"Aww babe, what happened?" Tessa asks after having taken one look at me as I walk through the front door of her apartment, red puffy eyes and a watery smile instantly giving me away.

"Mike fired me because Theo started an argument with another customer in an attempt to defend me," I mutter as I dump my purse on the floor and plop my defeated ass down on the couch next to her, secretly hoping the cushions might swallow me whole. I roll my head to the side to see her staring back at me, almost in shock.

I smirk at her expression before rolling my head back to look up at the ceiling. Tessa whooshes out a breath beside me before placing her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry about Mike firing you, Hayley," she says with a sad smile. "That's such a dick move on his part and truly the last thing you needed in your life right now."

"It's okay" I sigh, turning my head to look at her once again. "He's an asshole and has been looking for an excuse to get rid of me for a while so I'm hardly surprised if I'm being honest. It's just frustrating because it was over something that wasn't even my fault. It'll be fine though, Zara has offered to help me find a new job and the payout from this job should be able to hold me over in the meantime."

"Ugh, that's so annoying... but also nice of Zara. How is she doing by the way?" Tessa inquires, her expression brightening.

"She's good. Still on the prowl, hoping to find someone genuine in this fucking city to settle down with."

"Amen to that," Tessa chuckles. "The three of us should hang out sometime though, I haven't seen her in ages."

"Yeah we should," I reply with a small smile. I'm surprised that Tessa hasn't brought up Theo yet, however, I don't imagine that question is too far away. "I'll let her know and we can sort something out."

"Good, good" she chirps as her expression takes on one of amusement. "Now, can we backtrack to the part where you mentioned Theo?"

Ah, there it is. I groan and rub my hands over my face, causing her to giggle.

"Spill, I need details. You said he got in an argument with another customer, but what was he even doing there in the first place?"

"The same thing all rich businessmen do on a Friday night in our bar... drinking to let off some steam," I reply, my eyes tracking back to the ceiling. "He and four other guys who I can only assume are either his work colleagues or friends had a booth, Mike was anticipating them spending a lot."

"I see... So did you talk to him?"

"Not exactly. I was actively trying to avoid him with Zara's help if I'm being honest. And then suddenly, he was in front of me and trying to talk to me and that pissed off the tipsy older man I had been originally talking to and that started the argument."

"Oh wow."

"Yup, and then the next thing I know, I was being fired for disturbing a VIP customer and causing an argument. Theo then followed me outside and asked me if I was okay and apologised for getting me in trouble. I got annoyed and sort of blew up at him when told him I got fired because of him and he tried to make me feel better and I told him to leave me alone..."

"Aww Hayley." She frowns, almost as if she is as disappointed in myself as I am. 

"I know. I regretted it as soon as it came out of my mouth" I say as I lean forwards to bury my head in my hands. "He was very polite about it too which made it worse because I could see him pull back and I could tell I'd hurt him... which is exactly why I didn't want him to know anything more about me in the first place. My life is a fucking mess and even though I tried to keep my distance, I still managed to hurt him..."

A sob escapes out of me as a fresh wave of tears floods from my eyes, wetting my palms as I stay buried in them. Tessa rubs circles into my back for a moment in an attempt to soothe me and although I appreciate it, it does nothing to stop the ache in my chest.

"I'm sorry Hayley," she whispers before pulling me into a hug, my exhausted body caving into hers as the tears continue to fall.

"Thank you for listening," I whisper back in between sobs. She squeezes me and we stay in our embrace for a moment before she pulls away to look at me, wiping the salty tracks from my face.

"It's okay. That's my job as your best friend" she replies, giving me a small but genuine smile. "Why don't you try texting him and apologising? You have his number and it might help to relieve some of the guilt you are feeling."

"I mean, I guess I could. But what-"

"But nothing" she blurts out, cutting me off before I can start my spiral of self-deprecation that we both know I revert to when I'm nervous or upset. "Whether you think you might have feelings for this man or not, you are both adults and you both hurt each other so deal with it like an adult and apologise."

"But-"

"For all we know, he's thinking the same things as you and if you are both too chicken to reach out, nothing will ever get fixed and you'll spend the rest of your life wondering what if." She gives me a hard look, crossing her arms as she leans back to look at me. I can see why she is good at her job, she doesn't take bullshit as an excuse.

"Geez, Tess" I wince, meeting her gaze. "You don't need to go full psychotherapist on me. I was just going to ask, what if it doesn't fix anything?"

"First of all, we both know that wasn't full psychotherapist. That was just me not putting up with your silly what-ifs," she smirks before her expression softens to one of empathy. "Secondly, we will cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, all you can do is message him and say your piece. The ball will be in his court from there."

"Yeah, I guess you're right" I sigh, pulling out my phone from my pocket.

"Of course I am. Now, whilst you do that, I'm going to make us some dinner," she chirps as she pushes herself off the couch. As if on cue, my stomach gives a loud gurgle, to which Tessa just giggles before heading down the hallway to the kitchen.

Hesitantly, I reach down to grab my purse from the floor, riffling through it until I eventually find Theo's business card that I had stashed back in there after yesterday's internet stalking that Tessa did.

I stare down at the card in my hands, his number taunting me. I realise now that this is his work number so he probably won't see any messages until the morning, potentially not even until next week considering it's a Friday night. But seeing as I don't have his personal number and I never bothered to give him my number, this will have to do.

I truly don't even know what my feelings for him are at this point. Hurt? Interest? Fondness? Everything feels about as clear as mud. Maybe if I hadn't pushed him away like I had, things would be different. I haven't even had the time to begin to dissect how I feel with how crazy my life has been and part of me thinks that apologising won't help that much if I don't even know what I want. But Tessa is right and I owe him that much. I just hope he can forgive me.

I open my messages and punch in the number as a ball of nerves begins to form in my stomach. Forging ahead, I quickly type out my apology message before I can chicken out and hit send, throwing my phone onto the other side of the couch in fear.

No take-backsies now.

"Did you send him a message yet?!" Tessa yells from the kitchen, the sound of utensils clattering in the background. Groaning, I peel myself up off the couch and walk down to the kitchen area to find Tessa concentrating hard on the chicken she is cutting up into small pieces.

"Yeah, I did" I sigh as I lean against the pantry door, watching her as she finishes slicing the chicken and puts it in the frying pan to brown. "Do you need any help?"

"No, I think I'm okay," she smiles as she rinses the knife and chopping board, giving me a half glance whilst attempting to keep an eye on the pan at the same time. Her phone chimes from the back pocket of her jeans and she immediately drops everything to check it, which is odd as that was the alert for her work emails. 

Is she expecting something? 

It's a Friday night so I can't imagine why she would want to be working. I was surprised she didn't already have a glass of wine in her hand when I walked through the door earlier.

I roll my eyes at her, mildly amused by the speed at which she pulled out her phone to check it, and turn to head back to the lounge when I notice the colour suddenly drain from her face.

"Shit" she whispers, a worried look painting her pretty features as she continues to swipe on her phone.

"What's wrong?" I ask, concerned by her sudden change in demeanour. The chicken pops and spits in the pan as she looks up at me with a frown that tells me what she's about to say isn't going to be good news.

"Liam has chosen to respond to your restraining order. The court date is next week Tuesday."

Fuck.

____________________________

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey Guys,

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please vote and comment and feel free to leave me your feedback as I always appreciate it.

As always, if you would like to follow me on social media, my Instagram handle is amy_duffell & amyduffell_author. Please also check out my other books as well!!

I hope you all are well and having a good day wherever you are in the world and I will see you all in the next chapter!

Love,

Allamy xx