Page 45 of The Problem with Dating

I cleared my throat as I stood behind the bar. “Tatiana, can we not—”

“No, we will!” she shouted, shooting over to me. She smacked my arm with her purse. For a sweet lady, she sure had one heck of a strong swing.

“Ow!” I yipped. “You know, you can’t get away with hitting your boss. That’s completely unprofessional.”

“I don’t give a rat’s behind about being professional. Why in the world did you do that to Yara?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.

She pointed a stern finger my way and then gestured toward a booth table. “Sit. Now.”

“Tatiana. This is ridiculous. I’m not a child, and you can’t—”

“Now!” she ordered with a shout. One that sent chills of fear down my spine. Like a little wimp, I hurried over to the booth and sat.

She walked over with her hands on her hips and narrowed her stare on me. “Out with it. Why were you rude to her?”

I grimaced. “Are you going to sit, or will you talk down to me the whole time?”

“I’m going to talk down to you the whole time because your behavior toward Yara warrants that type of reaction until I am proven differently. So speak up. You broke her water dish.”

“I had a bad day.”

“Nope. Wrong answer. Yara was being nice to you, Alex. Bringing you that water dish. Do you know how much time she spent on making that?”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

“That’s not the point!” she shouted, tossing her hands around. “The point is she was doing something nice for you. Something she didn’t have to do. You had no right to be so rude toward her.”

“I know,” I confessed in a low whisper. I hadn’t slept in over thirty hours. I hadn’t been able to do anything but think about Teresa. And when I wasn’t thinking about Teresa, I was thinking about Yara. My brain ping-ponged back and forth between the two. I didn’t even know why I felt so haunted by Yara in my thoughts. I didn’t know how to get her off my mind. I didn’t even know why she was there to begin with.

Tatiana arched an eyebrow. “You know?”

“Yeah. I know. I was triggered. The timing of it all was bad. I should’ve apologized.”

“You still need to apologize.” Her voice wasn’t dripping with anger as she looked my way. Her eyes softened, too. She frowned slightly as she slid into the boothside across from me. The scolding simmer began to settle as she looked my way. “I get it. This town has been ugly toward you, Alex. They’ve harassed you, judged you, and made you feel unwelcome as if you were an alien to this place.”

“You don’t know the half of it…” I muttered.

“You’re right, I don’t. I’m not the one being attacked. You are. But you can’t let these people change who you are. You cannot allow them to make you cold.”

“What if I already was cold?” I asked. “What if this is just who I am? A monster?”

Tatiana smiled, stretched her arm across the table, and patted my hand. Just. Like. Teresa.

My monstrous heart cracked a little.

“You’re not a monster, Alex. A monster would never question that. You know what I see when I look at you?”

“What’s that?”

“A sad, scared little boy who has been hurt too much by this world.”

How did she do that? How did she see the parts of me that I worked so hard to keep hidden from the rest of the world? I felt it yesterday, too, with Yara. She saw it. It slipped out. I knew why she asked me if I was okay—my hard shell cracked, and my true hurt spilled out. For a split second, she saw my mess, and instead of twisting the knife, she offered compassion.

Why, though? Why was she so…nice?

“A friendly tip?” Tatiana offered.

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