Hothead by Stella Rhys

5

EVIE

My no-motivationspell had definitely been broken, because on Monday morning, I woke up early for the first time in ages, showered, got dressed and then went straight to the restaurant to have a boozy gossip and catch-up sesh with Aly.

I’d definitely missed them since becoming a zombie post breakup, and I’d definitely missed co-managing with her at Stanton Family Market – recently honored “Best Lobster Roll in East Hampton.”

The place was basically Aly’s and my baby. Since buying the seafood wholesaler from her dad five years ago, we’d revamped the brand to include this adorable summer pop-up that I loved to pieces. Unfortunately, I’d quit my post as general manager there almost two months ago, in preparation for moving to the city with Mike.

He had claimed the move would be beneficial to us as a couple, and for the sake of my happiness, Aly had helped me justify it by saying that living in the city would give me a chance to be an ambassador for the Stanton Family brand. Since I did menu consultation for so many restaurants there, I could take the owners I worked with to our Stanton Family warehouse in Brooklyn, and better convince them to source their seafood exclusively from our company.

It was the perfect plan.

Until the breakup, of course. Because now Mike was gone and I was still living on Long Island and that made me feel stupid for even quitting the restaurant in the first place.

“The worst part is I can’t even come back to work here because I took all those consulting gigs in the city,” I griped as I sat in the back office with Aly, both of us sipping on the restaurant’s signature cocktail, the Hail Mary. It was a drink I had designed and was, as Aly called it, “a Bloody Mary on steroids” since it was garnished with not just the usual fixings, but also pickled asparagus, vodka-poached shrimp and a giant lobster claw.

“Are you just going to commute to the city every day for those meetings?” Aly frowned as she clicked about on the computer doing payroll.

“Yeah. That’s another thing that’ll kind of suck.”

“Seriously. Fuck Mike for that shit. That frickin’… douchenozzle of an unredeemable asshole,” Aly grumbled angrily as she worked.

I chewed my lip while saying nothing in reply.

I knew I was supposed to hate Mike. I mean he’d waited till the day we were supposed to move to Brooklyn together to tell me that he was dumping me. He knew I couldn’t afford to rent our new apartment alone, so dibs went to him, even though I’d spent months apartment hunting without his help.

That said, he did pay for my stay at a not-horrible hotel while I looked for my own place, because he knew I was having money troubles of late. But still. He dumped me in a fairly classless way, and I knew Aly was particularly mad because even before the breakup, Mike and I had been having problems. He’d begun picking weird fights here and there and stopped letting me show any affection. Our sex life had been nonexistent for more than a year before he left, so on paper, it didn’t really make sense that I was still pining to be near him.

But I personally knew what Mike still meant to me.

The reasons weren’t things I discussed in detail with anyone – not even Aly – but I knew them in my heart, and that was all that really mattered.

“Yeah… I know, he sucks, but anyway – topic change,” I declared, since I did have an actual order of business to tend to here. “As I told you before, I have a juicy story to tell you from the other night.”

“Yes, yes! Hit me.”

I wasted no time recounting everything I’d been dying to tell her for almost two days. I started with my voicemail to Mike and ended with the heat of the kiss Drew left on my neck. I also backed it up to include the detail of how he groaned when I squeezed his forearm, and how that deep, throaty, annoyingly sexy fucking sound had reawakened something inside me.

I said all that and when I finished, I dealt with five straight minutes of Aly literally shrieking in my face, squealing her ass off and kicking in her chair with a mixture of disbelief and delight.

“Oh my God, I can’t breathe – that’s amazing!” she gasped before getting swiftly angry. “Wait. You bitch! Why didn’t you tell me the night it happened?”

“I wonder why, Aly. Could it be because you arrived completely shithoused and I was afraid you’d go and cause a scene with Drew if I told you that he was mean to me?”

It was a genuine concern that night because shortly after leaving Drew and his annoying skilled tongue on the terrace, Aly had finally arrived at the party. The reason she was so late, apparently, was because she’d gotten wasted with the staff here before going home to Emmett. She hadn’t known about the surprise party, obviously, so she’d let the waitresses and kitchen guys talk her into doing an absurd amount of shots.

Emmett, bless his heart, had done his best to sober her up before hauling her into the city, but the effort was in vain. By the time they arrived at Boulevardier, Aly was still drunk and going to town so hard on a Philly cheesesteak that she didn’t even look up at the first “surprise!” We had to say it twice for her to gasp, drop her sandwich, then drop to her knees and mourn the loss of her sandwich.

“Okay, fair. I was a complete shitshow that night,” Aly relented with a sheepish giggle. “But clearly I got my punishment, because I’m so mad I didn’t get to witness that ridiculous sexual tension between you two!”

“It wasn’t – ” My attempt to deny the heat of that night was dead on arrival. “Ugh, who am I kidding. It was one of the hottest moments of my life,” I grumbled.

“And you sound so unhappy because…?”

“Because he was right and I was wrong, and I feel guilty for letting a complete stranger turn me on harder than I’ve been in recent or even distant memory,” I confessed. But then I held my finger up. “That said, I maintain that he caught me during a special circumstance. I haven’t been touched in a remotely sexual manner in more than a year, so my body was just particularly sensitive that night. But me and Mike in our prime? Like the days of our relationship when we weren’t fighting all the time? We could have sex hotter than that kiss any day. Guaranteed.”

“Mmm-hm,” Aly said. I chucked a piece of shrimp at her. “Whoa, hey! Don’t waste the garnish! What did I say?”

“You said ‘mmm-hm’ with an undertone of skepticism, which I think you made deliberately audible just for me.”

“Did I?” Aly smirked. “Well, I do have to ask – would you ever want to be with Drew Maddox?”

I squinted at her.

“I mean he’s not as intolerable as he seems.”

“Nice. You really sold me there.”

Aly laughed.

“I mean I’ll always have a soft spot for him because he’s the reason Emmett and I got together. But also, he’s one of Emmett’s closest friends, Evie. And double dates should be enough incentive as it is,” Aly cracked as I shook my head adamantly.

“No. Absolutely not. I know he’s your boyfriend’s bestie, but he’s also a famous athlete who’s allergic to commitment of any kind, and I know you don’t like to hear it, but I’m still…” My face contorted with guilt as I trailed off. “I’m still waiting to hear from Mike,” I finally mumbled. “Even if it’s just for closure purposes.”

Aly chewed her lip as she nodded, which meant she was giving herself time to rephrase something in her head so that it didn’t just blurt out and hurt my feelings. I braced for it.

“Speaking of Mike, did he ever text or call after the voicemail you left him?” she finally asked.

“Oh, no… I think maybe he didn’t listen to it because it came from an unknown number,” I said as she shot a dubious look.

Once upon a time, Aly tiptoed around Mike and my troubles because she didn’t want to further stress me out about our already rocky relationship. But now that Mike was gone, those days were over.

“Yeah, no, I think he heard the voicemail but he’s ignoring you because it’s easiest for him. He’s enjoying the single life right now, and he’s not feeling remotely guilty about it – which means you should be doing the exact same thing.”

“Well, damn, girl, I’m trying,” I argued before realizing I totally wasn’t. I caught a second of the please look on Aly’s face before holding my hands up in surrender. “Okay, fine, I was totally not trying the past month or so. I was definitely wallowing and not doing anything with my days. But as of today, that stops.”

“Good.” Aly nodded. “Besides, if you really want to get back together with Mike, ” she paused to eye me with a look that said please don’t, “nothing’s going to get him crawling back faster than knowing you’ve moved on.”

“True,” I conceded – because she was a hundred percent right.

I knew Mike well enough to know that the only reason he was comfortable ignoring me right now was because he knew well that I was still waiting around for him – pretty much on call to talk to him. It had always been like that when we argued. If I gave him the cold shoulder for long enough after a fight, he’d panic and agree that we needed to talk.

So, if I stopped being so available, and if I stopped calling and asking our mutual friends how he was doing these days?

I had a feeling he’d be much quicker to answer all my questions.

Taking in a deep breath, I let it out like it was a brand new day.

“Okay,” I exhaled with a big smile as Aly gave my foot a playful kick.

“There’s my Evie,” she grinned. “So, what’s the first order of business on your first official day of moving on?”

I thought about it. A sheepish look twitched on my lips.

“Well… I did always say that when I finally got a day off from here, I’d go read a book in the window of Poppy’s Tea Room.”

Aly snorted.

“Hey. Do you, girl,” she shrugged with a giggle.

I couldn’t blame her for the mild judgment. Poppy’s Tea Room was an overpriced, heavily floral-decorated tea parlor that served flavorless finger sandwiches on three-tiered platters. It was all hype, but it spoke to the girliest part of my soul and I decided today was the day I was going to go.

So, grabbing my purse, I kissed Aly goodbye and headed straight home to change and pick a book to read. Then I drove fast to Poppy’s to beat the lunch rush because that coveted window seat was mine. I was going to relax my ass off today. I’d already made that decision.

It was about to be the best, most tranquil and stress-free day of my life.

I could already feel it.