“You’ve been saying that for months, but I still don’t know what it means. Spell it out for me, Sun. How are you handling it?” Give. Me. Something.
