“I’m sorry.”
He headed into the bathroom, flicking on the light and winking at her from the doorway. “Don’t be sorry, either.”
While he brushed his teeth, Ellie disappeared into the guest room to retrieve a set of pajamas and her toothbrush. She banished all thoughts of birth control, all thoughts about the terrible lie she told. Put them in a little box in the corner of her heart until morning when she could look at them intelligently. Besides, the chances of her being pregnant were next to zero.
Right?
And she could just stop in and get some samples of the pill at her gynecologist and everything was going to be okay.
Right?
Right?
Ellie’s outlook was significantly more positive after a night in James’ bed, his arm draped protectively around her, his breath rustling in her ear. He groaned when the alarm on her phone went off.
“How do you do this every morning?”
“I just do it. No time to think. The work needs done.”
They danced around each other as they got ready. His hand grazing her lower back. Her fingers tracing a tattoo. Their eyes meeting over coffee. Smiles sweet and secretive as they made his bed together, straightening the sheets and pillows and pulling the comforter up in place.
After a quick breakfast of eggs from James’ fridge and toast from the almost too-old loaf of bread Ellie brought, they climbed into his truck and headed into downtown Bliss toward the café. When he reached for her hand, she threaded her fingers through his and—just for a second—pretended it was all real. That there wasn’t a looming expiration date. That she was his and he was hers and Good Beginnings was theirs.
He parked on the street directly in front of the café, his headlights cutting a clear path through the darkness and illuminating the dining room. Except that was unusual. The lights should have reflected off the glass in the windows. Ellie squinted. Something was wrong.
“What the…?” James cut the engine and killed the lights and Ellie’s body surged with adrenaline.
The front window was gone.
Shattered.
And from what she could see, the dining room had been destroyed. She threw open the door to the truck and hopped down, ready to race inside.
“Ellie!” James climbed out after her, leaving the door open and the keys in the ignition. “Wait. Let me go in first.”
She was shaking, barely capable of comprehending what he’d said, but she stopped long enough to let him take the keys from her. Something was spray painted across the door, the headlights from the truck casting their shadows over the words. But Ellie could still make it out.
Whore.
The word scrawled in violent red paint over the Good Beginnings logo. She choked on a sob, anger and fear and something darker twisting in her already upset stomach. James unlocked the door and stepped in, flicking on a light. Glass crunched under his feet.
Ellie followed him inside and doubled over like she’d been punched in the gut when she saw that everything was broken. The tables and chairs lay shattered, bits and pieces scattered across the floor amongst shards of glass from the display case. The plates and mugs she’d agonized over ordering were broken and strewn everywhere. The pastries and baked goods were smashed.
The walls screamed at her in red paint.
Words like whore and golddigger, slut and cunt skewed madly across every possible surface. Ellie straightened only to bend back down, resting her hands on her knees as she retched into a trash can. James put his hand on her back.
“Stay here. I’m going to make sure whoever did this is gone.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. He just disappeared behind the counter into the dark kitchen.
The moment she was alone, Ellie felt exposed. She followed him and found the kitchen just as ruined as the dining room. The office a disaster of shredded papers and overturned file cabinets.
“You okay?”
Ellie turned to James, bringing her hands to her face and shaking her head. “What do I do?” she asked, her eyes seeking the safety of his. “Why?”
“First, you call the police. Then, we’ll call your insurance company. The what’s are easy. The why? That’s not so easy. Who would do this?”
She shook her head, her hands covering her mouth again. Steve? But why? He hadn’t been happy when she kicked him out, but he hadn’t seemed unhinged or anything. She said as much to James who sighed and pulled her in close and hugged her until she stopped shaking.
What now? she quietly wondered.
The rest of the morning unfolded in a blur of phone calls and questions—and bad news, plenty of bad news. The police arrived and ushered them outside, asking questions Ellie didn’t have answers to. As they draped crime scene tape around the broken window and the entrance, claiming the space she’d created for herself as theirs, she pulled out her phone and called the insurance company, only to be informed she’d let the policy lapse.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Ellie started pacing while the woman on the phone checked and double-checked her information. James was at her side in an instant.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry. But it says here your policy was terminated last month due to non-payment.”
“You’re sure?” Ellie wracked her brain, trying desperately to remember when she made the last payment. She would have written it down in her ledger in the office, to be transposed into the computer when she had the time. But she never had the time and the ledger always sufficed except currently, it was lying shredded to pieces in a crime scene.
Ellie hung up the phone and continued to pace, certain she’d collapse if she stopped moving. James called her name, gently at first, but with more insistence when she kept ignoring him, hands clenched into tight fists and shaking.
Finally, he grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to stop. “Ellie.
