He Forgot My Birthday for Her Anniversary Again Chapter 09
He’s not clueless.
He knows exactly how to charm Skyler. He reads her moods. He spoils her rotten.
He just never bothered to do the same for me.
I ignored Skyler.
At three p.m., another courier showed up with a mountain of desserts.
“Ms. Morrison? These are from Mr. Harrington.”
Then he pulled out a note and read it out loud, loud and dramatic:
[Paige, I was wrong. I’m sorry. I won’t ever make you mad again. Please forgive me.]
I could feel my patience snap. The courier left. My manager, Mike Slater, came over.
“Paige, take a few days off, okay? If you and your guy keep this up, nobody else is going to get any work done.”
I bit my lip. Submitted a week of PTO.
I had no one else in Ashwood except Brady.
So I booked the next flight back to Middleton.
My parents were overjoyed. They showed up at the airport early.
“You’ve lost weight,” my dad said, looking me over. “I made your favorite-fried chicken. Still hot. Dig in when you get inside.”
I smiled.
Mom must’ve told him about the breakup.
Dad didn’t ask about Brady at all. Neither did she. They both steered clear of that topic.
But a coworker texted me: on my first day off, Brady came to the office looking for me. Left when he heard I was on vacation.
I didn’t care. I just enjoyed my time at home.
My parents kept me busy so I wouldn’t mope. Errands. Day trips to local sights. They made me their personal photographer.
Then one morning, Mom banged on my door.
“Evan’s back from his break! Get up, go say hi.”
Evan. I blinked the sleep away.
Evan Whitfield. The boy next door. We grew up together.
After high school, he went north for med school. We hardly saw each other after that. But every time we did, he brought me local snacks from up north.
I jumped out of bed, threw on clothes, and ran to the door.
When I opened it, he was already there, holding a big bag of treats.
“Evan!”
I grinned, eyes fixed on the bag.
He noticed and lifted it teasingly. “Your mom said you were home. Picked out some stuff you like.”
/My eyes lit up. I took the bag and thanked him.
He looked at me for a long moment, lips pressed together.
“You broke up? For real?”
My hand tightened on the bag. I cursed my mom silently for her big mouth.
“Yes. For real. Why do you care?”
He just smiled. Didn’t answer.
Instead, he said, “I got an offer from a hospital in your city. I’m starting next week.”
“Paige. I don’t know that city. Looks like I’m going to need a lot of help from you.”