An Optimist's Guide to Heartbreak (Heartsong Duet Book 1) by Jennifer Hartmann

Author:Jennifer Hartmann [Hartmann, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-16T18:30:00+00:00

My mood brightens the moment I see the pile of boxes sitting outside the front door to the shop.

The t-shirts!

Cal steps around them, pushing through the entrance. “I’ll grab those. Pull up the client list for the day,” he says in his usual gruff tone before flipping on the lights.

I pick up one of the boxes anyway, shuffling inside with a smile. “The t-shirts are here,” I exclaim in time with the jingle bells.

Cal just huffs and pulls a beanie out of his back pocket, situating it over dark windswept hair. Then he starts carrying in the rest of the boxes while I tear open mine.

I wouldn’t say Cal was against me ordering t-shirts for the crew—and for selling to the clientele—but he was certainly resistant. It might have been the too-many hours I put into selecting a design and slogan, skipping through the bays with my handy notepad and surveying the guys for their opinions. It could have been the fact that Cal is allergic to the color yellow, which was, of course, my color of choice.

“Yellow is obnoxiously happy,” he said to me, his tone bordering on disgust. “Pick a different color.”

Spoiler alert: I didn’t.

Ultimately, it’s probably because Cal is resistant to most things, so the odds of him disagreeing or complaining about something are decidedly high.

Grin in full swing, I sift through the tissue paper and bubble wrap and dig down deep for the individually wrapped t-shirts to inspect my creation. When I pull one out, I’m beaming from ear to ear. “These look amazing!” I squeal, unfolding it and holding it across my chest to display.

Cal hardly spares it a full-second glance. “It’s yellow,” he gripes.

It’s yellow and perfect.

“Cal’s Corner” is scrawled across the top in bubbly letters, and a little wrench symbol rests just beneath it. Then, under that, is the slogan that won by a majority vote.

“Putting a Wrench In Your Day”

My grin broadens.

I love it so much, and I don’t even care that—

Wait.

Pulling the shirt away from me, I drag it right up to my face and squint, rereading the slogan over and over, until realization dawns.

No.

No!

There’s a typo. An awful, horrible typo, and Cal is going to kill me. Or fire me. Or both, but not in that order.

Maybe.

No, no, no.

He must notice something is amiss when I make a croaking sound and shove the t-shirt back into the box, folding it up like it never existed at all.

“What?” he says from behind the desk.

“Nothing.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll pull up the schedule for the day like you asked. You can get to work now. Bye.” My redirecting skills need work, I know this, but I’m flustered and don’t know what to do, so I shoo him away from the desk and take over the computer. “Oh, look, Roy has an eleven o’clock. Great.”

“So does your boyfriend.”

The t-shirts become nothing but a blip when I register his statement. Blinking half a dozen times, I turn toward him, my brows pinched together. “What? Who?”

“That bartender you were making eyes at after your show.

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