“Brody.Please.It’s hard enough.”
She meant it.She really fucking meant it.She was breaking up with him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
He rubbed his hand over the side of his head.Had this been what he’d wanted once?To be single?The idea of going home tonight and her not being there felt akin to drinking lighter fluid.
“Don’t do this, Drea.We can—”
“I need to, Brody.I’m sorry.”
Drea placed her hands on either side of his face, and kissed him.Hard.Passionate.Desperate.Before he had chance to respond, she pulled away.
“Good-bye, Brody.”Her voice broke on his name as she ran from the office.
Tears filled his eyes.What the fuck just happened?
Because it felt a lot like he just let the best thing that ever happened to him walk out of his life.
***
The world felt like a giant vat of syrup.Drea could see the chaos in the lunch hour rush, and it was hard to miss the way Harper efficiently made coffee after coffee, while Marco ran from the kitchen to the floor carrying plates of food José had put together.
But she was insulated from it.The sounds weren’t getting through, and she couldn’t figure out how to move quickly.Her limbs felt heavy, her words were jumbled.
“You.Home.”José’s voice sounded like it came from the end of a really long tunnel.
“I’m sorry,” she replied quickly.“I’m a little out of—”
“You need to go.Get some sleep.Here.”He handed her a brown bag.“Two days’ worth.All your favorites.”
Drea was all out of tears.She’d cried when she’d left Cujo.Cried when she ran into Harper in the break room.She wasn’t doing it again.This was day one of Operation Pull Yourself Together.And it fucking sucked.
“Thanks,” she said throwing an arm around his neck.“I’m sorry I’m such a mess at—”
“Shush, silly girl.Two days.I don’t want to see you in here.”
Drea tried to smile.“I’ll catch the shifts up, I promise.”
José took her by the hand, and led her to the front of the store.“Drea,mi querida.You’re the daughter I never had,” he added.“This isn’t a job.You don’tworkfor me.You’re family.”
Those tears she was not going to cry were burning her eyes.
“No one has worked as hard as you have for twelve years.Take the time.You’ll still get paid whether you work five hundred hours or five.”
Drea bit hard on the side of her cheek.Words were slow to come.Nothing seemed an appropriate response to what he’d just said to her.So she hugged him and quickly left for the bus before she fell apart.
She’d just turned the corner onto Collins Avenue when a car horn startled her.A dark blue sedan did a U-turn and pulled up alongside her.The tinted window lowered, and Detective Carter smiled at her.
“Just the lady I wanted to see,” he said cheerily.“Hey, you okay, Drea?Wait.”
He jumped out of the car and walked over to her.Gently, he placed his hands on her shoulders, crossing all lines of propriety.“What the hell happened?”His smile was gone, replaced with an intense look of concern.
Drea couldn’t take one more act of kindness.“Please, don’t be nice to me right now, Ryan” she said.
Ryan stared at her, his dark eyes brimming with concern and a compassion she wanted but didn’t wholly believe she deserved.“In the car,” he said, stepping away to open the passenger door.
All she wanted was to crawl into bed and stay there for a couple of days, so she climbed into the car.
“Where am I taking you, Drea?”he asked, joining her in the car.He leaned across her to fasten her seatbelt.
