Her words take me by complete surprise.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re an idiot. You’re both idiots. How do you not knowthis, Alex? She stays late almost every night. What twenty-three-year-old woman stays late all the damn time? She never leaves the office for lunch unless it’s with you. She doesn’t go out for drinks with coworkers. I know at least three men in our office alone have asked her out, and god knows how many others outside of our office. She turns them all down. Because she loves your stupid ass.” She points an accusatory finger at me. “And now she’s gone and you’re self-imploding. Find her. Fix this.”
“I’m working on it,” I grit out. My resolve to give Amelia two weeks lasted two days. But I’ve interviewed half a dozen goddamned private investigators so far and hated every single one of them. I can’t trust just anyone with finding her…
“Good.” Katie stands and stomps out of my office, slamming the door behind her.
I look over some paperwork while I eat, but can’t concentrate on it. Why the hell am I even here?
Chapter 15
Food might not solve our problems, but we're gonna try again just to be sure
Amelia
I’m too busy for the next week to dwell on…things.
With five siblings under the legal driving age, someone always needs to go somewhere. Someone’s always hungry, there are fights to break up, and a million loads of laundry to do. Mom and Dad don’tneedmy help, but I know they appreciate it.
One of the dance teachers is dealing with a foot injury, so I’ve been helping out at the studio. And I took over most of Stephanie’s maid of honor responsibilities because she doesn’t seem to give a shit about any of them.
Which is why Bean and I are sitting in a booth at Mickey’s again, eating buffalo wings and planning the bachelorette party.
“We can just hang out here. As long as you, me, and Haven are together, I don’t really care what we do,” Bean says as she dips a wing in ranch.
Since Haven’s not twenty-one yet, our options are a little more limited. We usually end up here, or at the bowling alley Haven’s family owns. But as much as I love both places, I want Bean’s party to be more than just a normal night out in our small town.
Before I open my mouth to say as much, Bean shakes her head and huffs. “Okay, I can’t take it anymore. What the hell happened with you and the guy at work? I don’t need dirty deets, just… You’re hurting, and I hate seeing you like this.”
“There’s nothing to tell right now. Your wedding is in a week, there’s way more important things to worry about than my love life.”
She rolls her eyes and snorts. “No, there’s not. You showed up here a week early. Drunk and crying. Because of a man. That’s not a thing you do.”
I give in. Mostly. “It wasn’t just a crush. I fell for him. I fell hard. He… He’s older than me. A lot. But I didn’t care about that. I figured it would never go anywhere. And then one night, it did. It was amazing and I thought it was the start of something real between us, but he regretted it instantly. That look in his eyes, and hearing him say it was a mistake…” I take a stuttered breath and blink back tears, willing them not to fall. I refuse to cry about Alex anymore if I can help it. “It broke me. So I ran.”
“Well then, he sucks and we hate him. Did you quit? You quit, right?”
“Yeah. I can’t go back there. I can’t see him again, Bean.”
“Please tell me you weren’t drunk when you sent in your resignation letter.”
“No. I was drunk when I wrote it, but checked it over in the morning during the short window of time when I was mostly sober. Well, kind of sober… a little sober.”
“Damn, Min. I’m sorry. What the fuck? He definitely doesn’t deserve you.” She shakes her head and takes a long sip of her margarita.
“I thought maybe he was the one, you know? I wanted him to be. I wanted him to be so fucking much.”
She moves to sit on the same side as me and wraps her arms around me. I drop my head to her shoulder.
“Maybe he’ll pull his head out of his ass and grovel.”
“Not sure I’d forgive him, though,” I mutter.And he’d have to find me first.I never thought a glitch would work out in my favor, but thankfully, there’s nothing in my employee file that’ll help him.
We order nachos and more drinks. When a pool table opens up, we claim it just before Haven walks through the door. She stops to talk to Dolly for a few seconds and waves at her new neighbors on her way to us.
“Ooooh, nachos! I’m starving!” She grabs a few off the plate and shoves them in her mouth. “I’ve got mushrooms and pickles coming.”
