Page 56 of The Version You Hide

Because I want to talk to him.

Instead of taking the bus all the way to the end of the boulevard, I decide to hop off outside the Haven and cross the road to see if Dylan is still working. When I push through the tavern’s heavy doors, I find Jade, perched in her usual position at the bar. She lifts her hand in a wave when she sees me.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Jade. Is Dylan still here?” I ask.

“Sure is,” she smiles. “But he just stepped out the back.”

“Thanks.”

I round the bar and skip down the narrow hallway to the back of the tavern, figuring he must be out emptying the trash into the skip bins. At first, I can’t see him. I turn, thinking he may have already gone back out around the side, but stop short when I hear voices.

I peer around the corner, down the alley between the tavern and the next building. Dylan stands face to face with an older man dressed in a torn flannelette shirt. The man’s appearance is scruffy and unkempt, a lit cigarette pursed between his lips as he reaches around to the back pocket of his jeans.

“Did you get the good stuff this time?” I hear Dylan ask.

“Top grade, just what you need,” the man says to him with a laugh as he retrieves something I can’t quite see, placing it in Dylan’s palm. “Best on the market, I’m told.”

“Thanks, man,” Dylan replies, digging deep into his own pockets. He pulls out a few rolled up notes and something else I can’t quite distinguish. “I appreciate it. This is for you. But keep it on the down low though, okay?”

“Yes, boss,” the man replies, accepting Dylan’s offering in a tightly closed fist. He immediately shoves it into his back pocket, nodding once.

What the hell am I witnessing right now? A shady deal in the middle of an alley in broad daylight?

I flatten my back against the tavern wall, exhaling a long breath, a string of questions swirling through my mind. My heart sinks, disappointment flooding me at the realisation of the one thing that I am finally sure of.

I need to keep my distance from Dylan.

He’s proved once again that he isn’t the guy that I thought he was. Things between us need to remain strictly professional.

No more fake dating for his family’s benefit.

No more thinking of him as the one person I want to share my day with.

He is my boss. And nothing more.

Chapter 18

DYLAN

“Hey, Dylan,” Harper calls to me from the other side of the bar. “Have you seen Mackenzie? I feel like I haven’t spoken to her in days. Is she working today?”

“She’s supposed to be,” I answer, frowning at the antique grandfather clock on the wall. “Her shift started ten minutes ago.”

Mackenzie has never been late to a shift, so I find her tardiness to be somewhat concerning. I hadn’t heard from her since dropping her home after our eventful night at my parent’s party. I’d walked her to the door, fumbled through another apology for my bad behaviour and she’d laughed it off, throwing a sarcastic comment my way.

It had seemed as though she’d begun to let go of any resentment she’d been harbouring towards me, but that hadn’t done anything to resolve me of the guilt I still feel.

I know I should have done better.

I need to be better.

I slide my phone from the top pocket of my shirt, but as I’m finding her name in the contacts, the tavern’s doors swing open and Mackenzie barges through them looking mildly dishevelled.

“Oh, here she is now,” Harper says, stating the obvious. She lifts a hand up to wave at her friend, an expectant smile on her face. “Hey!”

“Hey,” Mackenzie says abruptly as she rounds the bar. She doesn’t return the smile.

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