Shh... It's a Secret (Baby) by Annie J. Rose

Author:Annie J. Rose [Rose, Annie J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Simone

“Well, this place is a total mess,” Tara said when we walked into the boutique.

“How does it possibly look this much worse than it did last night?” Kathy asked.

We were standing at the doorway looking out over the aftermath of the grand opening celebration the night before. She was right. It really didn’t look anywhere near as chaotic last night when I decided I was too tired to try to clean up before going home. That seemed like such a good idea at the time. Now I was seeing the full extent of the mess, and it was just a touch discouraging.

Maybe a little more than a touch. Maybe enough that I was tempted to just lock the door again and go hide with my head under a pillow because it was all overwhelming me.

But that wasn’t an option. Last night was the celebration of the culmination of years of work and anticipation. It was a fun and thrilling experience, even if my mind kept drifting back to my conversation with David. Everything went off without a hitch. It was exactly as I hoped it would be, exactly as I had envisioned it. The catering was perfect. The decorations were beautiful. And everybody I’d invited and told about the event had come.

They’d all admired the boutique and told me how fantastic it looked. Everybody promised to come back when I was open so they could browse the offerings more leisurely and make purchases. I even had a couple of people look at the designs and asked if there was any way I would be willing to create something custom for them.

It all made me feel like my head was floating and gave me the overinflated confidence that resulted in me deciding not to clean up before going home. And that had me here with a trash bag and my four best friends rather than sitting somewhere having brunch.

Maybe it was all for the best. After going home the night before, the quiet and calm of the apartment drained away the adrenaline and excitement, leaving me with just my thoughts. And those thoughts were not the kind that I wanted to sit around and ruminate on. Having brunch would mean relaxing in a cute little restaurant somewhere, and that was going to give me far too much time to overthink my conversation with David.

At least being here and having to clean up meant there was something to do with my hands and my nervous energy. There was no way I was going to get him or the situation off my mind. It wasn’t just going to go away until the next time we talked. I needed to decide exactly how I felt and how I was going to handle everything now that it was out in the open.

“I just can’t believe I didn’t even stop for two seconds and think about asking him about that picture,” I said a while later after I had gone over the meeting David and I had with them.

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