No, it most definitely isn’t better, but I can’t say that now, can I? Not when I’m the one who insisted on him not using that damn nickname in the first place. I don’t even know how he came up with it. He was the bad boy. The troublemaker. I was the good girl who stuck to the rules. If anybody was trouble it was him, and yet, that’s the nickname he gave me from the very beginning.
“When did you and Becky become such good friends?” Matthew’s question snaps me out of my thoughts.
I blink, the words taking a moment to resonate in my mind.
Did he seriously think I was that desperate for any form of connection to him that I befriended his sister while he was gone?
“My friendship with Becky has nothing to do with you.”
“As feisty as always, I see.” The corner of his mouth curves upward in a lazy smile. Not in the least bit disturbed by the scowl I’m directing at him. “I didn’t imply it does. I’m just curious.”
“She needed an employee for the café, and I needed a job. Now, if you’re done chitchatting about the… whatever this should be, I’m leaving.”
“We used to be friends, Jessica. Is it so hard to believe I want to catch up?”
Friends.
“Is that what we were?”
Matthew’s brows rise. “Weren’t we?”
Maybe, in a way, I guess. Nothing ever happened between us, after all. Hell, we didn’t even hang out in front of other people. If we were together, it was always just the two of us. Hidden away in the school library. Sitting under the bleachers. Together at the abandoned playground. And that one time…
I push back the memory ofthattime. The memory I thought I buried deep down in the back of my mind because it hurt too much to remember.
No, that one word doesn’t seem enough to describe what he was to me his senior year. For one year, Matthew was the center of my world. When we were together, my chest felt tight, and the way those dark eyes fixed on me occasionally didn’t make it any easier to breathe. When our fingers touched, it was as if I’d been zapped by electricity. It made me feel alive.Hemade me feel alive. And then he left—shattering my world and my heart in the process.
“No, Matthew. Because friends don’t use you only to toss you aside. Friends don’t sneak around, hiding you like their dirty little secret. And friends most certainly don’t leave without saying goodbye. So, no, we were not friends. And you coming back won’t change that. I might still be right where you left me, but I’m not the girl I used to be.”
My heart is beating wildly against my ribcage as I stare at Matthew’s stoic face, my words still echoing in the air around us. His lips are pressed into a tight line, any trace of amusement gone from his face.
“I didn’t expect you to be… I just—” He shakes his head, his arm lifting, almost as if he wants to touch me. I hold my breath as he murmurs softly, “I guess I didn’t expect to find you here.”
“Well, I didn’t expect you to come back either, so I guess that makes the two of us.”
Taking a step back, I walk around him, and this time he doesn’t try to stop me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MATTHEW
“Williams!” Sheriff barks, making me sit straighter in my seat. “Where is that report I asked for hours ago? Do you not know how to type?”
My gaze meets Nico’s, who’s sitting across from me, one of his brows twitching slightly.
“I left it on your desk, Sheriff.”
The man’s eyes narrow into tiny slits as he glares at me, his teeth grinding. Without another word, he marches into his office.
Fucking asshole.
He’s been like this the whole week, riding my ass like it’s his favorite hobby, barking out orders and yelling if they weren’t completed fast enough for his liking.
No matter how much I want to tell him to go fuck himself, I have to keep my mouth shut. Jenkins would like nothing better than to find an excuse to fire me, and I’m not going to make it easy for him. Oh no. If he wants to give me the boot, he’ll need to find a damn good reason to do so.
“Damn, he really doesn’t like you,” Nico winces.
“No shit. What gave it away?”
