Joelle Morrow has her focus set on the future. As an up-and-coming lingerie designer, she's overcome multiple setbacks on the road to achieving her dream of opening her own boutique but has yet to be knocked down, leaving her no time to think about...
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Resting my elbow on the bar top, I hunched over, swirling the straw around my nearly empty drink.
After the phone call from hell, I couldn't allow myself to sit alone in the apartment and stew in a bubbling fit of rage. I needed to get out, and Apollo's had felt like the best option.
"You know, it's not the end of the world," Maria said, sliding a freshly made margarita in front of me. It was late afternoon, and while a few other customers were taking advantage of happy hour prices, the place wasn't at all busy. Allowing me to fill Maria in on my rollercoaster of a day without many interruptions. "You have the money now, and nothing's stopping you from finding another place for sale."
"I know." I sighed, taking a sip of my new drink. I couldn't quite wrap my head around the idea though. All I could think about was how things might've played out differently if I'd been able to save quicker. Or if having a job that paid more would've made a difference. "It's just, that place was perfect. The perfect location, the perfect size—"
"But maybe it wasn't perfect for you," she said, trying to find the bright side in all of this. "You'll find something else, Jo."
"I can only hope."
When I'd signed the loan papers, I hadn't been worried about my repayments beginning in six short months. I'd been naïve, banking on a smooth ride from now until the day the doors of my boutique opened, only to be dealt my first blindside within hours. Now my plans were on hold indefinitely, and if another suitable space didn't appear on the market in the next month or two, I'd have to reconsider my options.
Taking a long sip from the fruity drink in front me, I noticed Maria's gaze drift passed me. "Incoming," she said, giving me an encouraging smile before slipping away to the other end of the bar.
My brows drew together as I looked over my shoulder, only to lift with surprise as I saw Seb walking towards me. His hair was damp, as though he'd come straight from practice, and when he met my gaze, he grinned.
"Hey," he greeted, settling into the empty bar stool next to me. "Decided to try out this side of the bar tonight?"
I shrugged, a tight smile on my lips. "It's my night off."
"So you chose to come into work?"
"Yeah, well, I get an employee discount on drinks here," I said solemnly before downing nearly half my glass.
The bitterness accompanying my words caused the wry grin to fall from Seb's lips as his brows creased with worry. "Is something wrong?"
I took a deep breath, a resigned sense of anger flowing through me as I dropped my gaze to the wooden bar top. "It's just been a long day." My index finger traced a path along the surface, stopping only when Sebastian reached out and rested his hand softly atop mine.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, and when I lifted my head, I saw the sincerity in his expression.
He gestured towards the back of the pub, where several empty booths alluded to a semi-private space, and I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, contemplating. On one hand, I still didn't know him all that well, but he was offering to listen. To not judge.
