Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
“Well, don’t work on it,” she snaps. “Get it to me, or you’ll be finding a new place to live.”
Thankfully, with that last remark, she turns and heads back into her apartment, but not without slamming her door behind her. I feel like I have spiders crawling all over my body from embarrassment as I unlock my door and step inside. I can just feel Marissa’s eyes on my back as she follows me.
Please don’t say anything. Please.
“Charming lady,” she scoffs.
“Oh, you have no idea,” I reply.
I kick off my shoes and go slump down on the couch, feeling defeated and deflated at the same time. Marissa comes over and takes a seat beside me. I can’t even anticipate what she’s going to say next, but I know she’s got something in mind.
“You know, I’d avoid this guy if I were you. What’s his name again?”
“Craig,” I reply.
“Craig.” She nods. “I had something similar happen to me in the past, and he came crawling back to me looking to apologize, and like an idiot, I took him back. You wanna bet on whether or not it worked out?”
One look at her face is all it takes for me to get my answer.
“So what happened?” I ask.
“I was dating this guy – great guy – and then out of the blue he just vanished on me. He was gone for like three months. Then he comes back and tells me his dad was like part of some military special ops program and they’d been overseas on a secret mission and hadn’t been allowed to speak to anybody. And you know what? I actually bought it.”
“Aw, Rissa.” I smile.
“Right?” She laughs at herself. “It turns out he’d been cheating on me with some chick up in New Hampshire, which I found out later. But I took him back, and he just ended up cheating on me, and we broke up four months later.”
“Gosh, I am so sorry, Rissa.”
“My point is, Daisy, sometimes it’s best to just let these things go.”
It’s chilly when I wake up the next morning, and I have to really fight to swing my feet out of bed. I race to the bathroom and crank the shower on as hot as it will go. Then it’s another battle to get out from under the nice warm water and go get dressed for work.
I run into Dana in the hallway when I’m coming out of my apartment and quickly turn my back on her, hoping to escape another repeat of our conversation last night, but to my surprise, she sees me and smiles, which throws me completely off guard.
“Hey, thanks for catching up on your rent this morning!” she says happily. “I guess our little talk last night really drove the point home, huh?”
My head instantly starts spinning. What the hell is she talking about?
But I might as well go along with it. The last thing I want to do is get into some kind of confusing conversation with her.
“Yeah…of course–”
“And sending that hot guy over with the money?” She winks. “That was genius. If you send him by every month, I might consider knocking fifty bucks off!”
She laughs, turns her back on me, and walks off toward her apartment. I don’t want to get caught up in any more of a discussion with her, so I quickly head the other way and take the stairs to the door, my head absolutely spinning.
Sending a hot guy over with the money? What is she talking about?
But then, as I step outside into the crisp December air, I get my answer.
Craig, no longer dressed as Santa but looking somehow even more handsome, is leaning up against my car, grinning at me, with his arms crossed over his chest.
“What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” he asks with so much charm that I have to fight with every bit of willpower I have to keep from smiling.
“What are you doing here, Craig?” I ask. “How do you even know I live here? Kinda creepy, don’t you think?”
“Was paying your back rent creepy?” he counters.
I frown and purse my lips together. Now there’s a question I don’t want to answer. “Kinda, yeah.”
I brush past him and open the door to the Uber I have waiting to take me to work. I have to get out of here. Too many emotions are flowing through me right now. Just seeing Craig again after five years is too much. Now I have to process this?
“Listen, Daisy,” he says, stepping up beside me. It feels so strange to be this close to him again after all this time. “I just want to give you an explanation. I – I owe you that. Can I give you one? Please?”
All I can think about is what Marissa told me – about her ex and how I shouldn’t even think about giving Craig a chance. But at the same time, I’m dying to know what happened and where he’s been all this time. I was nearly at an explanation last night before Marissa came and yanked me out of the coffee shop and drove me home. And I have enough self-control to not succumb to his incredible good looks and charm, right?