Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I’m so fucked.
CHAPTER 2
Olivia
Leaving the spa parking lot, I pull out onto Main Street and bypass the turn for Kourtney’s neighborhood. This evening, I’m not going straight home after work, like I have since moving in with her over the weekend. Not that her house feels like home. With most of my clothes still in my suitcases and sleeping on a blow-up mattress every night, I very much still feel like a guest, despite her attempts to make me feel welcome. Or as welcome as she could make me feel before she left in the middle of the week for another contract job, this one in Los Angeles.
As I roll to a stop at another red light, I feel like one of the old timers in town who are constantly complaining about traffic and all of the changes that have taken place over the years.
When I lived here years ago, there was one single stoplight in the center of town. Now, there are dozens. Plus, there are so many new stores and fast-food places along the long stretch of road that takes you from my little town, into the next one, and then the next, before eventually meeting downtown Nashville.
There is even a Starbucks, which I never thought I’d see here. Not after the uproar that happened when I was in high school when they wanted to build a Sonic Drive-In, which they were sure would kill the small-town feel and put all of the mom-and-pop restaurants out of business. But that’s how it is in small towns—everyone is so afraid of change, afraid that if things aren’t like they’ve always been, whatever toxicity is happening in big cities will spread and contaminate the residents.
Glancing at my dash when my phone starts to ring, I see it’s one of my very best friends from Chicago and hit the button on my steering wheel.
“Hey, you,” I answer, smiling despite the person behind me honking like I should just ram the truck in front of me to get them to move.
“It sounds like you’re home, please tell me you’re back in Chicago.” Rebecca’s voice bounces around the interior of my car, making me laugh.
“Sorry, I’m just on my way to my parents’ house and stuck in traffic. What are you up to?”
“I just got off work, so I’m heading home to get ready to meet Clark for dinner.”
“You’re having dinner with Clark?” There is no hiding the surprise in my voice. Then again, Clark is her ex, who she broke up with two months ago when he asked her to move in with him instead of asking her to marry him, which was what she thought was happening.
“It’s just dinner.”
“So you’re still not going to admit that you miss him or that you might have made a mistake when you broke up with him?”
“Wanting to be engaged before you move in with someone isn’t a ridiculous request, especially when you’ve been dating that person for over a year.”
“I’m not saying you’re wrong,” I reply softly, then remind her, “but he never said he wouldn’t ask you. He just didn’t want to be pressured into doing it before he was ready. And he wanted to live with you for a while before you two took that step.”
“If you know, you know, and he obviously didn’t know that he wanted to spend his life with me, so why waste either of our time?”
“Okay, then why are you going out with him tonight?”
“Because I’m still in love with him,” she answers, sounding sickened by just admitting it.
“So if he asked you to get back together, would you say yes?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She lets out a breath. “Or maybe not. It just depends on if things have changed.”
I shake my head. “You mean if he’s changed his mind about getting engaged.”
“We were together for over a year!”
Fourteen months is barely over a year, but I don’t remind her of that. She already knows.
“Molly got engaged to Adam in like two months.”
“You’re right, and now they are married with a baby, but she mostly hates his guts because he doesn’t step up and help her out like he should. And she is basically a single mom of two kids, one of them being a thirty-plus-year-old man who wants to do nothing but drink all day and play video games when he’s not working. Something she might have learned and been able to avoid had they lived together for more than the few months after they got engaged and before they got married.”
“So you think I should have moved in with Clark without a ring on my finger?”
“I think that, at the end of the day, my opinion doesn’t matter. You have to do what is right for you, which is what I told you when you told me that you were going to break up with him.”