Page 50 of Scrap Metal & Love Reforged

Seth slowly stood, his hazel eyes watching me warily, as if I was some predator he was trying to decide how to approach. I tapped my fingers along the countertop and gave him a small nod, my way of silently acknowledging his presence. He looked cautious. I drew in a sharp breath, working as hard as I could to appear as if I cared little either way about how he approached me. Even though he surelyknewhe’d upset me, I didn’t want tolooklike he had. I was over him. Definitely. At least as far asheknew.

“Hey,” Seth said, leaning against the counter.

Was he apologetic? Angry? Seth’s normally expressive face was now hard to read. I couldn’t say what he was thinking.

“Hey,” I replied, refusing to give him any more than he’d given me.

Seth smiled hesitantly. “So how are things?” he asked. “I—um—happened to have a special-order part for one of my bikes, and since it was already ordered, I came over. You know.”

So, itwashis bike that I’d seen. No surprise there.

I shrugged nonchalantly. “You don’t have to explain why you’re here. It’s a shop, open to the public.”

But I actually felt my heart sink a little with the admission. Despite everything Seth had done to wreck things, a part of me still wished he’d said he’d come forme—to seeme. To make things right withme. But, no.

“Right. I just thought I should tell you why I was here. I don’t want things to be awkward, and I thought you might…jump to conclusions. I probably would’ve.”

I shrugged. “No,” I lied. “I figured you were here for fixing a bike or something. You do that a lot.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

Silence dropped between us again. I cleared my throat and rocked back on my heels. “So, uh…how are things? For you.”

Freaking wonderful, probably. Seth didn’t have to worry about half the stuff I did, but it was hard to really be angry at him for that. I’d be willing to bet that—if I asked for rent money—he would hand it to me right then and there. Maybe that was the problem with Seth, though. To him, all problems could be solved with money. A handful of bills or the swipe of a credit card were all Seth had ever needed. Maybe that was true for his relationships.

“They’re fine. The same as usual,” he said, shrugging. “How are you doing?

“Terrible,” said my inside voice.

“Fine,” said my outside one.

“Have you heard anything back about the contest?” Seth asked.

I shrugged, trying to act as though I didn’tkeepthinking about the money I’d missed out on by not winning. The attention wouldn’t have hurt either. The winner of the contest would be placed in the gallery, which meant that the winner would be receiving a lot of publicity, too. Publicity from people who mattered.

“I didn’t win. No shock there. There was a lot of competition, you know. And itwasmy first contest. I didn’t reallyexpectto win, you know.”

“You should have expected to win,” Seth said. “You did great work for that competition. I’m sorry that you didn’t.”

He sounded sincere, his face softening as if he found it tragic that I hadn’t won against hundreds of competitors. I shifted against the counter, uncomfortable.

Why did you have to mess everything up, Seth? I liked you so much.

I still liked him, if I was being honest with myself, but I had no desire to admit that. Not at the moment, anyway. Not with him standing so near me I could smell the spicy, woodsy scent of hiscologne. Damn him. This all would’ve been much easier if he’d exhibited frequent asshole behavior instead of just doing one, really awful thing.

“Do you know which competition you’re going to try for next? Have you looked for others?” Seth asked. “I’m sure that with your skills, you could make it really big.”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

I didn’t have time to focus on art. I needed to get into a stable,financiallystable position first. Then, I might be able to look up other competitions and worry about things like that.

“You don’t sound sure,” Seth replied, “But I really do mean it, Troy. I’ve never seen anyone as driven and motivated as you are.”

I shrugged. “Just because I’m motivated doesn’t mean I’ll do any better than anyone else. Success in the art world is a lot of luck and a lot of gaming the system. I know that.”

Seth nodded. “You’re right,” he said, “But I think you’d make it.”

“Yeah.”