“Thanks.”
Did anyone from my former life even miss me? I couldn’t believe I had thought of myself as the star and Jillian as the support staff.
It was very clear charm was not going to save me now.
“Here you go, Mr. Mayor,” purred a breathy, throaty voice behind me.
That voice was no longer the subject of my occasional “What if?” romantic daydreams.
It now made my teeth ache and threatened to activate my gag reflex.
Of course Jilly was the only person in town who would employ Christabelle, so she’d spent the last two years mostly in a crab costume.
“Don’t bother trying to seduce him,” I hissed at Christabelle as she adjusted her low-cut top. “Cash is smarter than I was.”
She pressed her puffy lips together in irritation as he took the coffee without even glancing at her.
“Dismissed.”
“Damn right he’s smarter,” she spat back. “Look at you. Heir to a fortune and you’re living in some old lady’s spare bedroom.”
“My parents cut me off!”
“Yeah, because you’re a fucking pussy. You should have tried harder. Maybe then we’d be out on a yacht with your inheritance money.”
“My parents are still alive,” I said irritably. “And you are the last person I would ever want to be on a yacht with.”
“That’s not what you used to say,” Christabelle smirked. “You used to say you would LOVE if I moved to town. You used to WONDER what happened to us.”
I burned with shame at my stupidity. How could I ever have thought my youthful time with this basic petty halfwit was anything to look back fondly on?
“That was a mistake,” I said gloomily but she only sniffed and tossed her head.
“I don’t even want you anymore. But I’m getting that yacht. One way or the other.”
“Delivery,” I called out glumly to Cash as Christabelle flounced down the hall.
Cash looked up from his phone call and waved me in. When I put the paper bag containing the fish and chips down, he snapped his fingers at me and pointed to the desk.
I sighed.
Cash had really gotten a fucking big head from being the mayor. But I said nothing. After all, who in town would be on my side? I was still a pariah, and everyone still hated me for what I had done to Jillian.
Maybe I should have given it up, moved to the big city where no one knew me. But something stopped me every time.
And it was always the thought of Jillian that stopped me.
I just couldn’t leave her. Even though there was no hope for me. She had dropped me and never looked back. She didn’t want anything to do with me. But I was so desperate I would have snapped off a finger for five minutes with her.
I was desperate for any contact. Anything. Friendship, casual acquaintanceship. Even a head nod.
But I didn’t get anything.
The truth was that I had taken Jillian for granted and I would never regret anything else so much in my life.
I loved everything she had been and everything she was, and everything she could ever become.
And Cash was getting everything I wanted.
