Page 61 of Unforgiven in Cheshire Bay

He swiped his hands down his face, his eyes widened, and his nostrils flared. “Holy shit. Are you responsible for the…” Without hesitation, his eyes scanned my desk, grabbing another set of fresh from the printer papers. “These email addresses and social media accounts… Customers? Or pissed off reviewers?”

Oh shit. A coolness wrapped around me, taking away the heat from the anger surge. I wasn’t going to try to take the papers from him. Now I just didn’t care.

“It was revenge, David. I was mad. You wouldn’t give me any compensation. Even a couple of hundred dollars would’ve helped. Instead, you laughed at me and told me to get a lawyer, although you were pretty sure I didn’t have a leg to stand on.”

He threw the papers onto my desk, except for one. “But yet, somehow you decided to keep screwing me over. For years. That’s just … I don’t even have the words for that. Damn, Erin. Talk about overreacting. Talk about being malicious. Jesus, I thought you were a nice person.”

The truth stabbed a million little jagged knives into my soul. “I am now, but I can admit then, I wasn’t. I was so angry. I had to protect my baby. I had to fight. Yes, I overreacted, but I almost lost my baby. I was scared and demoralized, and feeling like nothing in my life was going right.”

“And I was your punching bag.”

Yes, it was true. He was the only one I could fight. As it was, the diner I was working for went belly up a few months later. Who else could I go after? If I had eaten anywhere else that night…

“Wow. You think you know someone.” He shook his head and rocked back and forth. “So all this time, you were just exacting some kind of sick revenge on me? Up charging me for something that happened years ago because the hate reviews you’ve been leavingfor yearsweren’t enough?” The wordsfor yearshung in the air like a glowing, neon sign.

“That was before I got to know you.”

“Oh, okay, so my heart and affections also filtered into this too, did they? Was making me care for you part of your plan? That I’d finally found someone who I respected, and it was all a lie? I was just revenge?” His words were like pointed knives, each one zooming through the growing distance between us and stabbing me right in the heart.

“It’s not like that at all. Once I got to know you, I started deleting the reviews and trying to erase all the—”

He threw the papers onto the desk, and they floated in different directions. “You know what, we’re done. Keep your mural. Keep the down payment too.” He stormed over to the door in five long strides. “But know this, I won’t leave a bunch of negative reviews on your website, and I won’t ever upcharge you, should you find yourself in my restaurant. That’s not who I am. This is all…” His words sputtered as his hands flew around. “So unforgivable.”

He slammed the door so hard I was sure downtown Cheshire Bay felt the earth move.

Chapter Twenty

I sent a text to Francesca, letting her know I wasn’t going anywhere tonight, but I was instead staying in the shop to finish a project and needed to be left alone. However, as I stood there feeling stupid and heartbroken, and crying so hard I couldn’t see straight, I wasn’t sure which project to tackle – the review takedown or the mural.

Feeling the rage fire up in me wasn’t good for calm, logical thinking, so I decided to channel that energy into building the mural.

Headphones on to drown out my thoughts, I dove into the project. My first break came near midnight, as my hands were stiff, and my back was achingly sore. I needed to take a quick mental break, and a walk was in order. I stepped outside the shop and inhaled the fresh scent. The streets had pools of water, and the streetlights reflected a little sheen.

I strolled down my street and turned left, heading toward downtown, only intending on going far enough to clear my head and infuse some fresh energy into my weary soul. I walked to the park, and spying a bench, sat upon it, the wet on the seat soaking into my pants. The events of the evening replayed in my head. I shouldn’t have been so careless. I should’ve dropped the vendetta I had years ago, and not given in to Libby’s idea of upcharging him, but that wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t the one who added that to the bill, that had all been on my shoulders, my stupid revenge-seeking shoulders.

David was right, I was a lousy human being. My act had been unforgivable, and the weight of that deception pushed on my heart and soul.

After grabbing an XL coffee from the twenty-four-hour convenience store, I put a little pep in my step and hammered my pace back home, where I poured everything I had into the mural.

By the time the morning light filtered in through the side window, I’d made great progress.

Bleary-eyed, I stumbled into the house and made breakfast. Vera had school, and Fran’s dayhome kids would be arriving shortly.

My sister breezed into the kitchen fresh as a daisy, ready to take on the world.

I needed to absorb some of her energy, so I found myself standing closer to her in hopes it would jump over.

“How was last night? You were working pretty hard.” She raised her brows as she poured a cup of coffee. “Everything okay?”

I avoided eye contact. “Not at all, but I’m trying to figure out how to fix it.”

“Can I help?”

“Only if you can turn back time.” I flipped a pancake onto the growing stack and handed it to Fran.

“Yeah, can’t do that. So, it’s more than guy troubles? Those I’m good at solving.”

I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth. “It is guy troubles, but it’s complicated, and sex won’t fix it.”

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