Love on the Rocks (with Salt) Read Online Free PDF

on his heels.
    Crap. If I’d known it was him, I’d have put
some lipstick on. Not that I wear lipstick.
    “ Hey,” he says,
smiling.
    I take a deep breath. “Hey.”
    “ Can we go somewhere?
Talk?”
    “ I’m working.”
    “ Right…”
    “ You could come back at six when I
get off.” I smack my forehead as if I’m just remembering something.
“Oh, wait. You have your rehearsal dinner tonight.”
    He winces. “Maybe over there,
then?” he asks, pointing to the back of the store.
    I roll my eyes, and we walk over
to the back corner of the shop.
    “ She told me some famous French
supermodel from the eighties was designing her dress. I had no
idea.”
    I smirk. French Canadian. And supermodel is
stretching it. By a lot. “That was obvious. You know she knows,
right?”
    “ What do you mean? I never told
her about us.”
    “ Of course you didn’t. It was just
a fling. Six days in Mexico.”
    He takes a step closer to me. “It was more
than that.”
    I take two steps back. “Why are
you here, Andy? You’re getting married tomorrow. Did you come here
to tell me you’re getting cold feet? Every time you drink a
margarita you think of me and now that you’ve seen me you can’t
take it any more? Do you want to run away together?”
    He shoves his hands back in his
pockets and starts rocking on his feet again. I was so happy that
week. This is the first time he’s been exposed to my sarcasm. But a
little part of me wonders what if he did ask me? What would I
do?
    “ Yes, I mean, no. I…” He takes a
deep breath and starts over. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. I don’t
know if I ever said that. I should have told you from the
beginning. But it was my last big hurrah before real life. I didn’t
think we’d fall in love.”
    “ Fine. You’ve apologized. My life
wasn’t ruined over one week in Cancun. I have a boyfriend. He’s a
lawyer,” I tell him so he knows I’m not with a loser. “We’re moving
in together next month,” I say, not quite sure it’s
true.
    He closes the gap I’ve put between
us and takes my hand. “I know your life wasn’t ruined. I didn’t
mean that. I just… Elizabeth is my life. I love her, but I think
about you sometimes, and I wonder what life might have been like if
I’d met you first.”
    “ That’s something you’ll have to
keep wondering. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll be the one in the
nondescript black pantsuit. Elizabeth will be the one in white.” I
pull my hand away, turn on my heel and walk to the backroom,
leaving the ghost of my past behind me.
     
    ~~~~
     
    Saturday morning I wake up to the smell of
coffee. I use the bathroom, put on my robe and slippers and pad to
the kitchen.
    “ You’re home early,” I say to
Amanda.
    She is slicing a half a banana and putting it
on peanut butter toast. “Alex had to be at the hospital at six. I
didn’t have my gym clothes with me. Want to join me for
spin?”
    “ Ugh, you know I hate
spin.”
    “ C’mon. It will be
fun.”
    “ I think you and I have different
ideas of fun,” I say, topping my coffee off with a hearty dose of
vanilla creamer and taking a sip. “Mmm. This is really
good.”
    “ Thanks. You want this?” She
offers me the other half of her banana. I nod and take it from her.
“I’m surprised you didn’t stay at Kyle’s last night.”
    “ Poker night,” I tell her, taking
a bite of the banana.
    “ Kind of crazy how it seems
neither of us is ever here,” she says.
    “ Yeah, kind of crazy,” I parrot,
taking another sip.
    I notice she’s biting her bottom lip, a
nervous habit of hers. “What’s up?”
    “ What do you mean?”
    “ You’re biting your
lip.”
    She smiles. “You know me so well.
Alex asked me to move in with him.”
    “ Really?!” I ask jumping up and
down.
    “ Really,” she says, looking
relieved.
    “ Kyle asked me to move in with
him,” I tell her, smiling.
    “ Oh my God! What did you tell
him?”
    “ I told him I’d think about it.
What did you