Page 125 of How to Break My Heart 1

I scratch my head in confusion. It’s been slow the past month, and because I closed up the week of the funeral, revenue has taken a nosedive. Billie was taking some time off, and briefly mentioned a change in scenery. I completely understand her need to get away but hoped she would return so we could put our heads together to drum up more business.

But perhaps the tides have turned and the universe is finally listening.

“Eva, when you said it was a simple donut shop, you failed to mention the lines would be bigger than at my restaurant in Paris.”

“I, uh… I have no idea what’s going on,” I answer, dumbfounded.

We move closer to the girls who are sitting at the front of the line.

“What’s happening?” Elliot asks.

The girls eye him up and down, then bat their lashes with overbearing grins. “We’re waiting for the best donut store to open.”

“Um… thanks,” I say, then scratch my head again. “But I don’t understand.”

“Some stores we’ve been to are so mid, but yours looks delish,” another girl says. “It’s totally the talk of the town!”

I narrow my eyes, still confused. “As in, Cinnamon Springs?”

“Duh… Manhattan.”

It still doesn’t make sense.

Then I overhear one of the girls say, “He’s like, so hot. As soon as Cassie told me he opened an account, I was like,baby, I’m following you.”

Elliot extends his hand. “Pass me the keys. I’ll get started.”

We did a bit of a rundown yesterday when he arrived, but given that I’ve been closed for a week, I expected there to be a small crowd, just the usuals, nothing at all like this.

“So you guys all traveled from Manhattan?” I ask, flinching my head back slightly.

“We’re from Bridgeport,” two girls respond in unison. “And the group behind us are from Jersey.”

“Wow, so you guys left at what time?”

“We left at midnight. I mean, when the hottest CEO tells you to run, you run. It’s about time he opened a social account. When my girl Keira told me, I swear I screamed and reposted it everywhere.”

I nod, then ask with my eyebrows squished, “Where did you see this post?”

The girl in front hands me her phone, and on the screen is a profile page of the one and only Aston Beaumont. And what appear to be two hundred thousand followers. My mouth opens in shock, since I have one thousand followers, and most of them are people in this town.

How did he manage to open an account and gain so many followers so quickly?

The profile picture is a photograph of skyscrapers, but then I glance closely at his one and only post. It’s an image of the front of my store, and the caption reads:

Donuts Ever After deserves a Happily Ever After #roadtrip

I read the post again, waiting for it to sink in. Aston knows how important my store is to me. And for someone who loathes social media, I know just how big of a gesture this is from him.

My cheekbones rise, unable to hold back my smile as heat radiates through my chest.

“We won’t be too long, okay? As soon as our batches are done, we’ll open the door.”

The morning can only be described as complete and utter chaos. I ended up calling Chloe for reinforcement, and thankfully, she was free.

At first, Elliot was preparing donuts, but then the girls kept asking about the hot guy in the kitchen. So, I swapped and put him on coffee duty. It makes sense since the last thing I want to hear about is how hot my brother is. Besides, to flirt with him, they have to continuously order, so it’s a win-win. The sales are the highest I have ever seen, making this our most successful day ever. Maybe Maddy is right, I do need to invest more time in marketing.

“Miss Woods?”