Page 18 of Done with You

“I know you did.” Teal smiled. “See you tonight?”

“I’ll bring the wine and dessert.”

“Malbec and mille-feuille, please,” Teal said.

Oona sucked in a deep breath through her nose and stood up from her chair. “Then I guess I better go to Dominque’s Bakery now; otherwise, they’ll be all out of mille-feuille by the time I get there after work.”

Teal sipped their tea. “Chop, chop.”

Oona left Teal’s office feeling better about what happened with Aiden. But she still didn’t feel great.

For the first time in a very long time, she put herself out there, and it backfired exponentially. She thought that what she and Aiden shared last night could turn into something more, and went for it. And he shot her down, laughed in her face, and said she was bad in bed.

If that wasn’t enough to turn a person off from putting themselves out there, Oona didn’t know what was.

Tightening the collar of her coat around her neck as she walked down the road to Dominique’s, she passed a plant shop and stopped to gaze through the window.

Maybe she was just meant to be a plant-mom.

No relationship. No children.

Just friends, pole dancing, and plants.

It was better than becoming the crazy cat-lady, right? Besides, she was allergic to cats, so the only kind she’d be able to get would be a hairless one, and those freaked her right out. Their foreheads looked like a wrinkled scrotum.

Gripping the handle of the door for the plant shop, she heaved it open and took in a deep breath of the warm, balmy air.

“Bonjour,” the shop girl greeted.

“Hello. Bonjour,” Oona replied. She’d learned quickly after moving to Montreal that if she spoke French, the people around her assumed she knew French—which she did not. And then she got confused and embarrassed when she told them they’d have to repeat themselves in English. She was trying to learn the language, though. And knew some phrases since moving to the city. But languages—particularly the romantic ones with the masculine and feminine, were not her forte. So she made sure to always throw some English into her greetings so they knew she preferred English.

“Can I help you with anything today?” the woman asked, her French accent as thick and beautiful as her eyelashes.

“That big plant in the window with the cutouts on the leaves. What is that?”

“Ah, the Monstera. She is beautiful, no?”

“She is,” Oona agreed. “I’ll take her.”

The woman beamed. “Wonderful.”

Plants, poles, and pals. Not such a bad life. Now all she needed to do was find a vibrator that sucked her clit the way Aiden had last night, and then she’d be all set for spinster life.

Sigh.

Chapter Five

One week later …

This was a bad idea.

What the fuck was he thinking?

Aiden hadn’t seen his brother in years. They were estranged after what went down with their father. Not because they disagreed with what happened or how they handled it, just that the devastation Dallas’s death caused, followed by the alienation of their parents and the town, was just too much. Aiden and his brother both thought they should have done more. They blamed themselves, and rather than have that bring them closer, it drove them apart.

And yet, there he was, boarding a plane to head to Victoria, on the west coast of Canada, to attend Jordan’s wedding.

But he had to try.

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