Hope Falls: The Perfect Lie (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Mallory Crowe

Author:Mallory Crowe [Crowe, Mallory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kindle Worlds
Published: 2017-06-27T18:30:00+00:00

~~~~~

It was five in the evening, but Sue Ann’s Cafe still smelled like cinnamon and pancakes and comfort food. Steph took a deep inhale to appreciate the scent as she walked to one of the open tables. There were about a dozen tables at comfortable angles. The tables were covered with various mismatched tablecloths that seemed to all go together with how different they were. Along the back wall, shelves were lined with various crafts and local mementos, and the walls were covered with pictures of locals. Some of them looked old, but Steph wondered whether she spent enough time looking, she would find one with Josh…

She sat down right as her phone started to buzz. She took it out to see whether it was Josh calling to cancel or tell her there was no reason to talk because he’d already decided this wasn’t worth it. But it was only when she realized it was AJ calling again that she remembered that she still didn’t have Josh’s phone number. God, this was so strange.

She’d slept with a guy a day after meeting him. She didn’t even have his phone number. And the strangest thing of all was that she didn’t even regret it. Even if she left town and never heard from him again, she couldn’t say that she wished that day had never happened.

She smoothed the blue dress down her legs. It was a bit shorter than she wanted while sitting but it was the closest thing to a date outfit she brought with her on her soul-searching road trip. It was loose and airy and great for the summer heat. The v-neck was flattering on her and it would look better with a pair of heels, but the flip-flops she had would have to do.

A friendly waitress came over and Steph ordered two waters as she waited for Josh. Like that morning, her nerves had caused her to get there much too early, so she was willing to take her time.

But, also like that morning, Josh arrived soon after, still much earlier than the five p.m. time they agreed on.

The cafe was reasonably busy with some young families and older couples. Back home, she usually didn’t eat dinner until at least eight at night, but she supposed—or hoped, at least—that Josh wanted an early dinner because he didn’t want to go that long without seeing her.

She smiled at him across the restaurant when his eye met hers and she bit her lip as he approached.

“Hey.” He took his seat.

“I don’t need any more time,” she said without any preamble.

His eyes widened and he shifted his weight in his seat. “Yeah?”

“Let’s do this. For real.”

“Even though I’m—”

“This doesn’t make sense and it might not be logical, but for a few seconds I thought you might not show up today and that freaked me out so much that I don’t want to end this just because I’m afraid. Now, I don’t really know the logistics. I only have the bed-and-breakfast

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.