Twenty minutes later, I sit in the coffee shop just down from my office building with my head in my hands and groan loudly. “I hate my life.”
“Aw,” coos Victoria who sits across from me. “It can’t be that bad. Come on, spill it.”
Lifting my head from my palms, I stare at her with a sad smile. I want to tell her all about Nick and his questions, how his opinion didn’t make my decision any easier and I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.
But the words don’t come.
They can’t without telling her about Elijah, so instead I focus on my mother. “It’s just my mom. She’s continuing to strip the wallpaper and yesterday, I had a late start because I was at the doctor’s with Nick and I came home, and you know what she did? She’d stripped up the carpet in the living room!” All my frustration at myself gets poured into my words about my mother and as I talk, there is a slight sense of relief to get it all out.
“Oh, my God.” Victoria laughs. “That’s insane.”
“That’s what I said! Nick can’t play in the living room anymore because I’m terrified he’ll get his little fingers caught in the floorboards or on a protruding nail, and you know what she said to me? She told me to move back to my apartment!”
“Why don’t you?” Victoria sips her coffee. “Go back to your own place and be free.”
“Because she’s still my mom. She can’t afford to support herself, and because she’s not the only one grieving. Seeing my dad’sshoes on the rack or his picture on the wall, or walking down the hallway and smelling him…” The words catch in my throat and I shake my head. “I’m not ready to say goodbye to that yet.”
“That’s fair.” Victoria lowers her cup. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless of me to say.”
“It’s fine.” I wrap my hands around my cup and huddle forward. “Life is hard.”
“Not all hard, though, right?”
As I lift my cup, our eyes meet. “How do you mean?”
“You and Elijah.”
The coffee scorches a patch of fire down my throat as I swallow in alarm, and it takes all my restraint not to cough. “Excuse me?” I gasp.
“You and Elijah,” she repeats. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure, you do.” Victoria leans forward and lowers her voice. “I saw the two of you at the Bistro. It looked cozy.”
My cheeks immediately flare as if I’ve been slapped on both sides. “You saw us?”
“Mmhmm. Don’t worry, I’m not judging!” She sits back with a grin. “I completely understand the allure of an older man. Hell, I would have gone for him if I knew that was even an option.” She sighs wistfully. “This is my punishment for spending too much time at the stores.”
Shit. I thought we were far enough away that no one would see us so I could avoid questions and stares, but it seems Victoria, for the most part, sees no problem with it.
“Although now, you’re technically dating the boss.”
“The boss?” I take another drink, cautiously this time. There’s no point in trying to deny what Victoria saw. It’d only make me look more guilty.
“Mmhmm. Didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?”
Her eyes light up with the delight of gossip. “Yesterday, Elijah had some sort of explosive argument with Jimmy over the website or Valentine’s Day, I’m not really sure. But Jimmy told him he had no control because he hadn’t signed.”
My heart begins pounding for another reason. “Signed what?”
“No clue. Mariane, Jimmy’s assistant? She only overheard a little but she swears that when Elijah left the office, he was talking on the phone about signing on the dotted line.”
Oh, no.
“Victoria, what did he sign?”
