He couldn’t blame her one bit, but he couldn’t help wanting to talk her out of it. Sighing as she turned her back to him, he shoved a hand through his hair. “Willow,” he called, taking a step closer, but not moving to touch her.
She paused on her way to the door, waiting for him to go on, but she didn’t turn to look at him.
“Please. I need you here.”
Her head dropped for a few wordless seconds, then she lifted it with a tiny sigh. “No, you don’t.”
He couldn’t seem to drag his eyes away from her as she walked out the door, letting it close quietly behind her.
And then he was alone.
The next day began without communication on either end.
Willow spent half of that day curled up at her desk with a mug of hot tea and her laptop, poring over articles and websites, drafting letter after letter with notations about who to send them to and links to pages in case she forgot.
She never sent them though.
The first of her many open tabs, far to the left, was Celine Holland’s website. Since she first checked it out, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to close it.
More than ever before, it seemed crucial that she consider it. Since she got together with Ethan, things had been up and down like a rollercoaster ride—and not the fun kind, where you couldn’t wait to get back in line, but the kind where you throw up all over your shoes afterward because you can’t even make it to a garbage can.
If they were going to break up—which she hated to even consider, but she needed to be realistic—then she wanted to go to New York. It was a win-win; run away from her problems and adopt a shiny new life.
She didn’t want that, though. It made her stomach ache just to think about it. What she wanted was Ethan, but it was beginning to feel like he might never be really, truly hers—regardless of who slept in his arms at night and texted with him all through the day. Regardless of how much she loved him.
The thought crossed her mind that maybe he just needed more time. If she could wait out the adjustment period, he would be wonderful like she knew he could be. But with a two week deadline on the internship, she didn’t have the time to give him.
After hours of agonizing over her future, it was time for a long closing shift at the restaurant, made even longer by the lack of Ethan’s texts to check between tables.
It was going to be a long night, she thought a couple hours into her shift, as she checked her phone yet again and saw nothing to get excited about.
“You got another table,” Kendra stated, flashing Willow a vague look of annoyance.
Frowning, Willow slid her phone back into her pocket and replied, “I thought it was back to you.”
“It was supposed to be, but they’re in your section,” she stated, pushing past Willow to go check on her one, single table.
Willow sighed, rolling her eyes. The hostess was new, and she never understood why the other girls got so wound up about getting sat twice in a row—they always caught up. There were still many hours left in both of their shifts, so it wasn’t like she wasn’t going to get more tips for the rest of the night. Kendra could be so dramatic.
Grabbing her order pad and pen, Willow hastily made her way around the corner toward her new table to get their drink order.
She stopped dead in her tracks, her stomach doing a flip-flop, when she saw Ethan sitting at the table. He was facing her direction, but he hadn’t noticed her; he was too busy smiling at the raven-haired woman sitting across from him.
Ducking back behind the divider, Willow placed a
hand over her heart and didn’t move.
Kendra came hurtling past the server area, holding plates of food.
“Kendra, wait,” Willow said, keeping her voice low, remaining hidden.
The other girl looked at her and frowned, but said, “Hold on, I’ve gotta run this food.”
Willow felt sick.
Creeping toward the divider, she stole another brief look at his table. He wasn’t looking at Amanda anymore, but at the little girl sitting in the seat next to his. Her eyes quickly took in the sight of his other two kids, one coloring on the kids’ menu, the younger brother curiously looking around the restaurant.
Back behind the relative safety of the divider, she pressed herself up against the surface, closing her eyes.