Page 44 of Loathe at First Sight

Liz

Where the hell is Jack?

I didn’t see his truck in the parking lot when I got here, but I figured maybe he was running a little later—even though I haven’t seen him late before. He seems far too rigid to be someone who is okay with not being on time.

But I’m thirty minutes into my run, and there’s still no sign of him. Maybe he got sick of seeing me in the mornings and found a different place to get some exercise. That will just suck because I’ve gotten used to being around him.

Sort of.

But if he calls me princess one more time, I just might knee him in the balls.

I’ve been working at the inn now for almost a week, and things are going well. Although I was worried that I would have no idea what I was doing when it came to running an inn, I picked up on it pretty quickly. It helps that it’s an inn in a small town where we don’t get a lot of visitors. Most of the guests that I see are staying long-term. They've just gotten into town for work and haven't found a more permanent place to stay.

It’s nice having my own space again that isn’t under my parents’ roof. Not being around them constantly has even prompted me to go into the bar a couple of times for meals just to see them.

Mom and I still give each other shit, but it’s getting a little better day by day. And Dad is always happy to see me, so I guess I’ll keep going back.

I saw Michelle a few days ago on the street. She pretended she didn’t see me…even when I waved and called her name. She and I are going to have to sit down at some point and hash things out, but quite frankly, I don’t like her attitude. I thought about seeing if Eve wanted to go to dinner one day just to catch up, but I figure that probably wouldn't be a good idea until her mom and I bury the hatchet. Going behind her back like that would probably piss her off even more.

My feet hit the pavement at a steady pace, but I decide to push it a little bit before I finish up for the day. I was hoping Jack would show up, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to get that lucky.

I make a sharp turn onto the trail that leads back to the parking lot. Apparently, I take it a bit too sharp, though, because my foot steps to the right off the trail into some sort of hole. I feel my ankle twist in a direction that’s not normal. My entire body falls in the most dramatic way imaginable, and I hit the ground like a ton of bricks.

“Motherfucker!” I yell as I go down, hoping no one else is around to hear me.

I lay on the wet ground for a good two minutes, looking up at the sky and thinking how this is just another metaphor for how my life is going these days.

When I finally decide to move, I attempt to put weight on the ankle that fell into the hole, but pain shoots up my leg, and I go right back down.

“Great,” I mumble. “Please God tell me I didn’t break my ankle.”

If it’s broken, that means no running for a while which will make my circumstances even worse once again.

I continue trying to get up, but each time, it hurts like hell. It doesn’t help that I have never had a high pain tolerance.

I reach for my phone to call someone, but I realize that I left it back at the inn. It was almost dead, and I wanted to let it charge.

Fuck.

I start hyping myself up to try to get up and hop on one leg back to the parking lot. Then, I don’t know what I'll do from there. I always just run out to here and then run back to town. Maybe in the parking lot, I can at least try to find someone to take pity on me.

While I’m struggling, I hear some rustling coming from somewhere near me.

Great. Now, I’m going to be gnawed on by the local wildlife.

I peek around some bushes to see what is coming toward me, but much to my surprise, it isn’t an animal. It’s Jack Barrett.

At first, he runs right past me, not noticing me on the ground. When it finally sinks in, he stops and turns right back around.

“Liz?” He asks, coming toward me. “Why are you on the ground?”

“I fell, and I can’t seem to get up. Someone get me a Life Alert monitor.”

“You can’t stand?”

“When I try, my ankle hurts like hell.”

“That’s not good.”

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