Page 15 of To Her

Geri

T he next few days passed quietly. Alex called and texted every day, his attention constant and unwavering. Matt remained absent, a ghost in my life that I was trying desperately to exorcise.

I walked into the Harborview for the afternoon shift, having just finished at the day spa.

My feet ached, my back was tight, and all I wanted was to sit down for five minutes before the dinner rush began.

I spotted James and Marco at the bar, drinking beers before the night got busy.

There was someone with them I hadn't seen before—a tall guy with styled brown hair and what looked like chef's pants.

I walked over, placed my bag under the bench, and tied my apron on. James, bless him, pulled a plate from the fridge with octopus salad already prepared. I smiled and grabbed a fork, kissing his cheek in gratitude.

"Thank you," I said, already digging in.

"I knew you hadn't eaten," he replied, watching me with that knowing look he always had when he was right.

Marco gestured to the stranger. "Geri, this is Con—or Constantine for long. He works next door at the café."

Con extended his hand, his green eyes crinkling at the corners when he smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"Con and I did our apprenticeships together when we were younger," Marco explained. "He just applied to work at Alpine Ridge for the winter."

That perked me up. "Oh, seasonal job? You've worked there before?"

"Yes, I go every year, in fact," Con said, taking a sip of his beer. "The pay is decent, but the real perk is getting to ski every day."

"I grew up in Riverdale," I told him, "which is about twenty minutes from Lakeview. That's another ski resort just down the mountain from Alpine Ridge."

"No way! Small world." His smile widened. "You should totally do the season too. They need waitresses there, and they supply accommodation to all workers."

I paused, fork halfway to my mouth, as the idea took root. Get away from all this mess for a few months? Escape to the mountains, far from the drama, and just be someone else for a while? It seemed appealing—more than appealing, it seemed like exactly what I needed.

"I might actually consider that," I said, surprising myself with how much I meant it.

We sat and talked while I ate my salad. Con was easy to talk to, with a laid-back energy that felt refreshing after the emotional rollercoaster of the past few weeks.

He told me about the ski resort, the staff parties, the breathtaking views from the mountain.

I found myself genuinely interested, mentally calculating how much notice I'd need to give at both jobs, whether I could afford to leave Seabreeze Haven for a few months.

Then someone cleared their throat, and I looked toward the doorway. The restaurant wasn't open yet—we still had another forty minutes—but Matt stood there, looking angry.

My stomach dropped. James pressed his lips together, his face hardening as he recognized who it was. I cleared my throat, put my salad down, and said, "Excuse me," before walking over to Matt.

I looked at him, confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Why aren't you answering your phone?" he demanded, his voice tight.

I blinked, genuinely bewildered. "What?"

"I've called you four times in the last twenty minutes. Not once did you answer."

Something snapped inside me. All the hurt, all the confusion, all the nights spent staring at my phone willing it to ring—it all came rushing to the surface in a wave of white-hot anger.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I exploded, right there in the doorway. "You ghost me for days at a time, ignore my calls, my messages, and then you have the audacity to show up here and demand to know why I didn't answer my phone for twenty minutes?"

His eyes widened at my outburst, but I was just getting started.

"You disappeared for six days , Matt. Six days after I spent the night at your parents' house, after you asked me to move across the country with you. And now you're mad because I didn't pick up my phone while I was working?"

He slowly deflated as I yelled, but he still stood his ground. "Don't be mad at me when you're busy fucking other men," he shot back. "Kelly rang me and told me all about Alex. So don't play that card. I thought we had something. I thought we were together."

James's voice came from behind me, calm but cutting. "You would actually have to call someone, be around them, show some interest to be able to claim that card, mate."

And James wasn't wrong. I was done with feeling guilty, done with being the one who waited and wondered and made excuses.

"Yes, I did that," I admitted, my voice steadier now. "And I'm not even sorry about it."

Matt just looked sad. "Bye, then," he said, turning and leaving as abruptly as he'd arrived.

I felt hot tears in my eyes as I walked back to the bar and sat down. I downed my beer in one go, the bitter liquid doing nothing to wash away the bitter taste in my mouth.

Con, who was still sitting there, looked at me with a mixture of sympathy and hesitation.

"If it helps," he said carefully, "he has a girlfriend.

Her name is Jamie. She lives just out of town.

They've been together for three months now.

She has a kid, which is why I'm assuming he ghosts her all the time too. "

I looked at him, struck dumb. "What?"

"Yeah," Con nodded. "Jamie is a friend of mine. Her best friend used to date my brother a few years back. She's super nice and sweet, but he ghosts her all the time, gives her no explanation as to where he is."

My stomach dropped as the realization hit me. "He's playing both of us," I said, my voice hollow. "And I'm here feeling guilty about moving on..."

Con looked at me with a sweet smile and held his hand out. "Hi, I'm Con. I'm not mean to women at all. In fact, most of my friends are girls. Let's be friends."

I smiled at him because I needed another friend, someone who wasn't tangled up in all this mess, someone who could offer a fresh perspective.

James laughed at us. "Come on, let's pour a quick shot of tequila and move on from this mess. The afternoon shift is about to start, and I refuse to allow dickheads like that to kill our vibe."

Con nodded enthusiastically. "Shots!"

Marco, who'd been quietly observing the whole scene, pulled out a bottle of tequila and four shot glasses. "To new friends and leaving assholes in the past," he toasted, raising his glass.

"To new friends," I echoed, clinking my glass against theirs before throwing back the shot.

The tequila burned its way down my throat, but it was a good burn—cleansing, clarifying.

In that moment, I felt something shift inside me.

The weight of guilt and confusion I'd been carrying around lifted slightly.

Matt had a girlfriend—had had one the entire time we were whatever we were.

I wasn't the other woman; I was just another woman he was stringing along.

And suddenly, the idea of escaping to Alpine Ridge for the winter season seemed even more appealing. A fresh start, away from the drama, in a place where I could reinvent myself. Maybe I'd even make some new friends, like Con, who seemed genuinely kind and straightforward.

"So, about that job at Alpine Ridge," I said to Con as James and Marco moved away to prepare for opening. "Tell me more."

His face lit up. "Seriously? You're interested?"

I nodded, surprising myself with how certain I felt. "Yeah, I think I am."

As Con launched into details about the application process and what life was like at the resort, I felt a strange mix of emotions—anger at Matt for his deception, relief at finally having clarity, excitement about the possibility of a new adventure, and a lingering sadness for what might have been if things had been different.

But mostly, I felt free. Free from the cycle of hope and disappointment that had defined my relationship with Matt. Free from the guilt of moving on with Alex. Free to make choices based on what I wanted, not what someone else might think or feel.

It was a heady feeling, that freedom. And as I listened to Con talk about snowboarding and staff parties and the breathtaking sunrises over the mountains, I allowed myself to imagine a future that looked nothing like my past. A future where I was in control, where I didn't wait for anyone's call, where I didn't make myself small to fit into someone else's life.

Maybe this was what growing up felt like. Maybe this was what it meant to truly move on.