“Definitely parties, maybe with bonfires?” Karen suggested. “It’s a small town, right? People here are simpleminded and easy to impress.”
That irked me a bit.This is all part of your grand plan.Another part of my scheme was Meg seeing me with Karen. I needed to plan it perfectly. Maybe I should unveil Karen at a debate? Or should Karen and I casually walk past Meg’s office the next day?
Another crowd of people walked in.
“How many in your party?” Minnie chirped.
“I’m just here for pickup,” a familiar voice said.
“As I live and breathe,” Karen said loudly, a sharp smile on her face. “If it isn’t Meghan, my little employee.”
Meg whirled around and looked wildly between the two of us. Karen snuck an arm around my waist.
“Buying takeout for one?” Karen asked meanly.
17
Meghan
“You don’t have money to spend on more takeout,” I chastised myself.
I had snuck out of Jake’s—or James or whatever his name was—house while his family was in the middle of a loud argument about whether seafood was meat or not. I had scarfed down my lasagna, needing the cheese and carbs to steady my nerves.
My date texted me as I was walking down the sidewalk back into town. I deleted it. The humiliation of singing in front of all those people played through my head.
“Never ever going on another date again, ever,” I promised myself. I was still in my pumps. My feet hurt. “Just make it back to Main Street. We’ll go to the seafood place on Seventh. They have popcorn shrimp and those mini hush puppies.”
It had started to drizzle when I arrived, bedraggled, sweaty, and red-faced, at the restaurant. The smell of creamy sauce and fried breadcrumbs hit me when I walked in. I fanned myself as I waited for Minnie to walk back to the hostess station. She had an angry look on her face.
I hope she’s not mad at me.
Then I heard it—the voice that had made me miserable for the long two years of my career as an attorney in Manhattan. It belonged to the worst supervisor in the world—Karen. She had had me publicly fired and humiliated, and the experience still haunted my nightmares.
She cannot be here. My vision swam as I stared at her. Over the past few years, I had imagined the next time I would see her. I was going to one, be way thinner, and two, have a better outfit on and expensive shoes and have gotten a blowout. We were going to meet coincidentally at some fancy party. Karen was going to be in a cat-hair-covered knockoff designer dress, and I was going to be wearing a showstopping gown. The deepest, darkest secret of my fantasies? Hunter was going to be on my arm with his six-foot-five frame and piercing gray eyes. We were going to make a stunning couple, and Karen was going to explode with jealousy. She had always been furious when Hunter and I were dating. He would send me gifts and flowers to the office, much to Karen’s annoyance.
But now? Here, at the Harrogate fried-seafood restaurant? This was not how I wanted to see Karen. And I especially did not want to see her with Hunter.
His face was unreadable as Karen wrapped her arms around him like tentacles. Her hands scooted under his jacket to trail her fingernails along the buttons of his shirt.
You didn’t even want him anyway.Well, mostly.You only want him a little bit.But I certainly didn’t want him with her.
“Hunter just made me his new campaign manager,” Karen said smugly. “I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other.” She sniffed a laugh. “It’s funny. You look exactly the same. Same lint-covered clothes, and your hair is still a frizzy mess. The only thing missing is you don’t have food all over yourself.”
“Your fried shrimp and hush puppies,” the cook said, coming over with a takeout box.
“I threw in some calamari because I know you like it!” he added. “And there’s extra napkins.” He saluted me. “You have my vote for mayor. Your job program helped land me this gig, and I’m telling all my friends to vote for you too!”
I took the carton with a mumbled thanks.
“You didn’t want a salad to go with that?” Karen asked snidely.
I felt like I was a fresh law school grad again and not the ideally soon-to-be mayor of Harrogate.Get it together.I was setting a terrible example for Minnie.
But my little sister was nonplussed. She just turned up her nose at Karen.
“Actually,” she said. “The wait is now an hour. If you all want to go to another restaurant, we totally understand.”
* * *
