“You deliberately tried to match us up?” Wait’ll Blake heard about this. But she couldn’t tell him because they weren’t communicating anymore.
“That’s right, and it worked.”
“I wish. Blake isn’t sure what he wants.”
“I’m sorry, honey. Don’t give up—he’ll come to his senses.”
Vi raised her chin. “If he doesn’t, I’ll move on,” she vowed with a bravado she didn’t feel.
“That’s my girl,” Gran said. “Keep me posted, all right?”
Vi nodded. Since the night she’d asked Blake about the future, her self-confidence had ebbed, but she remained determined to boost it up. She stood in front of the mirror every morning and every night assuring herself that she was attractive and worth a man’s love. The more frequently she stated the words, the more she believed them.
“Eat your heart out, Blake,” she said several times.
It helped.
CHAPTER 30
Saturday morning, Vi decided to take herself out for coffee and a doughnut at the Hastings where she and Carmie had met some weeks earlier. Of course, it was packed, and she placed her order to go. But the noise and bustle appealed to her more than being alone, and she decided to stay. All the tables were taken.
“There’s a seat here,” an attractive male about her age offered, gesturing at the lone empty chair in the room.
“Thanks,” she said and sat.
They introduced themselves—his name was Max—and shared where they worked. A short time later, he opened up to her. “You might be able to help me out,” he said, and launched into a long story about a fight with his girlfriend and his worries that she was cheating on him.
Wondering what she’d gotten herself into, Vi listened and sympathized.
“What should I do?” he said.
The whole thing was beyond her expertise. Not that she had much to begin with. She wanted to tell him about Blake and her own pain, but Max’s situation was worse than hers. Besides, he needed to talk. She consoled him as best she could, evensqueezed his forearm. “What you’re going through is no fun,” she said. “I wish I could help, but I don’t have an answer. I do happen to know from experience that loving yourself goes a long way to feeling better. Good luck with whatever you decide.”
“Thanks for listening. There’s a guy on his way out looking at you.”
She glanced toward the exit and saw Ross staring at her. She gave him a wan smile. He nodded and exited.
Strange. When she left a few minutes later, she forgot all about that.
As a rule,Blake took weekends off, but Grandpop had invited him to Saturday lunch, just the two of them. Figuring he wanted to talk about business and see printouts of recent sales, he headed for the new store to get copies. Ross and Joanie were working today, and he looked forward to seeing them. Anything to blunt the pain of life without Vi. He felt lost and missed her something awful, but refused to be pushed into a corner by her ultimatum.
Ross greeted him with surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to pick up printouts of our recent numbers to share with my grandpa. Have we been busy this morning?”
“So far.” Joanie left the room to print them out.
When she returned, Blake noted the somber look on Ross’s face. “Why are you so serious? What’s wrong?”
“You won’t like this.”
Blake hoped he wasn’t going to give notice. He seemed happy here, but you never knew.
“I stopped for coffee earlier and saw Vi. She was with a guy.”
Hadn’t expected that. “Who was it?” he asked, gripping the pages of data.
“No idea, but he was good-looking.”
