You're too much.
Too loud.
Too needy.
This desperate attempt at connection is pathetic.
I set my phone face-down on the table and take another bite of cookie.
I'm not letting him win, not even in my own head.
I'm allowed to be enthusiastic.
I'm allowed to share what I love. I'm allowed to take up space and be loud and connect with people.
I'm allowed to exist exactly as I am.
I take a sip of coffee, letting the warmth and sweetness ground me. The staff room is quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator and the distant sound of customers in the shop. Safe. Peaceful.
I glance at the three books I dropped on the table—my future purchases, my temporary friends. The covers are beautiful, promising stories of Omegas who find their happy endings, who learn to love themselves before they love anyone else, who build lives worth fighting for.
I can have that too.
Maybe not today, maybe not this week, but someday.
Someday I'll have the kind of love those books promise.
The kind that doesn't hurt.
The happy ever after that feels like coming home after longing to return where you rightfully belong...
I finish my cookie and smile—a real smile this time, one that reaches my eyes.
Today is a good day.
I did my shift, made people smile on the internet, crashed into a devastatingly attractive Alpha, and scored sugar cookies before they were all gone. That's a win in my book.
Tomorrow I'll work my shift at Hazel's cafe, maybe pick up some extra hours helping Mrs. Chen at the flower shop.
I'll keep building this life, piece by piece, sugar cookie by sugar cookie.
And hopefully with time, I'll figure out what to do about the fact that I can still smell maple wood and honey, even though that Alpha is nowhere near me.
But that's a problem for future Reverie.
Present Reverie has cookies to eat and coffee to drink and a whole afternoon to convince herself that she's absolutely not thinking about soft smiles and warm eyes.
I lean back in my chair, cradling my coffee mug, and let the contentment wash over me.
The day will continue to be grand, one sugar cookie at a time.
CHAPTER 3
Maple Wishes & Hardcover Hearts
~GRAYSON~
The words blur on the page in front of me, not because my eyes are tired, but because I've read the same paragraph three times and still can't focus.
