Page 7 of Don't You Want Me, Baby?

‘Yeah it is. Sharon isn’t exactly subtle, and Tyler…’ He bit at the inside of his cheek. ‘Well, let’s just say I know he’s not a fan.’

Amber couldn’t say anything about Sharon, but the Tyler comment surprised her. Sure, he’d said things to her, but he barely spoke to Bradley when they were together. Brad was always trying to talk to him about his next steps for work. Maybe that was it. He’d never seemed open to working for Bradley, sure, but showing he didn’t like him? That was just Tyler’s way. When he’d first started work at the Slug, he didn’t speak if it wasn’t connected to work. Hell, she wasn’t sure she even liked him herself that first couple of months. He would just stare at her and stomp around the place. Coming from London, he never spoke about what brought him toYorkshire. Amber got the impression that he’d needed a change: little things he said about being burned out. He was a bit of a bear all around, huge and often bad tempered, and growly. Out of work though, Amber saw another side of him. Softer. He was funny. Caring, protective. She felt the need to defend her friends rise up.

‘Sharon’s heart’s in the right place. You know how she can be blunt, and Tyler just doesn’t want to work for you. You do tend to badger him about the eatery, and you know he’s never been interested.’

Bradley’s jaw clenched. ‘Yeah, sure Amber. That’s what it’s about.’ He stared at her intently. ‘Lack of interest.’ When she folded her arms across her chest with a sigh, he looked to the floor. ‘I don’t know what to say here, babe.’

Amber felt the stab in her heart like a knife. ‘You do, actually. I’m asking you to put more effort into us, and you’re blaming my friends. It’s not coming from them. I have my own mind, Bradley. You know I want The Arms back, and you know I want a family. When I think about everything we’d planned, I don’t get the same excitement I used to. You’re like dating a ghost. It’s a long-distance relationship without the distance. I am going to hit my thirties next month, and you might think it’s just nagging but I mean everything I say.’ She dropped her arms, feeling her spine straighten as she steeled herself for the thing she was about to do. ‘Most of all, this side of me, the nagging, clingy side? I hate it, and I don’t want to do it any more. It’s not me. I’ve never been this type of girl, Brad! Things change, I get it. We both have things we want to do, but when we started this, they lined up.’

Brad wasn’t moving. He was just standing there, frozen. She waited for the knife to twist in her chest, but she felt nothing but adrenaline coursing through her body. ‘I think I know the answer to this, but I’m asking it anyway. Do you still want that, or should I just move on without you?’

3

Ticking off the order on her clipboard, Amber puffed out a sigh. It didn’t seem two minutes since Tyler had helped her uncover the outdoor seating, and she couldn’t believe another year was passing so fast. Summer was upon them, and she’d barely made a dent on her New Year’s resolution to kick this year in the arse. Now, with half the year gone, she was further away than ever. After Bradley had left, she couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t get the look on his face when she asked him the question out of her head. He didn’t even try to hide the answer that was written all over his face. His slumped shoulders. He looked upset, but his words said different. ‘I think I messed all of this up some time ago, Amber. The truth is, I’ve been trying to be the man you met, but I’ve done too much to pull it back. I’m sorry, you deserve better, you really do, but I can’t stop now. I’ve done too much to break away. Everything I have is on the line with the eatery.’ He’d sighed, a flash of pained resignation across his face. ‘I want you to have your dreams, Amber.’ He’d walked over to her, run his hand down her cheek. ‘I just can’t be the man who gives it to you. Not any more.’

So that was that. He’d leaned in, kissed her cheek, and left herstanding there clad in a towel with tears streaming down her face. A whole year with a man she’d thought was The One, and he’d just stepped away without a fight. He’d taken all of two seconds to give her the ‘it’s me not you’ speech and click for an Uber. She wanted him to go to the mat for her. He hadn’t even bothered to don gloves. She had her answer. Now, she just had to deal with it.

When she’d finally slipped under her covers, she remembered something Sharon had said earlier that day. About someone loving someone enough to be there. Bradley hadn’t done that, he hadn’t in a while. Sure, he was full of plans but no follow through. It was all just crap, big talk.

She hadn’t even cried since he left. Since the few tears that spilled out when he basically told her he couldn’t change like she wanted. Wouldn’t try. She’d come to a conclusion when she’d woken up that morning. The tears she’d shed hadn’t been from the loss of Bradley; they had come from embarrassment. The shame of putting a man first who everyone around her knew didn’t do the same for her. Shouldn’t she miss him? Want to talk to him, to try to salvage things? She didn’t feel anything but shock. Not at him, but at herself. She had wasted time on a man that would never change. Bradley had shown her who he was again and again. She just hadn’t listened. He was a man who talked the talk and didn’t walk the damn walk. He was a magpie, obsessed with the shiny new thing, until he spied the next enchanting thing to chase. He’d been pulling away for a while, and she had clung to something that wasn’t there in the first place. Because she wanted to have the family, the dream life. Now, she would be seeing in her thirties alone, and no further on than she was the year before.

‘Way to be pathetic, Fitzpatrick,’ she mumbled to herself, just as Tyler appeared.

‘Coffee, madam.’ A reusable cup appeared before her pinched face, and she reached for it like a child would a lollipop. Tyler slidthe clipboard out of her hand, glancing at the truck parked by the back doors and the barrel chute.

‘How much left?’ he said with a tip of his head.

‘Too much,’ Amber grumbled, her body uncurling as the hot coffee passed her lips. ‘Thanks Ty. God, I needed that.’

‘I know,’ he quipped, his lips twitching as he eyed her. ‘You’re like Satan’s meaner cousin before your caffeine hits.’

‘Says the John McEnroe of the kitchen.’ She took another sip, smiling as the delicious drink chased away her fatigue.

‘Touché,’ he rumble-laughed back. ‘It’s your fault I’m up anyway. Who texts people at 6a.m.? I’m pretty sure it’s breaking some kind of employer-employee etiquette.’

‘In my defence, I forgot it was early, and I texted Sharon too. I just wanted to get a jump start on work.’ The truth was, she’d been woken by the birds singing through her open window and, not wanting to dwell on her failed relationship, she’d decided to throw herself into work. Mostly to stop herself from texting Brad and telling him what a prize dickhead she thought he was.Hmm, anger as well as shock. I’m flying through the break-up stages of grief pretty fast.

‘Right.’ His tone was laced with scepticism. ‘Well, I’m pretty sure Sharon will have been laid face down in some bloke’s chest at that time or snoring in her pit.’

Amber pursed her lips, but she couldn’t argue with his logic. She was pretty sure he was right. One of the construction workers from the lunchtime crew had started coming in on an evening too and sitting at the bar. Earlier than when the rest of his mates rocked up. Amber just hoped Sharon knew what she was doing. These long-term construction types usually had someone at home waiting for them.Someone like me, probably.‘Maybe.’ Tyler raised a sarcastic brow her way. ‘Fine. Probably.’ She smirked. ‘I’m pretty sure Sharononly thinks that there’s one six o’clock in existence, and it’s definitely not in the a.m.’

Tyler almost snorted on his coffee. The delivery driver and his mate rolled another barrel past, and he moved the clipboard closer so she could tick it off. ‘Sounds like a Sharonism to me. Why were you texting about the new specials that early, anyway? And why have you changed the lock-box code?’ His face darkened. ‘Wait, did someone try to get in?’ His head snapped up to the windows, as though he was suddenly expecting to see carnage.

‘No, nothing like that. Bradley used it. I didn’t sleep much, and I didn’t want either of you to be locked out. He came to see me late last night. I was in the shower, didn’t hear him coming in ’til he was in the flat. I almost battered him to death with a loofah brush.’

‘Almost?’ he checked. She thought she heard him say something that sounded like, ‘Shame’. Lower, under his breath.

She smiled then, thinking of Brad’s face when she’d run at him wet through and angry. It was pretty funny, now she thought about it. ‘It broke on his body.’ She smirked. ‘Anyway, the long and short of it is we broke up, so I changed the lock-box code. Not that I expect him to come back. It just felt right.’ She felt Ty’s eyes on her, his gaze burning a hole in her cheek. ‘I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s done.’

Tyler rolled his lips, dipped his head into a slow nod. ‘Fair enough. Do you need anything? Can I help, I mean?’

‘Nope,’ she huffed, feeling her shoulders tense up all over again. ‘Like I said, I don’t want to talk about it.’I haven’t fully processed it myself yet. Maybe that’s it: I’m in shock. Perhaps that’s why I don’t feel anything.Tyler was giving her a look that she registered as concern. Pity maybe? She couldn’t bear it. Bradley might have been the one who did the dumping, but it was her ultimatum that had brought it about.

‘You sure?’ Tyler said softly. ‘You know you can talk to me, Amb. I’ve been there myself, remember.’

She did remember. When he’d first started working at the Slug, he’d told her that he’d been through a bad break-up. One of the reasons he’d moved out of London, though he’d never gone into detail. Just like she didn’t want to now about her recent dumping. It was too fresh, and she couldn’t hear the ‘I told you so’s’. Not yet. She held the pen out, ticking off the boxes of alcopops from the list when he brandished the clipboard her way. ‘Just the bitter now, and we’re done. I can take it from here. You didn’t have to come in this early. Sorry for waking you too. It won’t happen again.’ He didn’t move and, when she turned to him, he was already watching her. ‘What?’

‘You text me at the crack of dawn because you changed the code. I came because I was worried about you.’ He ran a hand over his stubble. He’d obviously missed his shave that morning, and she felt a pang of guilt that she’d ruined his morning over nothing. ‘You sure you’re okay?’ The clench of his jaw was hard to miss. ‘Did you have a fight or something? Do I need to go have a word with Brad?’

---