Page 16 of Renascence

James: Have an answer for me?

Emily: The answer is and always will be NO.

James: We’ll see.

“You okay?” Venom asks, brows creased.

“Yeah. No worries,” I brush off his concern. It’s not like he can do anything about the situation.

“Sit.” He motions to the stool next to him. Kurt steps back as I take my seat. “You head on home,” Venom tells him. “I’ll do the rest.”

“Thanks. See you guys tomorrow,” he says.

“Bye, Kurt,” I reply.

I have no idea what they’re talking about, but Kurt nods and walks away. My brain is still addled by thoughts of James the asshole, so I drown out the two men and suck on the straw sticking out of my cup.

“What’s going on with you?” Venom’s voice drags me back to the moment.

“Huh?”

“Something on that phone is fucking with you again. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s personal.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“No, but thanks.”

“Hey, what are friends for, right?” He shrugs.

“Yeah… friends.” I roll my eyes internally at the word.

“So… have you decided when you’re going back to Atlanta?”

“I think I might stick around for a while. Stony View is growing on me.”So is a certain bearded hunk.

“What about work? Don’t you have a job to get back to?”

“No. Uncle Jeff is friends with the principal of the high school, and he said he may be able to get me in part time or as a sub when school starts back up.”

“You’re a teacher?”

“I used to be. This should give me some room to breathe while I figure things out.”

“What are you trying to figure out?” His gray eyes meet mine, searching for an answer I don’t want to give.

I break our gaze, looking down at my cup. “Life. It hasn’t really turned out the way I hoped.”

“What were you hoping for?”

“I don’t know. Something different, I guess. I love to bake and always thought I’d be running my own catering business by now.”

“So why aren’t you?”

“Again, life. It got in the way.”

“Emily, look at me.”