“Can you return it?”
Her eyes widened. “Girl, that’s like five grand. You sure?”
I breathed in through my nose to calm myself. I, Hailey Willows, would become a nurse on my own. I would build a life for myself that Bryce in no way helped build.
“I’m positive. Can you?”
She nodded. “He paid with a card. I can return it to the card and make a note on the account to only accept in-person payments from Hailey Willows. We are going to have to ask for ID from now on in that case.”
Relief flooded through me and I reached out and grasped her hand. “Oh my God. Thank you. That’s fine.”
She patted my hand and nodded. “I had a stalker once. Left his dirty undies in my car, so I get it.”
Yeah, not really the same thing, but I nodded anyway, because, Sisterhood.
“Alright, Mrs. Willows, that will be $1083 for this semester, and I’m going to need to see some ID.” She winked.
Ouch. Handing over a grand in my current financial position was tough, but I was a survivor. I’d proven that to myself. I was going to do this on my own and Bryce could shove his credit card up his ass.
After paying my tuition,I took the light rail downtown and started to walk the five minutes to Ethan’s place.
Almost at your place.I texted him a heads-up in case he was with a client or working on a bike.
The weather was amazing and reminded me why I loved Arizona. Our winters were mild and incredible. It gave me time to try and calm my nerves and prepare to see Ethan. With our history together growing up, and after sharing intimate moments, it would make it hard to ever be “friends.” It was all or nothing and I’d chosen nothing, so I didn’t expect him to be all chummy with me. Most likely we’d exchange comments about the weather and he’d give me my bike and tell me to have a nice day. I’d want to ask him all about how his diabetes was and his leg and what was happening in theJessica Jonesshow we had been watching together, but I wouldn’t. I had to seem like I didn’t love him. Especially since Bryce was still around and trying to woo me back with his stupid credit card bullshit.
As I walked up to the shop I noticed the garage bay doors were down, which they never were during business hours. My bike was on its kickstand out front, and Sebastian, the shop manager, was standing next to it.
Shit.
Desperation gripped me as I realized Ethan didn’t even want to see me. He’d fucking closed the doors and sent Sebastian to deal with me. Oh God.
Tears welled in my eyes and I forced them to move backwards and go into my head. I could not cry right now.
“Hey…” My voice shook.
“Hey.” Sebastian’s voice was short and clipped.
He hated me.
Oh my God, I hadn’t thought this through. About how I’d be hurting Ethan and how his friends would turn on me.
Sebastian handed my bike to me and I mumbled a thanks.
When he turned to walk away, I called out to him.
“How is Ethan?” I nearly whimpered.
He had one hand on the door, looking over his shoulder at me with disgust. “You wrecked him.”
Then he walked inside and slammed the door.
Wrecked.
I wrecked Ethan. I, Hailey 2.0, was a fucking wrecker. How had this happened?Ethan saves me and I break him?I couldn’t deal with that. I wasn’t okay with that. Hopping on my bike, I rode off down the street, tears streaming down my face as I peddled harder and harder, unsure where I was going. I must have looked like a mad woman, openly crying as I passed people in the streets on my bike. I didn’t care. I’d fucking wrecked Ethan King and nothing else mattered.
I didn’t know that I had been slowly gravitating towards the cemetery until I reached the gates.
Mom.
