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I locked the apartment tightly and started toward the bus stop, angry with her and determined to get our lives back on track. I worried Koah would be outside waiting for me, but he wasn’t. I took the bus to work, and again, I worried he would be sitting in the parking lot when I arrived, but he wasn’t. Relieved, I went inside and got straight to work, taking orders and clearing tables.
Two hours into work, the sound of a motorcycle filled the air, and I stiffened as I was taking an order, knowing it was Koah coming to talk to me. When I turned to find Saint’s friend Skull and his girlfriend coming in, I breathed out and calmed myself. It wasn’t that I was scared of Koah. I was scared of myself. I knew how weak I was when it came to him.
After I finished with the table I was with, I moved over to Skull and his girlfriend’s table.
“Can I take your order?” I asked, readying my pen over my paper pad.
Skull’s eyes moved over me before recognition sparked in his gaze as if he knew me.
“You’re Saint’s friend, right?” he asked.
I swallowed, feeling super uncomfortable. “Kind of.”
“Oh, you’re friends with Saint? How nice!” The girl spoke up, taking my attention away from Skull and his knowing gaze.
She smiled up at me from her seat, and it seemed genuine.
“My name’s Everly, and I love Saint wholeheartedly. He’s like a brother to me.”
I nodded, smiling back at her despite knowing my smile was stiff.
“Yeah. He seems nice,” I responded.
He seems nice?
What was I saying?
I knew Koah. I had spent hours in his arms, making love while we devoured each other. I knew his heart—his soul—his past. He was a part of me unlike any other person ever had been, but I couldn’t say that. Not with how my heart was drilling in my chest and how they looked at me.
“Oh, he is,” she continued. “He’s got a heart of gold. Aiken”—she nodded at Skull, letting me know who she was referring to—“was just telling me about how he used to sit in the parking lot of The Huddle, that other breakfast joint down the road, and he would give a hundred dollar bill to people as they entered, paying for their meal as long as they tipped one of the cooks that worked there with the leftover money. I don’t know. I guess she was someone from his past, but still … how sweet is that?”
My breath caught, and my eyes shot to Skull. His green gaze scanned my face as if trying to figure out what Koah saw in me.
Did he know about Koah and me?
Did he know I was the girl from his past who Everly was referring to?
My mind went back to when I was making such excellent tips. I was ahead on my bills and able to buy things for myself. It was the first time in a long time I didn’t struggle as hard, and it was all because of Koah. He never told me, but then again, he wasn’t the type of person who would.
Tears filled my eyes, and I blinked them away before they could fall.
“Excuse me,” I croaked, walking away and making a beeline for the bathroom.
As soon as I closed the bathroom door behind me, I leaned my back to it and broke. I covered my mouth to keep the sounds from escaping. The bathroom echoed, and the last thing I needed was for everyone in the building to hear me cry my eyes out.
I waited in the bathroom until I was calm and my eyes weren’t so puffy from crying. When I finally exited, Skull and Everly were gone. I faked being sick and left early, knowing I was too broken up to continue to work.
I caught the early bus and went home instead of stopping by the grocery store like I should have. We had leftovers at the apartment and I was starving, but all I wanted to do was go home, shower, and go to bed.
I got off the bus at the stop closest to my apartment and walked until I finally reached the parking lot of my building.
That was where Koah caught me. He saw me the second I spotted him, so it was too late to turn around. Instead, I walked across the parking lot to my building without acknowledging him. It was a stupid move, but I had already had a breakdown today. I didn’t have it in me for another one.
“Tori,” he called out, his voice echoing off the broken asphalt.
His boots crunching the asphalt told me he was coming after me. I hiked my bag on my shoulder, put my head down, and kept walking as if I hadn’t heard him. He followed me, drawing closer no matter how quickly I walked.
“Hey,” he said before his warm fingers gripped my arm.
