Page 58 of Only Ever Yours

It’s Monday morning, so the rush will be pretty heavy today. I start my normal routine of making sure everything is stocked and ready to go out front before making my way to the back in search of any other forms of life.

Just like I thought, I find Elaine hard at work frosting the danishes when I step into the kitchen.

“Hey! Good morning!” I greet her with a smile.

“Oh, hey, Ellie. How are you doing this morning?” She asks, glancing up, returning a warm smile.

“I’m good,” I reply, stepping closer to examine her work. “Need my help with anything this morning?”

She stops what she's doing and sets the piping bag down before smiling at me, but the smile doesn’t quite look like her normal one.

“Ellie, I wanted to talk to you before we get busy this morning.” She says so sweetly.

Oh, shit, this can’t be good. The look on her face tells me it's bad news. And I already know what it is.

I can't help it; I blurt out before I can stop myself.

“You don’t need me anymore, do you?” My throat tightens, and my eyes sting with tears before she even answers.

Just my fucking luck. I knew she was looking for a replacement this entire time, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

She brushes her hands on her apron and walks over to me. “Oh, honey, don’t cry.”

“I’m sorry, Elaine, this is so unprofessional of me,” I say, dabbing the corner of my eye. “I’m just a little emotional here lately.”

“No, I mean, don’t cry because I'm not getting rid of you.” She quickly responds. “I just need to cut your hours back, hun. I gave you more hours to help you out a bit… Well, hopefully, it helped you some. But now that I’ve hired a new baker, I can help out more in the front. And I just can't afford to keep everyone on the same schedule.”

I’m nodding along as she speaks because I get it; I totally do. It's just a really big hit to my ego and mypocket right now. I haven’t had any new inquiries with my event planning business. I have two small weddings I'm currently working on, but that’s not enough to pay my bills.

“No, I totally understand,” I say, forcing a smile with blurry eyes. “I truly appreciate everything you’ve done to help me out.”

She pulls me into a motherly hug, and I really miss my mom right now. I know we don’t always have the best relationship, but it’s times like these when I wish she were closer.

“Of course, sweetie, I will just need you to do three days a week now… if things get too much, I will try to give you more hours.”

“Thank you, Elaine,” I say, and truly mean it. She's helped me so much already.

The doorbell chimes, letting us know we have a customer.

“Shoot, I forgot to lock the front doors back. I will go handle it.”

Walking back out front, I see Jaydon standing there looking fine as hell, casually making his way up to the counter.Great, just what I needed today.

“You know, you should really lock those doors.” He tips his head in the direction that he just came from while standing with his chest puffed out and both hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

My huff is overly exaggerated as I look at the ceiling. “Jaydon, I'm not in the mood for games. What do you want this morning? Coffee? Something to eat? Just tell me so I can get this over with.”

He steps right up to the counter, resting his hands on the edge, taking his time to study me.

“First, you’re gonna tell me why you avoided me all day yesterday and didn’t respond to any of my texts.”

I’m afraid if I make eye contact with him for too long, I will be sucked in and possibly fall too deep. I can’t let that happen.

I pretend to think hard, tapping my lips. “Maybe I wasn’t even home yesterday. Maybe I stayed with Kevin, and I didn’t get any texts from you.”

He chuckles, taking a step back at my blatant lie—whatever, we both know it—and swipes his thumb over his bottom lip that’s turned up into a cocky smirk, before leaning back in.

“Peachy, you left my texts on read. And we both know you were home. You were down in the kitchen eating all my damn food yesterday.”

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