Page 20 of The Way I Hate Him
“Now, I have to get back to work, but first, where are you staying while you’re here?”
“Oh, right. Well, Ryland sold his house, right?” I ask.
Aubree nods. “Yes.”
Dammit.
“Is there room with him and MacKenzie?”
Aubree shakes her head. “Ryland sleeps on the couch because he won’t consider sleeping in Cassidy’s room.” Oh God, he’s been sleeping on the couch this whole time? For two months? How is he doing it? “I’m taking up the guest house on the farm.” Damn, that was my second option, and the guest house is one room with a bed and a bathroom. That’s it.
“Shit,” I say as my mind flashes to Hayes’s offer.No, don’t even think about it because it won’t happen.It’s one thing to work for the man for a short period, but it’s another thing to live with him. If I combined those two, Ryland would for sure disown me. I run my hand over my forehead. “I wonder if Ethel will give me a room at the inn for cheap?”
“She says it’s a community here, and we help each other out, but never in her life has she discounted one of her rooms. Don’t even bother. But if you want, you can take the room upstairs here in the store.”
“The storage room?” I ask in disbelief.
Aubree nods. “Cassidy turned it into a small studio about six months ago for whenever she stayed at the store too late and didn’t want to make the drive back to the farm with Mac. It has a double bed, a full bathroom, and a mini fridge.” Aubree shrugs. “It should work for what you need.”
“Oh, I didn’t know she did that.”
“It’s not glamorous, but Cassidy always treated it as a wilderness-type thing with Mac. They would make shadow puppets on the wall under a tent of blankets. Mac loved it.”
Yeah, that’s something Cassidy would do because she was the best mom ever.
“Okay, yeah, I’ll go up there. You don’t mind?”
Aubree shrugs. “You’re not going to bother me being up there. As long as you’re not stomping around during shop hours, I don’t care.”
“Well, thanks. I appreciate it.”
An awkward silence falls between us. We’ve never been super close, at least not like me and Cassidy. She was the glue that held us all together, and now that she’s gone, it almost feels like we don’t know how to interact.
It also doesn’t help that Aubree is holding something back.
“I guess I should take my stuff upstairs then.”
“Have at it.” Aubree waves me off as her attention turns back to her iPad.
“Thanks.” I move toward the door to grab my suitcase but then think better of it. I might as well check out the space first. “Is it right up the back stairs?”
“Yup.”
I move around the counter and head toward the back of the shop when I pause at the doorframe. Glancing over my shoulder, I ask again, “Aubree, are you okay?”
“Fine,” she answers, but I know she’s not telling the truth. Not with how tense her shoulders are, her voice is terse, and the demand for bottles earlier with Ethel, but I’m not one to push her. She doesn’t like it, so the last thing I want to do is start a fight with her.
“Okay, well, you know where to find me.”
She doesn’t respond, so I retreat to the back, past all the boxes of product, and straight to the stairs covered up by a blue and white-gingham curtain. I move through it and take the wooden stairs up to a closed door. I test the handle, and finding it unlocked, I open it to reveal a tiny room, no bigger than my dorm room in San Francisco. Angled ceilings close the sides of the room and come to a point in the middle. A full bed is pressed up against the left of the room, the angled ceiling not offering that much headspace, but it’s perfect for shadow puppets. Dressed in whites and light blues, the room is airy with one window that overlooks the parking lot but offers enough natural light not to cast a shadow of darkness in the room. To the right is a dresser, mini fridge, and the door to the full bathroom. Cassidy would have hated the dead flower in a pot on the dresser. She cared so much about every living thing, even her plants.
A beige area rug is spread across the floor, probably so Mac can play on the hardwood comfortably. And even though the space is sparse, it still feels homey because that was the type of person Cassidy was. She made the light shine in any room she was in.
Sighing, I lean against the doorframe and take a deep breath.
God . . . I miss her so much.
Why did she have to leave this earth so early? Too early. The world needs more people like her, and now . . . now it feels like everything is out of sorts.
