Page 17 of Fixed Up Ever After
Javi turned to leave, but he didn’t make it two steps before a hand shot out and wrapped its fingers around his wrist, stopping him. He angled his body toward hers, one brow raised in a silent question.
Lola slowly dropped her hand, bringing it back down to her side. “Do you have any availability on Monday?”
Today was Saturday. Even though he wouldn’t step back into work until Monday, his day was fairly light and he could squeeze in a visit. “I do in the afternoon.”
Lola hesitated and he wondered what was going through her brain right now. He would kill to catch a glimpse of her thoughts. “Then maybe you could stop by Phoenix? Monique was right. I do need someone to help me get it reopened.”
“Am I no longer untrustworthy?” he mused, unable to stop himself from teasing her.
Her brown cheeks flushed. “That is…still to be determined, but I don’t want to gut you anymore, so I’ll take that as a win.”
“As will I. Then I’ll see you on Monday.”
“I’m not saying this is a done deal. I just want to hear your thoughts. I’m also a hard client to please, so don’t think this is going to be easy work.”
At that, Javi had no doubt. “When it comes to you, Lola, I have a feeling nothing is easy.” He winked at her and headed back toward his sister.
CHAPTER10
Lola
Walking into Phoenix Books should fill her with excitement and a sense of purpose. And it did. Mostly. But these days, it was depressing more often than not, to walk in and find there was still so much to do before her dream bookstore could ever operate. Could she open it now? Yeah, probably. If she wanted to get sued, that is, and she did not particularly want to go through those legal matters at the moment. Or ever.
No, Lola had to wait until the store was renovated and ready to go. Everything had to be perfect, just the way she liked it. She was certain her former therapist would say she was projecting onto this store because she couldn’t achieve perfection in her own life and relationships, but she didn’t care. Lola had a vision and she wasn’t going to let a single damn person stand in her way.
The smell of burnt coffee hit the air and Lola looked down to see the mug she made was full. She doctored the drinks, knowing Mona took her coffee in the same way she did. “Mona, coffee incoming,” she said once she was finished.
Her squirrelly friend took the hot mug and began to pace. Mona was never one to stay still, especially when juicy gossip was about to be spilled. To her friend’s credit, she had waited two whole days—a record—for Lola to finally be ready to tell her the truth about Javi.
After seeing Javi at the bakery, Mona transformed into a bloodhound, sniffing around for answers. Answers Lola was just not ready to give. She still needed time to process the fact that she embarrassingly accused him of being a cheater in front of a family with toddlers.
Sure, she was quick to jump to conclusions, but she blamed that on her own history of poor choices in men. Specifically, the one about to marry her sister. She was working on herself, but she still had so much trauma to process through.
She did owe Javi an apology though, and that was the first thing she was going to do when he arrived later. Right now, she had a best friend who would soon walk a hole through her floor with her pacing if she didn’t open up about Javi.
“So I do know Javi…” she started off, taking a sip of her coffee. It wasn’t the best, but it was hot and would soon give her the dose of energy she needed to get through the day.
“Yeah, no shit!” Mona rolled her eyes but was unable to hide her bursting curiosity. “How? And are we going bitch mode on his ass? Do I need to cancel him? Because I will. He’s a damn good handyman, so it would suck to lose him, but chicks before dicks, amirite?”
“So you remember how awful my sister’s engagement party was, right?”
Mona scrunched up her face in disgust. “Yeah, you mean the engagement party you didn’t know was an engagement party until you arrived?”
“That’s the one.” She cringed inwardly. It was just supposed to be a family weekend with a nice dinner. She still couldn’t quite believe her sister would betray her in such a big way, but Marisol had never ceased to amaze her. “I forgot to mention when I left the party and went back to my hotel, and I didn’t go alone.”
Mona’s eyes went comically wide. “Shut the fuck up. Seriously, shut the fuck up. You did not just tell me you invited a strange man back to your hotel room knowing damn well how unsafe that is.”
“I know, I know! But in my defense, I was sad as hell and wanted to forget. Good dick does that, you know? But I was responsible and took a picture to send to you! I just didn’t realize it failed to send. Which is infuriating if you think about it. I paid how much money to stay at that fancy-ass hotel and their Wi-Fi is shitty?” She was getting off topic, but she tended to go off on tangents when she got nervous or excited. Or both.
“Fine, fine. Skipping past the part where you could have gotten murdered, are you telling me that the guy you hooked up with was Javier?”
Mona nodded, walking to the other side of the counter so she could sit precariously on a barstool. Precariously because the moment her ass sat down, it sank lower to the ground. She definitely needed new ones to make them more big girl friendly.
“Girl, you can’t just drop a bombshell like that and not give me the details. Was he good? Or was he bad, and that’s why you were pissed? I need information!” Mona pouted, discarding her untouched coffee mug on the counter to lean over and prepare for the tea she was about to receive.
A ghost of a smile crossed Lola’s face. Leave it to Mona to make anything bigger than what it was. But her moment with Javi had been a monumental experience in more ways than one. She couldn’t shake him over the last six months, and seeing him again this past weekend brought the full force of that night back to center stage. She didn’t think her vibrator had seen that much action in weeks.
“No, I wasn’t mad because it was bad. I was mad because I thought the woman he was with was his wife. Turns out it was his sister and his nephew. The girl was his daughter though, but he said there was no girlfriend or wife in his life. Ugh, I felt like such a fool! I always jump to the worst-case scenario. Why is my brain like this?” Her dumb, over-anxious brain.
