Page 15 of If Tomorrow Never Comes

“I didn’t want to bring it up before, but I’m actually friends with your donor. Sort of. We have some of the same friends, and I see her out sometimes. Anyway, it’s okay if you decide never to use it, but feel free to reach out to her if you ever want to,” Tiffany had said. “She doesn’t expect anything, but she’d love to hear from you. For your privacy I didn’t tell her much but said I’d be happy to pass on her contact information if you ever wanted to connect.”

Elliott hadn’t used it right away. The anxiety, even after returning home to Lincoln, had been significant, despite being in familiar surroundings and under the watchful eyes of her family. But as she began to feel normal again and considered moving to Omaha to finally start life on her own, she’d sent an email, asking if Carly would be interested in meeting.

Saturday. Green Tree Coffee. It was finally happening.

“Excited?” Yuka asked. “Nervous?”

“All of the above.”

“Want me to FaceTime in? Be a buffer?”

“I love you, but pass.” Elliott frowned. “Also, do you think I’m that socially inept?”

“I just know how you are when you’re worried about something. Awkward.” She drew out therfor several seconds. “Also, you just used the word ‘inept.’”

“Says the woman who won the spelling bee every year in high school.”

“You’re still not over ‘gazpacho,’ are you?”

“No tenth grader wants to eat it, let alone spell it.” Elliott pulled into a spot right next to Building C. “On that note, I just pulled in and need to take some groceries up. Talk to you later?”

“Obviously. I’ll be heckling you nonstop until you suck it up and go back to that bar.”

Elliott groaned. “Let it go.”

“I will if you will.”

“Yuka.”

“I’d bet ten cosmopolitans you’ve thought about it at least once since you got there. If I’d had the perfect evening and an erotic kiss with a hot guy, I’d go back and look for him, too.”

So she’d thought about Jamie once or seven times since arriving. “It wasn’teroticand I’m not here for him.”

Would the moment live forever, rent-free, in her brain? Yes.

Still.

Elliott could practically feel Yuka’s eye roll through the speakers. “I know you’re not, but that doesn’t mean it’s not totally normal to wonder if he’s still around—and single—now that you live in Omaha.”

“He might not even be here anymore.”

“Or he is, and he’s been thinking about you since that night, too. That’s not the kind of thing you just forget, you know.”

“Clearly.”

“I’ll check back tomorrow. Or in an hour. Who’s to say? Love you and miss you.”

Elliott sighed, realizing just how much she returned the sentiment. Two days in and she’d already considered giving up on this whole endeavor and moving back to Lincoln. To Yuka, her parents, and everything comfortable and familiar.

She’d been seconds away from a panic attack her first night here and had spent most of the day yesterday with the music so loud in her apartment she could barely think, let alone worry.

You promised yourself you’d at least give it three months. Don’t turn back now.

“Yeah. Same.”

Elliott checked the address on her phone one last time before entering the shop. The pleasant aroma of freshly brewed coffee greeted her as she quickly scanned the room, looking for a woman with dark hair and a white shirt. Not finding anyone matching that description, she sat at a table near the window, avoiding the urge to pull out her phone, and took in the room instead. Bright light filtered in through floor-to-ceiling glass windows, falling on mismatched tables, benches, and a few scattered armchairs. Baristas chattered behind the counter as the low rumble of a coffee grinder filled the air, and two men hovered near the register, discussing the chalkboard menu posted high on the wall. Seeinghow she’d barely slept since the move, she could probably use something with obscene amounts of espresso right about now.

A glass-front pastry case extended past the coffee bar and register, full of fluffy croissants, cookies, overfilled sandwiches, and every variety of brownie imaginable—plain, peanut butter, salted caramel, gluten-free. Yuka, who had a more serious chocolate addiction than anyone Elliott had ever known, would be in heaven. The way Jamie had responded to her chocolate aversion indicated he might have given Yuka a run for her money, but Elliott hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out.

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