Page 107 of Yours, Forever

"What?" I startled.

I had completely forgotten that I was at work, and that I had been in the middle of wiping down the counters. Maybe that's what triggered the memory.

I couldn't wait to have him repeat it, this time with my knee on white granite, which we had chosen for the reno the night before.

Or, since he worked from the office in the back, maybe I could go find him and…

Welp, more unruly thoughts.

"Wait. Are you… blushing?!" My friend's tone sliced the space between us. She peered close to my skin, trying to make out if there was a rose hint to my light brown skin.

"I don't know— I wasn't— what?"

"You know the worst part?" She smirked with so much pleasure that I had to purse my mouth, not to burst out laughing. "I've caught you staring dreamily into space a hundred times since you came back from your little trip with Max a week ago."

"I know." I bit my lip. "It's bad. I got it bad, Ale."

She chuckled. "I know. Are you happy?"

I shrugged and threw the cleaning rag in its basket. "As happy as I can be."

Ale leaned closer to me. "What does that mean?"

"You know how it is between Max and I." I whispered. "I can't let it go."

"Mhh." She frowned. "You really need to make up your mind about that."

She waited for my nod— which I chased with a sigh— before she hugged me and left to run errands. Lily came in for her shift in her wake.

It was easy to think of Max when keeping my hands busy with work. I didn't have to think of portafilters when I could consider how seamlessly we fit. How much I cared about him. How he gotexcited choosing finishes for our new home, and talked like he would never leave.

Name one time I talked about divorcingyou, darling.

Ugh. I might be in love with him.

Yet I still struggled to believe in forever.

Deal with your abandonment issues, Eva.

Half an hour later, with my heart flying through the stratosphere and my stomach in knots, Lily and I served the last patron in line.

Just in time for Max's irate voice to reach us from the backroom.

Everything that occupied my mind to that point sublimated away from my mind.

I stared at Lily. "I'm going to check on him."

She nodded, worried eyes on me.

I ran to my office. I found Max with an arm on the wall, his head on it. Like he'd been too restless to sit, but ended up caged. He whiteknuckled the phone he pressed to his ear.

"This is ridiculous," he growled. "Do you really think that a random call like this is going to be the thing that makes me change my mind? What universe do you live in? Do you really think that the promise of more money will tempt me? I don't have to sign anything. Your offer gives me nothing compared to what I'll do when our current deal goes through."

My stomach dropped. His dad had to be at the other end, and it didn't sound good.

I closed the door. I put a hand on his back, which he ignored. The muscle under my hand was tense, even if the silk of his waistcoat was soft.

"No. You can't. What's the point?" His voice lost the careful way he talked. "You made the documents impossible to change. You. Do you think I haven't looked? That I haven't tried in ahundred different ways to find a way out? You did this, now we live with the consequences."