“It was a whole thing.” He sighs and sits on a makeshift chair of boards. “Her brother treated her like crap, and I stepped in, but I wasn't nice about it, and things went badly.”
“What did you do, fight him?”
He doesn't answer me. Well, I guess that answers that question. I don't know why he thinks I would fight somebody. I am not that type of person. If anything, I'm usually the one breaking up arguments and almost fights with people we surround ourselves with.
“Well, nothing like that happened when we were there. I did get in his face once, but she doesn't know about that because he never brought it up.”
Now I’m about to sound like a jerk. “But the last night where we were there, I did get an argument with her. That's where I feel like I overstepped. Now I haven’t heard from her in days, and I feel like it might be the end of us.”
“All you can do is give it time, man. I don't know what else to tell you?”
“Do you have any idea how incredibly hard that is for me?”
“Yeah, I know you're patient to a point. Not that I’m speaking from personal experience.” He grins up at me.
“That's only because all of you wait until the last possible second to do anything, and it's mind boggling.”
“You have to trust the process, and that's my process most of the time.”
“I guess.”
I don't tell them that a part of me wants to go talk to Pierce. I'm really debating whether or not I should. if anything, just to clear the air between us. I know he could feel my glare the night everything went down. But that would be another area where I’d be overstepping my boundaries, and I do not want that to get back to her.
“You hungry?”
Dale’s question pulls me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, I could eat.”
“Well, let's get out of here. There's not much else we can do here today. And I'm starving.”
“Let’s go.” I already know where we’re going. It’s a good thing because me and Eric need to have a little chat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
paula
It’shard working in a flower shop when you don’t feel like basking in all the lovey messages people want to add to their orders. Most of them I don’t have to see. But there are a few customers who refuse to use the online ordering system, and I have to write out their messages on a notepad. These are the times I consider a different profession.
“Why are you so sad?” Emily asks from behind me and I knock my phone off the counter.
Reaching down to pick it up, I see the background. It’s the picture my sister took of me and Tristan. It doesn’t help my mood, but it does make me smile.
“I’m not sad,” I stand up. “Just feeling a little blah.”
She studies me for a moment. She starts with the hair piled on top of my head, to the oversized sweatshirt and then the leggings. This isn’t my usual attire, but it’s all I had the energy to put on. This past week has been brutalwith trying to get my sleep schedule back, and sleeping alone in my bed. Damn Tristan for making me want him next to me at night.
“You can keep lying to yourself, but I know the look of heartbreak. Your outfit was basically my uniform when Alex dumped me in college.”
“Nope. I’m perfectly fine.” It’s a lie. I’ve been a mess since Tristan dropped me off. But I’m not taking the full blame for that. He didn’t say a single word the entire ride home. Then that little speech he gave before he left. The whole thing was weird.
“Alex was an idiot for dumping you back then.”
Emily grabs one of the extra stools and slides it next to me. Oh, so she isn’t going to drop this. Great. Other than Sam, I’m the least likely to show my feelings. Though, I guess she can tell something is up by the way I’ve come into work this week.
“Agreed, but he’s made up for it.” She pulls her sweater over her hands. “No offense, but you look like you need to talk.”
“I really don’t.” In all actuality, I do need to talk to someone. These past few weeks Tristan has been my sounding board, but he hasn’t bothered reaching out to me. There’s no way I’m talking to my siblings about anything because two of them will give me so much shit, and the rest wouldn’t understand.
