I smiled and shook my head. “It’s two in the afternoon.” And I still had a ton of work to do before Finn and I took The Dump Truck out tonight.
“Okay, no pressure.” He paused, leaning in closer to my face and brushed his calloused thumb gently beneath my eye. “Eyelash,” he said, holding it up for me to see. With a quick flick of his fingers and brush of his hands against his pants, the lash was gone.
I gulped, remembering how Liam would always hold it up for me to make a wish. Not for the first time, my stomach churned with memories.
I missed him. I missed him so damn much that it was hard to breathe, let alone think and work and live my life normally.
I cleared my throat, hoping to cough up the stifling, bitter loneliness I felt, and focused on business, pulling out my phone to scroll through Nick’s TikTok feed. “Look, I know you said you don’t want your face on social media, but—”
“Chloe,” he groaned my name and rolled his eyes, flopping into the seat across from me.
“Hear me out.” I paused to take a bite of pizza and moaned in appreciation for how damn delicious it was. Working for all these delicious eateries in Maple Grove was going to go straight to my hips. “Your engagement on social media is really good. Imagine what it could be if you showed your face. You’re hot, and people would go nuts to watch you give tips for how to make pizza at home.”
He didn’t say anything while I continued to scroll through the various posts. Finally, the silence was a little much, and I glanced up from the phone to find Nick leaning on his arms on the table just a tad too close to me.
His brow quirked. “You think I’m hot?”
Uh oh. I gulped. That was so not what I meant or intended. Yes, Nick was a handsome guy. But I so wasn’t into him. Not like that. In truth, I wasn’t into anyone like that… except for Liam.
I cleared my throat. “As your marketing consultant, yes, you are objectively an attractive man. And I think there is a way to leverage that into a bigger fan base.”
Nick smirked; a smoldering lift to one corner of his mouth. Dammit. “You and that Evans guy… you two aren’t a thing anymore, are you?”
“No,” I answered quickly. “We’re not a thing. We never were a thing.”
“Good.”
Good?
My spine bristled as I glanced up through my thick lashes at Nick.
“That’ll make things a lot easier for me when I ask you out,” he said.
“Nick, no.” I shook my head. “I’m not… that’s not what this is. I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in you that way.”
When I finally lifted my gaze to his, his smirk had faded, but he was nodding. “Well, it was worth a try. I thought maybe I’d finally met my match with someone as strong-willed and pigheaded as you.”
“Wow. You really know how to flatter a girl you’re trying to ask out, don’t you?”
With a shrug, his grin returned. “It’s no secret that I’m an asshole.” He raised his wine glass in the air. “To being colleagues?” he asked.
The high-pitched clink rang out through the quiet pizzeria, I added, “To being friends.”
There was a long pause as Nick continued to stare at me over the rim of his wine glass and I lifted a brow at him. “Although, friends don’t usually look at each other like that,” I said.
He laughed and shook his head. “I’m not looking at you, I promise. I was thinking about an idea for our social media. What if I’m not the face of it… what if I pay someone else to be?”
I tilted my head. “Like who…”
“I was thinking maybe K—”
Before he could finish his thought, the door slammed open, hitting the wall behind it so loudly that I jumped, spilling wine out of my glass.
I blinked against the light spilling in behind the dark, shadowed figure in the doorway, but I’d recognize that silhouette anywhere. “Liam?”
42 Liam
I was moving through the door of the pizzeria, even though my body was completely numb.
She’s on a date.
I’d stood dumbstruck outside of Nick’s pizzeria, watching through the window as he caressed her face. Like a horrendously bloody accident, I couldn’t tear my eyes away as he leaned forward onto his elbows across the table, a shit-eating grin on his face.
I knew that fucking grin. I’d seen Nick wield that smile on so many unsuspecting women through the years. And when they clinked their wine glasses and made doe-eyes at each other, I seriously thought I was going to be sick.
I lost her. I gambled by pushing her away and telling her to figure out a way to not need me, and she called my damn bluff. She found a way to not need me… she filled my role with someone new.
Two weeks. It had been two full weeks since Chloe had butt dialed me—or stair texted me—at four in the morning.
I missed her. I missed her so damn much that I was regretting ever pushing her away. Even though I knew the essence of what I’d asked for was true, what if I was wrong?
I was really hoping that this time apart would have made her realize how badly she wanted me. How badly she loved me.
In a blink, I was standing inside the restaurant and the few people sitting in the dining room all turned, staring right at me.
Including Chloe.
She stood, blinking those beautifully blue eyes. “Liam? What are you doing here?”
Holy fuck. What was I doing here? I’d come here for a reason.
My stomach turned as Nick got slowly to his feet, his body rigid, eyes locked on me.
I’d already punched Nick in the face once, but he’d deserved it that time. Now? I had no claim over Chloe. She owed me nothing,
