“Okay, but what actually happened? You two were talking about some serious stuff, weren’t you?” Archer asks, obviously referring to our conversation about me taking everything to the next level.
“I was thinking about it,” I admit softly, not wanting to outright say we never really discussed it.
“But she wasn’t a part of that conversation?” Jane asks, watching me and not even touching the food. There’s a furrow to her brow that tells me she wants to get to the bottom of this whole thing.
I would let her, but then I would have to admit that I was drowning. That my whole façade over the last year was an act that I put on to make sure no one knew I was hurting.
“Not yet. I wanted to get some things in order before I did that,” I say, looking down at the carton that rests in my hands and willing my phone to vibrate in my pocket.
It stays tauntingly silent.
Viv sniffs and shakes her head. “I’m guessing, if she’s anything like me, she would have appreciated being thought of and spoken to like an adult.”
Archer watches her with concern, maybe concern for a fight he doesn’t know he has coming, but he looks at me with a little bit of panic and says, “Yeah.”
I’d laugh at his obvious fear if I wasn’t so damn miserable.
“I was going to. I just had to.” My throat locks up, and I feel that terrible, horrible, awful sting pierce the back of my nose. I hand off the food to April and lean forward, covering my face with my hands and feeling that sob burn in my throat.
I’m not just embarrassed, I’m ashamed. Ashamed of how I’ve failed my dad, ashamed of how I’ve failed myself, and mostly ashamed of how I’ve let the one person in the world I love most down.
“Derek, hey.” Chris is suddenly next to me, and his arm is around my back, holding firmly. “You need to tell us what’s going on. Right now.”
I sniff and pull my hands away, looking around the room at the concerned friends—my family—watching me carefully. Almost everyone has ceased eating and are waiting for me to spit it out.
Finally, I sigh, letting out the one sentence I swore I’d never have to speak. “I’m broke.”
For a moment, no one says anything. They just toss concerned looks around at each other.
“Broke? How? I thought the shop was doing great. You’ve had all those events and tons of people coming through.”
I nod at Enzo’s statement. “It’s been better, thanks to Birdie. But I have so much debt and medical bills and things that I haven’t been able to pay for for a while that are taking a chunk out of me. Which means I’m barely able to keep the lights on.”
“So wait,” Garrett starts. “I mean, that sucks. But what does that have to do with Elizabeth? She found out you’re broke and dumped you?”
Viv gasps. “That bitch!”
“Whoa, hey, don’t call her that,” I say firmly.
“Well, she left you because you’re broke? That’s not okay!”
“She didn’t leave me because I’m broke, she left me because I’m an asshole!” I nearly shout the words, feeling my insides threaten to crumble all over again.
“Okay, take us through this,” Chris says, patting my back. “What happened that made you get to needing space?”
“I don’t need space, she asked for space.”
“Okay, why?”
“Because she has this amazing, incredible, well-thought-out plan to expand the business, and I had to freak out because she didn’t know that I was barely hanging on by a thread to keep the shop open,” I admit, running my fingers through my hair. “And then I lost it. I freaked out and told her that she doesn’t need to help me, that I don’t need her saving me, and that I was the one who was supposed to help her.”
Warren whistles, shaking his head. “That went over well, I take it?”
“No. No, it did not.”
“Well, of course not,” Jane says, shaking her head. “This woman put herself through college, got pregnant, has been raising her baby all by herself with no financial help from anyone, and is brilliant in her marketing tactics as far as I can tell.”
“She is,” Viv agrees, resuming the stuffing process of her face. “She’s really pulled Fowler out of the hole when it comes to foot traffic. That’s not easy to do.”
