She just shook her head minutely, not saying a word as her eyes stayed locked with mine.
Finally, she spoke up, her voice strong, but quieter than before.“You need to grow up and become an adult, Rory.”She stepped away.“I’ll be sure Conor knows to not put us on the schedule together, ever.I don’t want to deal with you anymore.”
She turned away and part of me wanted to follow her, to finish this fucking fight, but the other part was as done with her as she was with me.
Good fucking riddance.
Rory
That night was fucking hell.
I tried scrolling through my phone for a quick hook-up, but every time my thumb hovered over the connect button, it was Emily’s face I saw.
No, not the yelling one I recently encountered, but her shining blue eyes, her wide smile as she laughed, and her fucking gorgeous blonde hair.
I really hated conceding to people’s opinions, but I spent the entire night—no joke, the entire fucking night—replaying her words.
Was I really that shallow?
Like I said, the women I slept with knew the score going in.
And I really didn’t see anything wrong with choosing clients who were well on their way in their fitness journeys.It made sense.You give them a product, they have a quick turn-around time, they post the hell out of that shit on social media, and you had more orders.
But maybe I should look into taking on a client or two who actually, truly, needed the service.It would take longer to get to the end goal, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.
I went through every fucking email, deleted ones too, trying to find people I could add to my client base.It was three in the damn morning, but I still responded to their emails.
I ended up finding five additional people to add to my clientele.What was adding five more going to do for my time?Not a whole lot.It wasn’t going to eat much more than my current base was.
At four, I emailed the owner of the Steakhouse, apologizing and offering a hefty tab at O’Gallaghers if he ever wanted to stop by.
I suppose part of this was easy because I wasn’t doing it face to face, but there was one face to face I was going to have to do.
That I wanted to do.
Putting aside my laptop for the night, I closed my eyes and took a nap.
She was opening tomorrow.I’d find her then.
Emily
I arrived to O’Gallaghers early the next day, thankful to see Stone was opening with me.He didn’t do many early shifts so I didn’t get to work with him often, but he was a fun guy.He made everything light and easy.
Things I was definitely needing today.
I was under a bit of an emotional hangover today after letting out every single thing I’d been holding back with Rory.I should have known the good was going to fade, that he couldn’t be as great as he was showing me over the week.
I entered O’Gallaghers through the back, not thinking about the fact I’d be passing Rory’s staircase, but thankful just the same when I didn’t see him.The kitchen was quiet but music was playing in the bar area.Stone was probably setting up his coolers ‘just the right way.’It was funny to me how such a big guy could be so OCD about something as trivial as lemon and lime placement.
“Hey, Stone,” I started, as I pushed through the doors, but my words were cut off by the man sitting at the bar, facing the doors as if he were waiting for me.
“Emily.”
I clenched my jaw and lifted my chin.“Rory.”I moved down the bar toward Stone, who was indeed working out his coolers.“What can I do to help?”
“If you want to get towels together, that would be great.”
Ignoring Rory, I moved to the back to do as Stone asked, grabbing enough for the first hours before they were due to be changed out.As I was about to push through the door again, it opened back toward me and Rory stepped in.
