“This is a happy day,” Olivia insisted, grabbing her coat. “I’m going to order us bacon truffle mac ‘n’ cheese and winter cocktails. We are celebrating in style.”
I slowly wrote out the check after my friend left. Even though I was finally going to pay off my debts, I didn’t feel good. I missed Matt.
You don’t miss him. He is a liar. You’re better off without him.
But I had enjoyed being around him.
“This is the start of Merrie making better decisions,” I told myself, signing my name on the bottom of the check. “After you eat, you’re going to look for a job—a real job, a boring job, a job with a 401K and healthcare. No more dreams.”
I tried not to think about my dreams of Matt, of snuggling up with him in front of a fire, future Christmases when we would decorate trees together, the winter wedding we would have when we would have our first dance out in the falling snow.
The wind rattled at the shop windows. I looked up in concern, hoping the glass wasn’t going to blow out. I could not afford the repairs.
I pushed off the stool. Louis the cat meowed at me from the Christmas tree, bare from all the missing ornaments that were off to new homes.
I inspected the glass.
Seems fine.
Then I blinked.
As if summoned by the winter winds, there was Matt, standing a few feet out in front of my shop. He was like an otherworldly prince. Everyone around him was bundled in scarves and coats and hats huddled against the cold. Yet there he was, silver-white hair blowing around his face, eyes dark blue like the winter sky. Only a suit jacket protected against the chill, but he didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all.
He adjusted his cufflinks and walked toward me.
For a moment I half wondered whether he had come to tell me he loved me and whisk me off to his ice castle.
Get a fucking grip, Merrie! You are not a child!I screamed at myself.Grow up! And kick this fucking loser to the curb. He’s not a prince. He’s not your Hallmark romance. He’s a lying, cheating sociopath.
I wrenched open the door to the shop and slammed it behind me as I stepped out into the cold.
“You have some freaking nerve,” I yelled at Matt over the howling wind.
Shards of ice pelted my cheek. I probably should have brought a jacket, but I was so angry that the cold felt good.
“I have some nerve?” Matt snarled, looming over me. “After what you did to me?”
“After what I—”Da fuck?
“Are you still harping on the shop?” I screeched. “After everything? You know what? Fuck you. I didn’t ask for your help. I didn’t ask for your opinion. I don’t need you to come over here and lord your ‘business prowess’ over me.” I made air quotes.
“You’re just mad because I was right about everything,” Matt sneered.
“Fine! You were right!” I screamed at him. “I’m a fucking failure, and I can’t run a business. I needed a man to come in and save the day. Well, here’s your money. Are you happy?” I grabbed his hand and slapped the check in it. “All your rent plus interest. And next month, I’ll be able to make enough to pay you back for the equipment you put in the shop. Then we’ll be even, and I won’t have to see you again.”
I was breathing hard, clouds of steam hung between us in the air.
“So that’s what you always wanted, huh,” he said, ice cold. “You just wanted to use me to give you money. Your poor little hurt-bird routine was just a ploy to convince me to invest in you.” His lip curled back, exposing his teeth.
“You’re such a hypocrite,” I yelled at him.
The townspeople, addicted to drama like all small-town residents, had stopped to watch the show.
I didn’t care. I was so freaking done with Matt Frost.
“You used me. You pretended to care about me so that you could, what, make Hensley jealous? I was just the dumb sidepiece you had so that you could rub it in her face how meaningless she was to you and make her come crawling back to you?”
Matt scowled. “How dare you. I would never.”
