“Yeah, not gonna lie, a little bit TMI on those early messages,” he says.“But hey, it’s all good.You guys are back on, right?”
Shaking my head, I slide my phone back into my pocket, turning my attention back to my friends.“We’re...talking.”
Owen laughs as he steps over and squeezes my shoulder.“Yeah, that’s what Kai said,” he says, grinning.“Kinda seems like it might be more than that, though, right?”
Shrugging, I blow out a breath.“I don’t know,” I admit.“She knows I want to be with her, and she’s finally ended things with that asshole, so...”
“So, that’s good, right?”Owen asks.
I shrug again because if anyone is going to understand this, it’s Owen.He’s been my friend since we started high school, and he also witnessed the whole me and Daisy getting together and then the whole me and Daisy falling apart.
Fuck, it was Owen who called to tell me about Isaac when Daze was no longer returning my calls.
“It’s complicated,” I admit.
He squeezes my shoulder again, giving me a sympathetic look.“Doesn’t have to be, Miles,” he says.“Just make sure you talk to her.”
Talk to her.
It’s what everyone tells me to do.
It’s what I know I need to do, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
Daisy and I might have a lot of history and a lot of good memories, but we also have a lot of bad ones too.We broke each other, and we did it in a way that almost destroyed us.Why would either of us want to bring any of that up again?
But I know there are some things we need to talk about, including our future and where we go from here.
“I will,” I say with a nod.
Owen smiles, squeezing my shoulder once more before letting go.
Flynn leans over and gives me a fist bump as he says, “Reckon we should have a few drinks tonight.Celebrate you getting your girl back.”
Laughing, I nod, loving the idea of all of us being together again.Only this time, I get to have Daisy.Get to hold her, touch her and kiss her whenever I want to.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Isaac is still hereover two hours later, glaring at me and intentionally making things uncomfortable not just for me, but for every customer in here.He came back in after Miles left, claiming he was just here to eat and was being treated like shit when all he wanted was a meal he planned to pay for.
Even when my regulars came in, looking at where Isaac occupied their usual seats, he refused to leave.Again, with the obnoxious claim of being a paying customer like everyone else.
When the clock rounds three hours of him being here, I let out a defeated sigh.The sting of tears burns my nose, and the frustration of the situation is getting to me.
I should never have gotten involved with him, and that is abundantly clear right now as he sits at the end of the bar, a half-eaten tuna melt in front of him.
Taking a hard breath, I look around, wondering if anyone in here would be opposed to just picking him up and tossing his ass out.But that feels extreme because while he isn’t doing anything, he’s doing everything under the fucking sun to make things weird.
No one stays in here for three hours unless Lisa has live music, and that’s usually on a Friday night.It’s a fucking Tuesday afternoon.
“What’s your endgame here?”I eventually mutter to him, standing far enough away that he can’t touch me.“You just going to sit here till my shift is over?”
“Maybe,” he responds gruffly.Shoving a hand through his hair, his eyes never leave mine, staring me down, an intimidation in them that makes my stomach churn.
How did I ever get involved with him?
It’s even crazier that he was at one time friends with Miles.Looking back on that, it feels like it was always a friendship of convenience.He was in the band with Miles.They spent a ton of time together because of that, but beyond that, I can’t see him as someone Miles would have sought out.
And now here we are, in this fucked up mess.
