“I’m sure I’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”
“Okay. Well, you let me know if you need anything. And how does a turkey club on sourdough sound? With potato chips and dill pickle spears on the side, and sweet tea to wash it all down?”
Tyler grinned. “That sounds perfect.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Over the weekend, Jessica had begun to think that her plan had worked. She’d been cordial to her ex-boyfriend, had driven him back to his motel after dinner on Friday night, and then hadn’t seen him again since. But when she left work on Monday evening, there he was, brazenly leaning up against her car with his arms crossed.
“Hi,” she said, trying to act as though her heart wasn’t hammering against her rib cage.
He squinted against the setting sun. “Wanna go for a ride?”
“Um, not today, Hilton. I’ve got a ton of papers to grade.”
“It can wait.”
“Not really. Teachers don’t get to choose when they do grading, unfortunately. And you know this is a new job for me. I’ve got to make a good impression.”
He frowned. “You should come back home anyway. You don’t belong here. And I have to get back to my job.”
“You should absolutely go. I don’t want you to get fired.” Job? When did he get a job? If he did have one, that was the perfect argument to get him to leave.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I didn’t know you’d found a job.”
“I’ve had it a few weeks.” He shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
“Well, you can’t miss any more of it. You’d better head home.”
He laughed. “Are you trying to get rid of me? I thought you came around on Friday.”
“We’re not getting back together, Hilton. It’s nice to see you again, but you really should go. And I’ve got to mark these papers by tomorrow.”
Her phone buzzed, and she looked at it. Another message from Tyler. She hadn’t responded to the last few messages from him since she’d been in class. And besides, she wasn’t sure what to say to him. With Hilton in town, she had to avoid Tyler, or things might escalate. Hilton would be furious if he discovered she was seeing someone, and Tyler might try to do something about the stalking. Which would be a relief, of course. But he might get hurt because of her, and she couldn’t live with that. This was something she had to deal with herself.
Another message. Then a series of them, one after the other, appeared on her lock screen.
I haven’t heard from you in a while. Are you okay? Still sick?
I went by the house, but Teja said you were still at work.
Getting worried about you…
She inhaled a sharp breath. She’d have to call him when she got home. But for now, all she could focus on was getting away from Hilton. The fact that he was still there after the weekend had frightened her at first, but now she was starting to get angry.
How dare he disrupt her life this way? They’d dated for a good while, but why couldn’t he let go? She’d hoped it might be something special at first. He’d courted her with lavish dates and romantic poems. He’d seemed so sweet and sadly misunderstood by everyone in his life. She knew now that everyone else had been right, and she’d been the blind fool all along.
“Who’s that texting you?” Hilton asked, eyeing the phone in her hand.
She shoved it into her purse. “No one. Listen, Hilton, you’ve got to go. I don’t want to see you anymore. I’ve moved on, and you should too. I want the best for you—really, I do. I hope you’ll find happiness. But it’s not going to be with me. We’re not a good match.” Being kind clearly hadn’t worked as well as she’d thought. Maybe tough and blunt would be a better approach.
His jaw clenched, and he straightened. “What are you saying?”
She wanted to roll her eyes but resisted. How many times did he need to hear it? “I broke up with you before I left, and my feelings haven’t changed. I don’t want this. Do you hear me? It’s over!”
She could see people milling about by the school buildings. One teacher had his hand tented over his eyes, peering across the lot to where she and Hilton stood. She’d raised her voice, and it’d caught some attention. Hilton reached her within two strides and grabbed hold of her wrist. His hand was like a vice. His grip bruised her and she struggled to pull away, but she couldn’t. She wanted to shout for help, for someone to call the police, but her voice stuck in her throat.
