Right now, I need to focus on saving my business, not my broken heart.
That night,I’m curled up on my couch with a glass of wine that’s definitely not my first, laptop balanced on my knees while I pretend to researchAurora Coffee’s offer. The numbers blur together on the screen, but my brain keeps drifting to Owen’s mouth on my skin. His weight pinning me down. The memory of the hottest sex I’ve ever had.
Anger, sadness, lust, and frustration cycle through me. I want answers.
My phone buzzes with a FaceTime call from Sadie. Her familiar face fills the screen, dark hair pulled back in a messy bun, eyebrows already raised in concern.
“You look like hell,” she says without preamble.
“Thanks, you’re a real confidence booster.” I take another sip of wine. “It’s been a week.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
The question opens a floodgate I didn’t realize I’d been holding back.“Aurora Coffee gave me an ultimatum. I have until Friday to accept their buyout offer, or they’ll open their store anyway and watch me slowly die.”
“Oh, Viv. I’m so sorry. That sucks.” Sadie settles back in her kitchen chair, a steaming mug in her hands. “But I’m sensing there’s more.”
Of course, she can read me through a phone screen. We’ve been friends since college, and Sadie always knows when I’m upset or holding back.
“Owen hasn’t been in for a week.”
“Owen being...”
“The tech guy. The one who recovered the files on my laptop, and...” I close my eyes. “The one who gave me the best sex of my life and then ghosted me like I was nothing.”
Sadie’s expression shifts from casual concern to laser focus. “Back up. Start from the beginning.”
So I do. I tell her about Owen’s quiet competence during the blackout, his fierce determination when he offered to help with my laptop.
“And Sadie,” I say, closing my eyes for a long moment at the intensity of the memory. At the surprising jolt of lust and something deeper when he called me his Good Girl. “The sex was, in the truest sense of the word, mind-blowing. I’ve never experienced anything like that. Ever.”
“He sounds incredible,” Sadie says when I pause for breath. “So what went wrong?”
“That’s what I want to know.” I drain my wine glass. “One night, I’m having the hottest sex of my life, and he’s making me feel things I never thought were possible. The next day, he’s gone. No texts. No coffee. Nothing.”
I pause, then force out the words that have been eating at me. “Maybe it was like in college, where a guy would like me, but he’d flee after we had sex. Like ‘Oh, you’re fun and I like you…but you’re too fat to be my girlfriend.’ You remember how it was for me.”
Sadie’s expression sharpens with protective fury. “Vivian Gold, you stop that right now.”
“I’m just saying—”
“No. Absolutely not.” Sadie leans forward, her voice fierce. “He would be lucky to have you, and you know it. You’re gorgeous and talented and funny and kind. And from everything you’ve told me so far, it sounds as if he likes you deeply. Don’t let the ghost of jerks past influence what might have happened with Owen.”
“But what if—”
“What if nothing. Don’t assume the worst. Now, ghosting you for a week isn’t great, but maybe there’s an explanation.”
I roll my eyes. There is never a good outcome if you ask a man why he’s ghosted you.
“I see you rolling your eyes at me. If you felt a deep connection, so did he. That’s not something that happens in a vacuum. Don’t you think it’s worth finding out?”
Sadie’s question slices through my insecurities, forcing me to remember the wonder in Owen’s eyes when he looked at me—like I was gorgeous and amazing, not a consolation prize.
“Yes,” I admit quietly.
“Then stop borrowing trouble from assholes who don’t deserve a second of your mental energy.” Sadie’s voice softens. “Vivian, did it occur to you that maybe this wasn’t about you at all?”
I blink at her through the screen. “What do you mean?”
