Unwrapped by Amelia Wilde

Author:Amelia Wilde [Wilde, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-12T18:30:00+00:00

“Pretty good, right?”

Ellie takes another bite of her sandwich. It’s a triple meat sandwich. The guy behind the counter at the deli knew what she wanted the moment she walked in the door.

Me? I have a classic BLT. “Yeah,” I tell her. But the sandwich is not the main event. “I want to talk about the coffee shop.”

She groans. “Maybe I should go back to secretly flirting with you.”

“It wasn’t much of a secret.”

“You didn’t want to talk about coffee then.”

“No,” I say as if it’s not a complete lie. “I still wanted to know what the hell was going on. That was chaos.” The store is still chaos. Ellie said she’d go back to clean it for the morning.

She shrugs both shoulders and takes a long sip of her pop. “It’s a labor of love.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that my aunt and uncle probably aren’t the best at running the coffee shop.”

“But you know what to do.”

“I’ve tried to step in,” says Ellie, picking up her sandwich. “But I was given explicit instructions not to change things, so I haven’t. I’m doing the best I can to keep it running.” A strange determination burns in her eyes.

“You’re living by the skin of your teeth.”

“It’s not my whole life,” she says. “It’s only temporary, my time at the shop. If I can keep it going, all the better for everybody.”

I don’t know what I’m feeling right now. Guilt. Intrigue. Relief. All of it’s rolled into the hunger the BLT is barely taking on. Underneath is another more animal layer. I don’t dare indulge it while we’re eating in public. “What will you do when you’re not running it?”

She looks down into the plastic basket. It’s still loaded with chips. “I want to be...a photojournalist.”

I didn’t see that coming, and I should have because she has all the necessary physical skills. She can definitely get down into those tight angles. Get the shot. The best shot. The money—

“What do you do?”

“I—” A pain stabs at the center of my chest, out of nowhere. “I used to be an investment banker.”

Ellie squints at me across the table. “What are you doing in Lakewood, then?”

“I moved here.”

“I remember. But for what? There aren’t any software development companies here. Unless you’re starting your own, in which case...that’s lonely.”

I don’t have to be lonely if you’re here. I quash that cheesy, ridiculous part of my brain. More guilt. Guilt rising. Guilt reaching red alert. It’s because of Ellie, but I shouldn’t feel guilty. The new shop is my mission, and I’m going to follow through. But she did tell me about wanting to be a photojournalist. Plus, there’s the little matter that my storefront is going to be right across the street from hers.

How do I say this?

I hedge.

“I needed something new for my daughter and I.”

Ellie looks awkward, but forges ahead. “Did you—your wife—“ She takes another bite of her sandwich.

“Divorced. She ran off with a guy who’s obsessed with tea.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” I wave a hand in the air.

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.