Oh fuck. No—
“Tristan, what’s wrong?”
It takes me a good several blinks to realize that Reagan’s at my elbow, trying to pull my phone over to her so she can read what’s on the screen. That her Kindle is lying abandoned on the counter beside us. And from the nosy stares of a few customers, I’m thinking I kinda might have blurted my reaction out loud.
“Nothing.” I click off my screen. Stuff my phone back in my pocket.
Grab a rag.
Ignore the way my fucking hand fucking shakes as I start to scrub. And scrub. And fuckingscrubthe shit out of the water stains on the side of the espresso machine.
They’re not coming off.
Not coming off.
I have to get them off—
“Tristan.”
I fucking jump out of my fucking skin when a small hand closes around my wrist, stopping my scrubbing.
Not clean—
“You sure you’re okay?”
The shop comes back into focus around Reagan where she’s standing right beside me. Staring.
“Hon, what happened?” Gently, she peels the rag out of my hand.
I drag in a breath. Hold it. Breathe out.
“Just a text from my ex.” The words feel like broken glass.
Fuck. This. Day.
And.Fuck.Him.
Reagan shoots me a sympathetic look. “You miss him?”
I don’t recognize the laugh I choke out. “Fuck no. He just pisses me off and I don’t want to have to deal with his shit right now. Or ever.”
Fucking understatement of the century.
Reagan totally looks like she wants to talk more about it, but I turn away from her, grabbing a fresh rag and going back to scrubbing the espresso machine.
Slower though. In control. Not freaking the fuck out.
Tuning out the itchy-crawling ick creeping over my skin at the fact that I just can’t get the metal clean.
I feel like a dick for blocking Reagan out, but it’s just that Idon’twant to talk about this shit. Don’t even want to think about it.
The words of fucking Josh’s text keep playing on repeat through my head.
So you miss me or what?
Not good. So fucking not good.
I don’tknowwhat happened, but I can guess. Whatever new piece of ass he’d found to replace me got sick of his bullshit and left him, same as I did.
