“Think you’ll be late?” I asked, hoping the answer was no.
“I’m going to try to just do happy hour and see if that’ll appease him. The last thing I want to do is club tonight, not with work tomorrow and the event tomorrow night.”
“Oh, grown up life.” I wiped my hands on a kitchen towel and turned, leaning on the counter to face him.
He laughed. “I know. Going without sleep is my number one contributor to bad days. But Kyle doesn’t get it. I think he’s worse now than he was in college.”
“So he’s regressing? This doesn’t surprise me at all.”
He nodded, his smile slipping. “Some days I feel like everyone I knew before moved in different directions away from me, and I’m stuck where I was.”
The admission hit me in the heart, and I pushed off the counter, moving for him. With him sitting down, I was only a little bit taller than he was, and he shifted, his arm around the backs of my thighs as I leaned into him. I cupped his jaw.
“You didn’t stay where you were. You grew. They’re the ones who stayed the same. Don’t ever compare yourself to Kyle. He’s not half the man you are.”
Our faces were angled to each other, and he touched my cheek. “Thank you.”
I leaned in to kiss him, my lips closing over his bottom lip as his closed over my top. I pulled away and smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“So, are you taking all of those to work, or can I stash some?”
“Take as many as you want. Just be sure to save a couple for Mrs. Frank.” I pecked his lips before stepping away.
“Man, she gets all the good stuff.”
I laughed and packed up the apology muffins, and we got ready for work. I felt a little healed from the self-inflicted wounds, optimistic about the day. I decided to leave a early so I could walk to work, parting ways with Tyler in the doorway with a kiss that made me wish I could stay home instead.
But there was work to be done.
I turned on my music and breathed deep, enjoying the sights of the city, the sky deep blue, the leaves rusty and tumbling to the ground. It was nature and man, colliding in a clash of color and concrete and steel. And I thought over the mess and my hopes to set things to rights, feeling a little better, a little lighter with every step.
When I reached Wasted Words, I unlocked the door, heading through the empty store and to the office where I found Rose already working. She looked up, and her smile held a hint of sadness.
“Hey, Cam.”
“Hey,” I echoed apologetically as I set the muffins down her desk. “I made ‘I’m sorry’ muffins.”
Rose leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Well, it’s a start. I don’t know what got into you.”
I took off my bag, setting it next to my chair before sitting on top of my desk. “I don’t really either. I was stubborn and unkind, and for no real reason other than that I didn’t want to be wrong. I didn’t want my matchmaking laws to be wrong.” I sighed. “But I was.”
“Yeah, you were. Bayleigh and Tyler were so embarrassed. I mean … I dunno. I get you were trying to hook up Bayleigh and Greg, but I don’t get why you’d go so far as to call Martin out like you did.”
I shook my head, eyes down as I fiddled with the Tupperware. “I maybe have some control issues I’m working on.”
She snickered. “You think?”
I tried to smile. “It’s just … I mean, I’m with Tyler and I just feel like I have no control over anything — how I feel, how he feels, what happens with us next.”
“But that’s every relationship, Cam,” she pressed.
“Maybe, but it’s never affected before now. Not like this.”
She nodded, her eyes full of understanding.
“And I think maybe Bayleigh and Greg were something I could control, even though I couldn’t really control that either.”
“Right, because they’re human beings with their own ideas and feelings. Maybe you should take up knitting?”
I snorted. “I tried, but I can’t multitask knitting with anything else, and I kept losing track of my stitches. My first scarf looked more like a triangle. I guess I could have called it a shawl instead.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, I’m so not crafty. My first and only craft as an adult ended with me supergluing my fingers together.”
I sighed. “What happened last night after I left?”
She reached for the muffins, popping the top off and grabbing one. “Bayleigh apologized about a hundred times to poor Martin — pretty sure she spent the rest of the night trying not to cry. But he seemed more concerned with how she was than how you acted. I think they went home together.”
I felt both happy for them and the sting of pain from being wrong. Being wrong isn’t the end of the world. Except it kind of was.
I pushed the feelings away. “I hope they’ll forgive me.”
She sighed and peeled the paper off the muffin. “Me too. Only one way to find out. You gonna talk to her today?”
I nodded. “As soon as she gets in at ten.”
“Good. I’m sure everything will be fine, Cam.” She took a big bite and closed her eyes, humming.
I smiled and sighed, hoping she was right.
Rose moved the muffin into one hand, licking her free thumb. “Is everything okay with Tyler?”
“Yeah. He was so disappointed. I think that almost hurt more than if he’d yelled at me.”
She nodded and angled for a bite. “I know that feeling.”