Page 64 of Unforgiven in Cheshire Bay

The thick, standard-sized envelope sat there, holding my rapt attention. There was a lot of money on the table, and it was needed. There was so much it could pay for.

But I couldn’t. I didn’t have much, but I had my integrity.

Begrudgingly, my heart plummeting into my stomach, I pushed it back, however, my finger lingered on the edge for a couple of heartbeats. “I can’t accept this.”

“You did the job, ahead of schedule, and you worked really hard on it. Take the money. You’ve earned it.”

Once again, the envelope grabbed my attention, almost glowing like a pot of gold at the end of a ray of sunshine.

So. Much. Money. I knew because I had looked at the remainder of the invoice and what was due on the mural; I just never sent it. He’d already paid for the booth pieces in full, and I was going to make do with that.

“Take it. Consider us even now.”

That’s it? We were even now? I wasn’t even going to get a chance to beg to bring us back together?

My heart constricted and my shallow breath shuddered, and I wasn’t sure what to say and do. Beingevenwasn’t a thought I’d prepared for, because in my mind, we weren’t. I screwed up, and I needed to find a way to mend us, but as the envelope was pushed back in my direction, with such a strong finality in his voice, an ache bloomed deep within my soul.

A few minutes ago, I was hot and sweaty, but I suddenly shivered with the chill. “I’m not even close to making things right. Not with you. Not by a long shot.”

My new magnum opus was to make sure everything was smoothed over with David, who had been my boyfriend for a brief spell, and make us bigger and better than we had been because, for a small moment in time, it was beyond wonderful. Too many nights since our fight, I curled in my bed and let the tears fall. I missed the shared space with an adult. I missed the connection. I truly missed him.

“It’s retribution costs for that horrible night I unintentionally dropped on you. After we had that…” His chest pushed out against the buttons of his shirt. “That fight…” He dropped his gaze back to his phone for a couple of heartbeats. “I came back here and dug through all the old files. The good thing about being a micromanager…” He let the word hang between us with a tiny smirk. “Is I keep exceptionally detailed files, much longer than the government requires. It turns out therewasa container of chicken marked and tossed as spoilage around the time you contracted food poisoning.”

Had this been announced seven years ago, I might have jumped up and down waving my fists in the air in celebration, but I wasn’t about now. Instead, I swallowed and looked him deep in the eyes.

“That’s… interesting.”

“Back then, as I’ve told you, I was going through a rough patch, but that doesn’t excuse my behaviour as a manager of this restaurant. It took some deep thinking, but I recalled that conversation, and I am regrettably sorry for having laughed at you and said what I said.” He hung his head before returning his focus to me. “I should’ve been the bigger person. A couple hundred dollars would not have bankrupted me the way the situation almost did to you. For that, please accept this payment, with bonus, as me asking for forgiveness for that horrible event.”

The money-stuffed envelope just sat there like a lead weight with pointy neon arrows aimed right at it.

“For that callous behaviour, I most decidedly earned a bad review, and I definitely agree it needs to remain.”

I’d waited years to hear an apology, but now that it had happened, I wasn’t feeling any better. The lump in my throat grew sharp little spikes, and I swallowed it down with a bitter taste of bile.

He pushed the payment toward me. “Please.”

“If you insist.”

“I do. I can own up to that one, but the others were excessive, mean, and totally out of line.”

“Agreed. One hundred percent. And again, for that, I am beyond sorry.”

He nodded briefly and rose. “Then that concludes my business with you today.” Without another word, he walked over to the door and opened it wide.

My jaw unhinged. My heart stopped beating. My head swam.

“But I’m not finished. Not by a long shot.” My breath twisted into a miserable knot of gasps and shallow sounds. “Please. There’s more I want to tell you.”

The phone buzzed on his desk, but he ignored the vibration. With a soul-crushing escape of air from his lungs, he closed the door and sat in his chair, leaning back as he crossed his legs. “You have five minutes.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Five minutes wasn’t a lot of time to bare my soul and beg for forgiveness. To show him I wanted him, that I needed him too. My chest tingled as it constricted, and a pricking sensation crawled across the nape of my neck.

I quickly cleared my throat and stared at my laced fingers. “While I had revenge on the brain and had become so narrowly focused I couldn’t see straight, there was a reason - I was in a bad place before that happened.”

My heart hammered with his full, undivided attention. I hadn’t shared my story with anyone but it was time.

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