Jace watched Elle for another second before looking at Molly. “No, I’m not.”
“Interesting. Maybe we could do something sometime.”
Oh, God. Ellecould notstand here and listen to Molly hit on Jace, because there was no way he’d ever turn down someone like her. She had the perfect body. The perfect long, thick blond hair and butt chin…yeah, she was calling it a butt chin.
She grabbed a tray and moved around the counter to the tables, forcing herself to block out any conversation between the two of them.
Over the years, she’d lost her baby weight. She still had curves, she just looked…different now. And she’dthoughtlosing the weight would change things. It hadn’t, not really. Because when she looked at herself in the mirror, she still saw the same thing…plain, boring Elle. The girl no one had dated in high school. The girl whose smiledidn’tlight up a room and whose personality didn’t pull people in.
But self-love was a journey…a journey she was still on.
When she returned behind the counter, it was to find Jace and Molly still talking, her coworker smiling way too widely.
Elle cleared her throat. “Molly, you can go now if you want.”
The other woman turned, brows raised. “Really? We still need to clean the coffee machine and mop the floors.”
“I’ll do it.” In fact, she was more than eager to be alone because she didn’t want to be witness to whatever they were planning.
“Okay, great, thanks!” Molly grabbed her bag from behind the counter. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
She winked at Jace as she passed him, and Elle gritted her teeth to stop the scowl.
She started on the coffee machine, scrubbing the thing with a bit more force than necessary. She shouldn’t be angry. She had absolutely zero right to be angry. Both of them were single, consenting adults. If they wanted to date and flirt, they were allowed.
So why did she feel an irrational need to simultaneously be sickandkick Jace in the balls?
She scrubbed the machine with more force.
“Going a little hard at the coffee machine, aren’t you, Tink?”
Shit. She forced her actions to gentle. “You didn’t want to walk her out?”
“Nope. I want to walkyouout.”
She paused. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. I have your present in the car.”
She frowned. “You actually have a present for me?”
“I told you, that’s not something I’d joke about. I remember how much you like presents.”
Shedidlike presents, but mostly presents from Jace. Every year on birthdays and Christmases, the thing she’d been most excited about was seeing what he’d gotten for her.
All that had stopped, of course, when he’d stopped contacting her.
“I still have a lot to—”
“I can help,” he interrupted her.
“No.”
“Let me help, Tink.”
She wet her lips. Fine, if he wanted to help… “You can put the chairs on the tables if you want.”
“You got it.”
