Page 54 of Our Final Encore

“I just don’t want you to have another fall. I’m going to work, Martha will be here in about an hour.”

“Alright,” she nods, not bothering to make eye contact with me again. I sling my purse over my shoulder and make my way down the steps of the porch toward our driveway. “Oh, Opal?”

“Yeah?”

“Someone came by earlier looking for you.”

My stomach dips again. “What?”

“You remember Alex, I’m sure. Nice boy, I missed seeing him around. He said he wanted to speak with you.”

I blink at her a few times, unsure of how to respond. He came by?This morning?It’s barely eight o’clock.“Right. Okay, thanks,” I stutter as I turn on my heel and get into my car.

Today I’m fillingin for a coworker, which means I have to work the front counter rather than in the back office. I hate working up here. It’s not that I’m bad with people, I think I’m actually decent at talking to them, but customer service exhausts me so quickly. I’d much rather plug numbers into a computer all day than deal with humans. Numbers are predictable, and a lot less likely to yell at you.

After clocking in I start setting out the fresh cupcakes and cookies into the glass display case. The door on the bell jingles and my stomach twists, I’m not ready for human interaction yet. It’s still too early, and my brain is too full of other shit that it shouldn’t be.

“You bitch,” I flick my eyes up at the unmistakable sound of my best friend’s voice. Her lips are curved up into a sarcastic grin.

“Yes?” I don’t bother to stop what I’m doing, hoping she’ll catch the hint that I’m not in the fucking mood today.

“Why didn’t you call me last night?”

Maisie works right down the road at the only bed and breakfast in town, conveniently the one that her parents own. She doesn’t actually need to work, her grandparents left her a hefty amount of money in a trust fund after they passed a couple years ago, but I think she must enjoy it on some level. She cleans the rooms and decorates the inn every month with seasonal decor and bouquets. But since her parents own the place, they don’t bat an eye if she walks out in the middle of the day to come see me, like she is right now.

“I was exhausted.” It’s the truth, well, some of the truth.

“You guys fucked.”

My eyes nearly bug out of my head, and I glance behind me to make sure my boss isn’t in the vicinity. “Are you crazy? I’m at work, be quiet.”

“Oh my god, you didn’t,” she covers her mouth with her hand, her amber eyes wide. “You did, didn’t you?”

“No.” I stare at the pile of cookies so that I won’t have to make eye contact with her.

“Opal.” She places her hands on her hips. “I’ve known you for fifteen years, I can tell when you’re lying.”

I take a deep breath and then level her with a glare. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it. It was a bad idea, okay? You can say you told me so, is that what you want?”

Her face falls and suddenly turns into a sympathetic frown. “Of course not. I’m just checking on you, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Well, I’m not. And I have work to do.”

She looks hurt, but it’s not like she didn’t start it. I love her, but sometimes her playfully sarcastic remarks piss me off. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you upset, I was just kind of shocked that you didn’t call or text me. I mean, going home withAlex, it’s kind of a big deal.”

I let out a sigh and slump against the glass counter. “You’re right. It is.”

“I’m here if you want to talk about it, okay? And if you need me to murder him I’m here for that, too.”

A tiny smile plays on my lips and I finally meet her gaze again. “Thanks.”

“Call me when you get off.”

I wave goodbye to her as she walks back through the door. Rubbing my temples, I take a deep breath, trying to decide what comes next.

Number one, I have to tell Ian what happened, or at the very least tell him we’re over. I can’t live with myself pretending like everything's okay after what I did. Even if what we have isn’t necessarily a committed relationship, it still doesn’t feel right hiding that from him.

Number two, I need to make sure I never see Alex Anderson ever again, because clearly my brain didn’t give my body the memo that he’s 100% off limits.

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