Page 136 of A Lucky Shot

A lost look sat in the place of his usual smile. The couple sitting beside them had gone quiet, each looking down into their respective coffees with fascinated expressions.

It was kind of nice to have witnesses to hear her say goodbye to Nick.

He pushed the still-full cup away, sloshing the presumably excellent in-house roasted Sulawesi blend onto the wooden table, all traces of bravado vanished. “What are you saying?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to see each other again.”

“You don’t mean that. I’ve been a mess for a couple years, and you saw the worst of that, but I’ve changed. We could be so good together if you give us a chance.”

“You’ve had so many chances.” Cass tipped her head to the side to shake a loose curl from her eyes. Dry, no traces of tears, her heart beating a sedate cadence. “There was a time I would have loved to hear you say that, but you treated me like something you could ignore until it was convenient. I’m worth more than being someone’s second choice, and I don’t want to ever have to guess if I am again.”

Nick’s eyes searched the room, like someone in the coffee shop would hold up a sign with the correct response to help him change her mind. When no epiphany dawned, he blew out a breath. “I didn’t think this would go this way,” he said finally.

“I know.” Cass pushed back from the table and felt the weight of the attention of the people around her. “If you text me again, I’m not responding.”

For once, he didn’t smile. “That’s not the first time you’ve said that.”

“But it will be the last.” She reached over to squeeze his arm. “If you’ve changed, I’m glad. Really. And I hope the next person you claim to care about gets a better version of you than what you gave me. Goodbye, Nick.”

The winter air pinked her cheeks when she stepped outside. In her still-warm truck, she blocked his number and deleted their text thread.

If there had been any pictures of the two of them, she would have deleted those, too, but they had never made any memories outside the bedroom worth capturing. Even those memories had lost their shine.

Cass was finally over Nicholas Martin. For real, this time.

A physical connection was one thing, but that had been the only thing they’d ever had. No emotion. No shared creative vision.

Josh said he would help her get over him. If only she’d known he would break her heart to do it.

She looked through the coffee shop’s windows. Nick was bent over his phone with a hand covering his mouth. There would be no more responding. No more late-night texts. No more wondering if she’d hear from him. She half expected to feel her fingers revolting and undo the changes, but the only thing she felt was relief.

Her own phone buzzed in her hand, and she half wondered if she’d blocked him wrong. Then it buzzed again, and again. She grinned at her favourite, no-chill, triple-texting friend’s stream of consciousness messaging.

Are we still meeting?

It was 3 right?

Everything okay?

On my way :)

Better late than never. Cass threw her truck into gear and drove to spill the beans.

Jill clutched her elbows across her torso and trapped her bouncing foot around her ankle. If she wrapped herself any further, she’d be airtight.

They sat alone in the living room, Jill curled up on one end with her giant pit bull glued to her side, and Cass on the other side with relief chasing the guilt from her stomach.

“When did he get back in town?”

“The fall.”

Jill’s head popped up in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

So many reasons. She didn’t want to upset her friend. She didn’t want to admit she couldn’t control herself around someone her friend hated. “I didn’t want you to think I was weak for going back to him.” Cass ducked her head. “And now that it’s been so long, I don’t want you to think I’m a bad friend, even though I am, and I should have told you as soon as he was in town and?—”

“I don’t think you’re a bad friend. Or weak.” Jill huffed a thin laugh. “I know how hard it can be getting away from someone. You could have trusted me.”

“I know. It was never like what you went through with your ex?—”

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