his hand against my back, he said, “You did good today, kid. You handled yourself way better than I could. You should be proud.”
I was surprised to find myself nodding, because dammit, I was proud. I had done some of my best work yet on those guys, they’d all had a positive experience, and I’d made in them repeat customers. There wasn’t much more I could ask for than that.
Audrey wrapped herself tightly around my arm and asked if I was ready to head home. I didn’t know if she meant her place or mine, but it also didn’t matter. They both felt comfortable, both felt like home, so I nodded.
“Yeah,” I said, leading her toward the door. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“HAVE YOU EVER been in a serious relationship before?” Audrey asked over dinner, gripping her burger in two hands and smirking mischievously. “I mean, besides this one.”
“Oh, is that what this is?” I lifted a brow before taking a bite of my grilled chicken wrap.
“We’ve already exchanged I love you’s. That’s pretty serious,” she pointed out.
“Hmm,” I nodded thoughtfully as I chewed. “You make a good point.”
“So?”
I shrugged and laid my wrap down to exchange it for a fry. “Not really. I had a girlfriend in college for about a year—”
“A year? That’s not exactly a short period of time,” Audrey laughed, wiggling in her seat with excitement. “What was she like?”
“You really want to hear about my ex-girlfriend?” I somehow doubted that. I’d always been under the impression women didn’t care to hear about previous relationships. Yet Audrey nodded eagerly, and my cheeks puffed with my exhale. “Okay, well, her name was Lori. She was an art major and we met in one of our shared classes. Things were good, until I brought her home to meet my family.”
“What happened then?”
I shifted in my seat and diverted my gaze to look out the window. It was snowing. The world was layered in a thin blanket of white dust and looked nearly picturesque from inside the restaurant. The conversation, the memories it inspired, made me want to be out there in the numbing cold and wintry hush. But Audrey believed it was better to face the pain than to bury it alive, and I felt her hand against mine, ripping me away from the urge to run.
“Blake?”
“Yeah?”
“What happened?”
“My mom talked me into breaking up with her,” I stated simply before I could think better of it.
Audrey appeared taken aback as she lowered her burger to the plate. “What do you mean?”
“She, uh … she initially acted like she was cool with her. You know, she talked about how nice she was, how pretty, whatever. Until she saw that I actually liked her, like, um …”
“Like it could last?” Audrey offered gently.
“Yeah,” I nodded, “exactly. That was when she cornered me and started mentioning all these things I should be careful about. Like the fact that she, uh … that she … um …” I stalled, faltering as I remembered the dinner at my parents’ house, when Mom had mentioned being concerned about Audrey’s relationship with her ex. I shook my head and clapped a hand over my eyes as I muttered, “I am the biggest fucking idiot on the goddamn planet.”
“What are you talking about?”
Dropping my hand to the table, I looked her in the eye and said, “She did the same thing with you.”
“With me?”
“Yeah. She told me to be careful of you, because you have a good relationship with your ex.”
Audrey’s mouth fell open in shock. “I don’t … what the …” She closed her mouth and shook her head before beginning again. “You don’t really think that, do you?”
“Hell no,” I replied and meant it. “But that’s what she’s always done. And I don’t know if it’s that she doesn’t want me happy, or if it’s because she sees outsiders as a threat, or what. I have no fucking clue. I just can’t believe it’s taken me so long to see what a fucking evil witch she is.”
“I think it’s sad,” she admitted quietly.
“Yeah,” I nodded, “so do I.”
“You know,” she went on, “just because things aren’t great right now between you two, doesn’t mean they never can be. She’s still your mom, and maybe one day, when this is all behind you, you can find it in your heart to forgive her.”
I scoffed, shaking my head. “I spent a long time hating myself because she manipulated me to do just that. You think I’m ever going