Page 12 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

“Or better yet, make sure she eats elsewhere,” said another voice.

Cal felt her stomach clench, felt the waitress’s gaze become more interested. Suddenly, it was hotter than it had a right to beand Cal felt like she was sweating through her shirt.

“Bacon sandwich,” said the waitress, carefully watching Cal like she was about to pull out a knife or strip all her clothes off or do something else equally shocking and inappropriate.

Cal cleared her throat. “Actually, uh, actually maybe…”

“We do to-go orders,” said the waitress and her face was friendly now, softer in a way that made Cal know she was taking pity on her.

“Actually, I don’t think I’m hungry,” she said loudly and clearly, standing up. “Something about the company here has put me right off my food.”

She strode out without looking back, heart hammering in her chest so fast that it left her short of breath.

Fantastic. Fucking fantastic.

This was just what she needed.

She shouldn’t have come back here and she knew that. But it wasn’t like she had an awful lot of options here. The house needed to be cleared out before it was sold. She certainly couldn’t afford someone to do it for her.

The only thing she could do was assure herself that she’d get out of town just as soon as she could.

She turned the corner, stomach still grumbling, and caught sight of the newsagents. She’d grab a packet of crisps to keep her going and make sure that she took the bike a couple of towns over to get food. She could have sandwiches in her room.

She could cook in her mother’s kitchen. In her own kitchen, she reminded herself. It belonged to her now.

A few days, that was all she needed. Though a friendly face wouldn’t hurt at all.

She took a full deep breath before she walked into the newsagent. But rather than the familiar face of one of the Guptas, she saw instead a tall woman with long, dark hair that got in the way of merry blue eyes.

“Morning,” Cal said without thinking.

The woman looked up from her phone. “Morning,” she said, with a brief smile that showed straight white teeth. Cal felt thehairs on her arms rise at that smile. A sure sign that she was attracted to someone.

Not that she’d do anything about it. Making connections in Tetherington was not at all why she was here. She’d waited too long to say anything else, anyway. The woman had gone back to her phone. Cal turned toward the crisp selection.

???

Lucy flicked through the options on her phone.

The problem was, how did you choose?

It wasn’t that there was a lack of choice. There was a surprising plethora of choices, actually. Who’d have known that there were so many sapphic women in such a small area? Well, it probably helped that she’d set the app boundaries to women within a hundred miles, but still.

She slid through the pictures of one of her matches. A woman with long, blonde hair, a chipped front tooth, and a smile that lit up her face.

Too pretty, she decided. She’d get all intimidated and that would never work out.

In the beginning, she’d been surprised to open the app to see that she’d already got messages. She’d kidded herself that this was going to be easier than she’d thought.

But then two of the messages had turned out to be from men, despite her profile clearly saying she was only interested in women. The third had been from a woman, but she was looking for someone to surprise her boyfriend with. And Lucy remembered why she didn’t really use dating apps.

Still though, she had to put some effort in. No pain, no gain, as they said.

She looked up as someone came into the shop and greeted her, barely noticing their face, she said her good mornings and went back to her phone. Sliding over yet another potential match.

This one had a picture with a joyful looking labrador. Lucyloved dogs. All animals, in fact. So she starred the profile to come back to later. She definitely needed more time before she was ready to start messaging women. Maybe Pen could help her craft the right thing to say.

Or perhaps she should ask George. He was the manager of a romance bookshop, after all.

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