Best Friend's Ex Box Set

"Definitely." I nodded as I stood up, grabbed the stack of papers, and walked toward the living room where Adam lay on the couch covering his eyes with one hand. Quietly, I asked, "Are you okay? Do you need anything for the pain?"

"No, I'm okay, just a little woozy," he said moving his hand away so that he could look at me. "And trying to figure out how I'm going to do business without my phone."

"Oh, yeah, that's a tough one," I said thinking about my own phone, which was tucked in my purse upstairs.

"You know about cell phones?" he said sounding surprised.

"Yes, we do get news from the city about modern inventions," I said dryly. His assumptions about the ignorance of people in the Amish community irritated me, and I tossed the stack of papers onto his chest saying, "Honor fished these out of your car. The garage will be here to tow it this afternoon. If you need a phone, you can ride into town with them, if you feel up to it, and make a call. Otherwise, the only phone available in the part of town is in the booth at the end of the road."

"Thank you, Grace," he said with a note of sincerity that caught me off guard. "I know this is a huge inconvenience for your family and I'm sorry. I can go back to the Yoder's place, if the two truck driver will give me a ride."

"No, actually you can't," I said looking down into his warm amber eyes. "Mrs. Yoder said you only paid for two nights, and there are attendees coming to the quilting convention arriving today, so she's booked up for the next two weeks."

"What?" he said, rising off the couch and sending the papers flying to the floor. "She never said anything about that to me when I checked in!"

"Did you tell her you'd be here all week?" I asked.

"No, I’d only paid her for two nights," he admitted, sinking back down on the couch and dropping his head into his hands. "This is beyond messed up. I've got sales calls to make and I need to be able to call my business partner and let him know what's going on. This is a disaster!"

"Oh, c'mon, it can't be that bad," I said trying to pull him out of the downward spiral. "The garage will fix the car and I can drop you off at your sales calls on my way into the store. You can call your partner from the phone booth or I'm sure the businesses you're visiting will let you make a call or two."

"You really do not get it, do you?" he said looking up at me as he shook his head. He ran a hand through is messy, dark curls and muttered, "But then again, why would you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked stiffening at the implication he was making.

"Oh, don't go getting all wound up about your Amish culture," he said sighing. "I'm not trying to insult you, I'm just saying that you live a very different life than I do so it's not reasonable to expect that you'd understand the challenges I face right now."

"Ha!" I exhaled loudly thinking about all the work that would be waiting for me once I returned to Riser Tech and my air-conditioned office on the 27th floor. I knew I should say something about my other life, but every time Adam opened his mouth and said something about the Amish, he managed to assume that was utterly wrong. It angered me that someone so worldly could be so ignorant, but then I also recognized that I was in the unique position of straddling both worlds and that it was unreasonable to expect that he would have the same understanding about my community as I did. Still, Amish or not, it annoyed me that he didn't take me seriously, and my reaction was to stubbornly refuse to reveal the part of my life that existed outside of my Amish community.

"What?"

"You think that b

ecause I live on a farm and work at a grocery store, I have no idea about what kinds of stresses you face?" I shot back.

"Well, yeah, kind of," he said as he looked up at me again. Something in his eyes told me that the kinder thing to do right now was to back down, and simply try and help. "I mean, I guess there's lots of things I don't know about what you do, but it seems less relevant right now."

"Fine," I said through clenched teeth holding back my urge to lecture him about what was relevant and what was not. "What do you need us to do to help you?"

"You've already done more than enough," he said shaking his head as he bent down and gathered the loose sheets of paper that were spread across the floor. For a long time, he was silent, but when he looked up at me, I was shocked to see that there were tears in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away and said, "Ever feel like the whole world is just crashing down around you and you're powerless to stop it?"

"I do," I said nodding as I held his gaze. "Just about every single day."

Chapter Eighteen

Adam

After lunch, while we were waiting for the tow truck to arrive, Honor walked with me as I limped down to the end of the road where a large, red phone booth sat on the edge of an English family's yard. She explained to me that while it was not okay for the Amish to have phones in their houses, it was okay to use the phone in the booth. I tried to wrap my mind around what it meant to be Amish in a world that was almost completely driven by technology.

"Do you like living here?" I asked after deciding that being blunt was better than digging around the edges.

"Eh, it's okay," Honor shrugged as she kicked a rock down the road. "I liked it better before."

"Before what?" I asked. I was trying to keep up with her, but my battered body rebelled forcing me to limp along behind her.

"Before Mamm and Dat died," she replied over her shoulder without elaborating.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," I said, assuming that the Miller children had been orphans for a while given the fact that none of them seemed particularly sad. "How long ago did it happen?"