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  Marty remained unmoved. “This won’t take long.”

  Kristina tried to reason with him one more time. “But Sir--”

  Marty interrupted her and dropped a bomb. “I’m letting you go.”

  Kristina’s jaw dropped. The news came as such a surprise that Kristina almost couldn’t form a response. She finally managed to get a word out. “What?”

  “You no longer have a job at the Mattress Mart,” Marty said.

  It sounded just as unbelievable the second time Marty said it. Kristina wasn’t just blindsided. She felt like she’d been run over by a freight train.

  Kristina stammered her response. “Wait, but why?”

  “I don’t have room for you anymore,” Marty answered.

  For a person as direct as Marty, that was an awfully vague answer. Kristina wasn’t about to accept that.

  Kristina didn’t even try to hide her outrage. “This isn’t right. I’m a good employee. For the last four years, I’ve shown up early, stayed late, and done everything you’ve asked of me.”

  “Agreed,” Marty replied.

  That answer set Kristina off even more. “Then how could you not have room for me? Do you not want good employees?”

  “This is a money-based decision, plain and simple. The fact is, there are not enough payroll dollars available to keep you on board.”

  Employees hated to hear ridiculous statements like that, especially when they knew their boss made truckloads of cash more. The real truth was that Marty didn’t want to give up even a cent of his immense profits to keep a good employee around.

  That wasn’t all. Kristina had evidence that Marty’s explanation wasn’t the whole truth.

  “Oh yeah? If you don’t have enough money, then why did you just hire a new guy in the warehouse as well as a new salesman just a week ago?” Kristina asked.

  “Do you know how to operate a forklift? Have you ever sold a mattress?” Marty asked.

  Kristina went to answer.

  Marty didn’t let her. “No. You’re a secretary--”

  “Administrative assistant,” Kristina corrected.

  “Whatever. Same thing. The point is, you have an easily replaceable set of skills.”

  That led right into Kristina’s next question. “Who are you going to replace me with?”

  “That doesn’t matter.”

  Kristina saw the mystery man watching the conversation intently from across the party.

  Kristina pointed at him. “It’s him, isn’t it? He’s why I’m out of a job, isn’t he?”

  Marty put his foot down. “My decision has been made, and it’s final.”

  Kristina kept peppering Marty with questions. “Who is he? I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.”

  “I’d be careful what threats you try to level against my nephew,” Marty replied.

  Kristina shook her head. “Your nephew? Of course. Well, it’s good to know nepotism is alive and well.”

  “This conversation is over,” Marty said. He then turned to walk away.

  Kristina got the last word in. “Only you would lay off a good worker at an employee appreciation party.”

  Chapter Seven

  “I’m so sorry,” Chloe said.

  Chloe wished she could do more to comfort Kristina, but it was a grease fire of a day. Everything that could have gone wrong did. Kristina’s life had suddenly turned into Murphy’s Law on steroids.

  Kristina was taking it exactly as was to be expected, which was very poorly. Things were even more disastrous than Kristina worried they’d be. A wild rush of emotions were running through her: hurt, confusion, rage, betrayal. Because of that, her mind was completely scattershot. At that moment, panic took hold.

  “What am I going to do now?” Kristina worried.

  “You’ll find another job,” Chloe insisted.

  “When, and where?”

  “That part, I don’t know.”

  “Neither do I; that’s the problem. My rent is due in a week; then my car payment comes up a few days after that.”

  “If you need a little loan to get through the next little bit, I can help you out.”

  “Thanks, but what I need is for my head to stop spinning. I feel like I just got punched in the gut,” Kristina said.

  “That news knocked the wind out of me too. It’s completely unfair. But here’s the thing, there’s nothing you can do about it--”

  “I’ll tell you what I want to do about it--”

  “I know what you want to do about it,” Chloe said.

  “Run him right over the coals. I want to really let him have it,” Kristina insisted.

  “That wouldn’t make it easy for you to get another job if you did.”

  “No, but it would feel so good.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, Marty Diamond is a total scumbag. A first rate sleaze ball. But right now, we have to try and figure out where your next paycheck is going to come from.”

  “You’re probably right. I just can’t believe Marty did this. That was low, even for him,” Kristina explained.

  Chloe decided to go with a new tact. “Tell you what, why don’t we head over to a Happy Hour and get you something to take the edge off?”

  Kristina furrowed her brow. “Wait, isn’t your mother’s birthday party tonight?”

  Chloe nodded. “Yeah, tonight. I can fit in a drink at Happy Hour between now and then if it will make you feel better.”

  “Nah. I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Chloe, you’re a good friend, but I just kind of want some time to myself to sort things out.”

  “Alright. Give me a call if you need anything,” Chloe said.

  “I will,” Kristina replied.

  Chapter Eight

  “Who wants pie?” Shannon McGraw asked.

  “What kind of a silly question is that? Of course, I do. The real question is, how much pie do I want?” Chloe answered.

  The mere mention of pie got Chloe salivating. She had a particular weakness for the slices at ‘Pie Paradise’. It was both a blessing and a curse that her best friend Shannon owned the place. After a trip to ‘Pie Paradise’, Chloe’s taste buds were always happy. Her waistline was anything but appreciative.

  Over the years, Shannon’s baked goods had led Chloe to spend way more hours at the gym than Chloe ever intended to. The trade-off of all that extra time on the treadmill was worth it. Shannon’s pie was simply to die for.

  “I hope your mom loves the pie I baked for her birthday,” Shannon said.

  “I’m sure she will.”

  “I’m just nervous because people usually expect cake on their birthday, not pie.”

  “Shannon, you make the best pie I’ve ever tasted. I have no doubt that my mother will love it,” Chloe insisted.

  Shannon smiled. “Good.”

  Shannon was a people-pleaser, especially when it came to those closest to her. She always went the extra mile to put a smile on the faces of everyone she came across. She also took great pride in her baking and had since childhood.

  One such memory from Chloe’s childhood was burned into her brain. They were both eight years old at the time. Most little girls Chloe knew threw tea parties, but Shannon was the only one that served fresh baked cookies at hers. Only, on that day in late June, Shannon left the cookies in the oven too long and burnt them. Instead of just going cookie-less at that tea party, Shannon went and baked a fresh new batch. Even more, the cookies were so delicious; they were absolutely worth the wait.

  Chloe figured that one day her friend’s sweet nature would attract a kind man who appreciated her. That had not been the case.

  “Should I even ask how things are going with you and Jake?” Chloe wondered.

  Chloe held her breath waiting for Shannon to answer.

  “Everything is finally worked out,” Shannon replied.

  Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. “Great. So he apologized for being a numbskull then?”

  Shannon had
a seemingly endless on again, off again relationship with her boyfriend, Jake Jennings. Sometimes, it seemed like they spent more time fighting than they did on good terms. Despite that, Shannon tried to see the good in Jake. She kept letting herself get wrapped up in Jake’s potential, instead of facing the cold, hard reality that was in front of her.

  In the end, it didn’t matter what Jake’s potential was if he never tried to achieve it. The sad reality was that Jake cared more about his fantasy football team than his relationship with Shannon. The great irony was that it wasn’t even in football season yet. Jake was spending hour upon hour getting his roster ready for the season and meeting with the guys to plan out strategies.

  To Chloe, that was pathetic. Who needed fantasy football when he had the kind of girlfriend that a lot of men fantasized about? Chloe hoped one day Shannon would wise up and break it off entirely. Shannon deserved so much better than Jake. Someone who appreciated her, who treated her right. It didn’t look like Jake would ever be that man.

  Shannon shook her head. “We broke up.”

  Chloe furrowed her brow. “Wait. I thought you said everything was finally worked out.”

  “It is, now that I broke up with him.”

  “For how long?” Chloe wondered.

  “For good this time.”

  Chloe stared into Shannon’s eyes. She’d heard that before.

  “I know you think this will only last a couple of days, and then I’ll break down and take him back,” Shannon said.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “No, but that has happened for the last time. I’ve finally taken your advice and am moving on. I’m done with Jake’s excuses, his lies, and I’m really done with him not appreciating me.”

  There was serious resolve in Shannon’s eyes. Chloe had never seen that before. Shannon wasn’t kidding. This time seemed truly different.

  “I’m so proud of you,” Chloe said.

  “Yeah, well let’s see what the single’s scene has in store for me.”

  “Good things, I’ll bet.”

  “Fingers crossed.”

  “You deserve a better man than Jake Jennings, and it’s only a matter of time before you find one. In the meantime, thanks for the pie,” Chloe said.

  Chloe then moved towards the exit. That’s where she ran into someone unexpected.

  ***

  “Chloe,” Mark O’Doul said.

  Chloe stopped dead in her tracks. If there was one person she never thought she’d see in town again, it was Mark. Chloe’s ex-boyfriend had some choice words for the Cape on his way out of town. To Mark, Cape Cod was a dead end. A place where ambition went to die. A waste of his computer coding talents.

  He ended up taking both his talent and his overblown ego to Boston. It wasn’t just his so-called ‘dead-end hometown’ he left behind however. When Mark moved to Boston, he took Chloe’s heart with him.

  It was devastating for a number of reasons. To start, the way Mark described the Cape, he made it sound like only a fool could be happy living there. That was a particularly big insult to Chloe, seeing how she loved her hometown. The bigger heartbreak was the complete disregard for Chloe’s feelings. She had done more than just given her heart to him. She opened up to him, was committed to their love, and was trying to build a life with him.

  The fact that Mark was able to hastily throw that all away made Chloe feel completely dispensable. On top of that, Mark didn’t even ask Chloe if she wanted to come with him on his new adventure in the city. He appeared to want to make a clean break from the past, and Chloe’s heart just became a casualty on his road to success.

  It had been a year and a half since Mark left town. During that time, Chloe had done a lot of soul-searching and thought she was finally over him. She was about to find out.

  Mark had a smug expression on his face as he looked at Chloe. He was as fit as ever, looking like he could be on the cover of a fitness magazine. He was tall and muscular with crystal blue eyes and short black hair. Confidence was not something that was hard to come by for Mark.

  If Chloe didn’t have enough surprises to deal with, life decided to throw another wrinkle into the mix. It looked like Mark hadn’t returned to the Cape alone. He’d brought a surprise female guest, and a pregnant one at that.

  “Mark, I never thought I’d see you around here again,” Chloe replied.

  “Vikki and I are just here for the baby shower,” Mark replied.

  For a pregnant woman, Vikki sure didn’t have much of a baby bump. She seemed like the kind of woman that still did yoga until late into her third trimester. Mark had told Chloe that he had a thing for brunettes, but apparently he made an exception for Vikki because she had long, curly, fiery red hair.

  In a lot of ways, it seemed like Mark had consciously gone out and found someone wildly different than Chloe. It wasn’t just the hair color, although Chloe’s long, straight brown hair did stand out in contrast to Vikki’s scarlet locks. Their body types didn’t match up either. Chloe was in good shape for a full-figured woman, but Vikki brought the term lean figure to a whole new level. Despite being pregnant, it looked like Vikki was in good enough shape to run a marathon.

  Chloe almost couldn’t believe her eyes. Those weren’t the only differences. Chloe had middle-class blood running thick through her veins. Vikki meanwhile had on designer maternity wear that cost enough to put Chloe’s bank account to shame.

  When someone went from one relationship to another, they either traded up, scaled down or made a lateral move. To an objective observer, it sure looked like Mark had traded up. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter if he’d truly traded up or not. The fact was, he’d made his decision, and it wasn’t being with Chloe.

  It would be easy for Chloe to get depressed at that moment. She resisted the urge. She knew she had a lot to offer the right man. Mark clearly wasn’t that guy. At the same time, she could only so be level-headed about her ex. One point in particular about him was stuck in her craw.

  “Congratulations,” Chloe said.

  “Thank you,” Vikki replied.

  “Although I am a little confused,” Chloe continued.

  “About what?” Mark asked.

  “What happened to never wanting to have kids?” Chloe replied.

  Vikki turned to Mark, who tensed up.

  Chloe gave him a critical look as well.

  Mark stammered as he answered. “Things change.”

  Talk about an understatement. It was like looking at a leopard that had completely changed its spots. But there was more, as witnessed by the gleaming diamond ring on Vikki’s finger.

  “I’m sorry. I remember when you said you couldn’t imagine getting married before you turned forty,” Chloe recalled.

  Mark tensed up even more. “Let’s just say Vikki opened my eyes to a whole bunch of different things I never thought I’d be into.”

  “Wow. It’s like Boston turned you into a completely different man.”

  “And you’re the same old Chloe,” Mark replied.

  Why Mark chose the most condescending tone to say that in, Chloe wasn’t sure, but she didn’t like it one bit.

  “You don’t have to say that like it’s a bad thing,” Chloe replied.

  Realizing he’d put his foot in his mouth, Mark scrambled for a good recovery.

  “No. I meant it’s nice to know that some things never change,” Mark said.

  “Actually, they do,” Chloe replied.

  Mark suddenly looked both surprised and confused. “But, what’s different?”

  “My interest level in this conversation. Have a good life. I know I will,” Chloe said.

  Chloe wasn’t going to stoop to his level and throw an insult his way. At the same time, she wasn’t going to be a doormat either. Chloe stood her ground, then walked out.

  It was a testament to how far she’d come that she didn’t break into tears the minute she walked out of the pie shop. Instead, Chloe’s eyes were completely dry. She was proud
of the way she was able to keep herself together.

  That wasn’t to say the conversation didn’t pack a huge emotional wallop because it did. The whole exchange was like a big punch in the gut. The idea that that man who’d broken her heart could be thriving so much was tough to stomach.

  Even tougher was the knowledge that her life was nowhere near where she wanted it to be. The silver lining was that a lot could happen in a year and a half. Who knew what Chloe’s life would look like in eighteen months?

  As Chloe made it to her car, she got a text. Once she checked it, the message immediately brought a smile to her face. The text was from Shannon.

  It read: “You deserve a better man than Mark O’Doul, and it’s only a matter of time before you find him.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Happy birthday mom,” Chloe said.

  Amanda Cook wasn’t just Chloe’s mother; she was her inspiration as well. Amanda was in her early sixties but looked a good twenty years younger. She attributed that to a healthy lifestyle, the light use of the right cosmetics, and wearing hats paired with sunscreen on every exposed part of her skin whenever she left the house. Amanda’s hats were such a staple for her that they became a major part of her wardrobe. People around town could immediately spot Amanda just by the hats she wore.

  Chloe hoped she’d look as good as her mother when she got to that age. She took after her mom in a number of ways. Of course, there was the obvious one. The whole reason she’d gotten into cosmetics sales because of her mother.

  Amanda was one of the original Crissy’s girls. She wore the red skirt and blouse for thirty years. Crissy’s Cosmetics had been good to her. So good that Amanda ended up being able to retire a few years early. That was another way Chloe wished she could follow in her mother’s footsteps.

  In her retirement, Amanda’s focus had shifted to one thing—finding a man for Chloe to marry who’d help give her long-awaited grandchildren to spoil.

  “I’m happy for one of Shannon’s pies. I’m not so happy to be celebrating getting older,” Amanda said.