Page 24 of It's Not Home Without You

“I love you too, Max,” she said, and I knew those words coming from her lips would become my favorite thing to hear.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

What isit about ignoring your cheating ex-boyfriend that screams keep calling me? What went through his head every time I pressed the ignore button? My brain was at its limit. I could feel myself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I knew I could change my phone number to end his harassment, but I had a life attached to that number. It was the number all my work contacts had, and it would be a bitch to change. Besides, why should I make more changes just because Ashton cheated on me?

“Thou shall not let thy ex ruin thy life,” I ranted as I walked into Emma’s while I pressed ignore on another one of Ashton’s calls. This was ridiculous; he was giving me more attention now than when we were together. Like seriously, what part of “leave me the fuck alone” said,ooh, let’s win her back?

“Jess, erase the quote of the day and go write that downon the wall.” I snapped my fingers at the moody teenager. I thought we were alone in the shop, but sadly that wasn’t the case.

That would be just too easy.

My life was anything but easy these days.

Sitting down by the back tables with his laptop open was Maximilian my-other-ex-Dunnett.

This was horrible.

I hadn’t seen him since Sunday, aka the day of my breakdown followed by a small pity party that consisted of stuffing my face with all kinds of baked goods. He was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t read, which made me feel an ache because I used to be so attuned to him that he didn’t need to speak for me to know what he would say. He never had much of a poker face.

Until now.

Maximilian opened his mouth, and if he was anything like I remembered, he would apologize and leave.“I wasn’t under the impressionIhad done anything to ruin your life, Freya.”

So, the guy was engaged. No big deal. He was marrying my high school nemesis. Good for him. It’s not likeIcared or anything.

“I wasn’t talking about you, Max. I was talking about Ashton.” The word vomit just happened; I didn’t know how to make it stop. I saw Emma cringe.

I wanted to cringe.

“As far as boyfriends go, you were awesome.”Oh God, please someone kill me right freaking now.Max stopped doingwhatever it was he was doing on his laptop. His wrist rested on the table, he tilted his head to the side, and he stared at me. And by staring at me, I meant his gaze was scalding.

“Freya, I need your help with the cookies,” Emma yelled, stopping me from making a bigger fool of myself.

“I’ll see you around, Max. I have to go help with the cookies.” I ran my ass to the back where zero cookies were being baked. I didn’t turn back to look at Max. What he had said and what he had implied… He was angry, wasn’t he? He had to be. There was a sick part of me that hoped he was.

“Cookies, Emma, really? Do I look like BettyfreakingCrocker?”

“Sorry, I panicked!” She eyed me warily. “Besides, Betty Crocker wasn’t even a real person.”

She kept staring at me, probably wondering if I would have another breakdown, which I wasn’t going to. I had already met my personal quota on dramatics for the year. I noticed she was fidgeting with the strings of her apron. In the past few days, I had been trying to teach her to use her outer voice; she was the calm to my storm.

“Spit it out, Emma.”

“Is Ashton the reason you came home?”

I was about to answer yes, but then I stopped myself, because if I was honest with myself, something I hadn’t been doing in a while, I knew saying yes would be a lie.

“Yes and no. When I broke up with Ashton, it gave me the push I needed to get the fuck out of la-la land.”

“Have you always been this crass?”

“Yep.”

Her shoulders sagged with acceptance, or maybe defeat, who knew. What I did know was I wanted an apron, and I had yet to get one.

“How come we didn’t talk in high school?” I asked.

“You were kinda… intimidating.”

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