Sweet and Salty (Marshall My Heart #1)

15. Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

L aura

I really wish we had a different vet in town. Dr. Gustavson came out that morning to check on Cree, and he barely examined her before stating “she’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

But I do worry. Something isn’t right on my little rescue animal farm. Lucretia Borgia’s a stubborn butthead, but lately she’s listless. Why am I being gaslit by our eighty-year-old vet?

Not to mention I now have to go to Sunday dinner. Frannie’s in town, and as much as I love my sister, she changes the dynamic when she’s here.

My phone buzzes on the passenger seat beside me. Ugh. Chris. If I don’t answer, he’ll just keep calling. He’s been leaving me text after text. I swipe the bar to answer. “The benefit of breaking up is that we no longer have to speak.”

“Hey, Laur.” His voice is soft, wheedling. Much the same tone he used whenever he “mentioned” that we were out of salt and vinegar chips. At eleven at night. When the nearest open grocery store is at least a forty-minute drive away. “How are you? We haven’t talked in a while.”

I grit my back teeth in a way that my dentist will rue later. “We broke up. After you called me clingy. And desperate. And–”

“Ah, Laur, you know I didn’t mean that. You’re amazing.”

W.T.F?

My jaw drops wide open.

“I always liked that you were older and smarter than me,” he continues. There’s only a two-year age gap between us, temporally speaking. In terms of maturity, the gap widens substantially. “I learn so much from you.”

“Yes, our relationship was super one-sided,” I remark drily.

“Don’t be like that,” he says, his voice pleading. “I just want to see you.”

“The feeling is not mutual.”

“I heard that donkey’s a piece of work.” Chris snorts. “That’s you. Always picking up lost causes.”

Yeah, like you. “I have to go.”

“Sunday dinner?” Chris’s voice perks up. “Your mom’s cooking is the best. Apart from yours. I still dream about your brownies.”

“You could visit the bakery and pay for one of them like everyone else.”

“I like the special ones you make, just for me.” He’s wheedling again. “Maybe I could come over? I’d love to see your family, maybe hang out.”

“You never wanted to do that when we were together,” I reply. Seriously. If I clench my jaw any more, I’m not going to be able to open it again. “Every week, you made an excuse.”

“I was going through a lot, babe.” Ugh, I hate when Chris calls me this. He never listened when I asked him to stop, either. “I can be different.”

“You’re not invited.” I sniffle and pull down the visor mirror to check my hair. It’s Bride of Frankenstein frizzed. Perfect. “Besides.” A brilliant idea occurs to me, one that will not solve my problems, but will at least get this particular butthead off my case and off my phone. “I’m with someone.”

“What?” Something falls to the floor on his end of the line. “Who? No one in town would date you.”

My head fills with a hot flush of rage. “I’m hanging up.”

“No, don’t!” The switch in his tone is dramatic, from angry to needy in two syllables. “Please. Just tell me who.”

“Jesse,” I say. It’s the first name that pops into my head. “Jesse Vanek. From the hardware store?”

“Him?” Chris scoffs. “He’s, like, old.”

“You mean an actual adult? Yes. Yes, he is.”

“Are you sleeping with him?”

Only in my dreams. “That’s none of your business. Goodbye.”

“Wait!”

I have to stop letting him do this. I have to just hang up the phone, but the old, people-pleasing Laura is so hard to ignore. “Leave me alone, Chris. Move on.”

“I can’t. I miss you. I think about you with that old guy, and it just makes me sad.”

“Thanks for caring.” I pick up my water bottle from its holder and take a long swig. “Goodbye.”

“I’m sorry, Laura, really. I’m being a dick.”

Yes, he is. I settle deeper into the seat. I can wait for an apology. They’re so rare from him. “You really are.”

“I know. I’m just so stressed out, babe. The whole job thing isn’t going great. It’s been hard, finding an apartment. Paying for gas. Groceries are so expensive right now.”

My bullcrap meter tingles. “Life is hard, Chris. We all have to deal.”

“I know, I know.” He sighs, loudly. “I just…couldn’t I borrow some money? To tide me over? I helped you out so much on the farm, and with the bakery, and you never really paid me for it.”

I throw my phone onto the passenger seat like it’s made of flaming volcanic rock. If the apology came from left field, what the fuck is this?

Ooooh, and that dick made me swear.

“Laura?” His voice is small and mealy from the speaker.

New Laura sweeps in on a magic carpet of white hot rage. I’m so tired of all of this. Tired of the gaslighting, and the white male insecurity. Tired of the lies. “Fuck you, Chris. Absolutely not. How dare you ask me for money? You never helped out on the farm or with the bakery. Maybe once or twice, but only if I begged you and hounded you, and I don’t need to feel like that. You are not a real man, Chris, and you know how I know? Because I have one now. And more than that, I know my worth. So piss off and stop calling me.”

With that, I swipe the bar and end the call, then bury the phone deep at the bottom of my purse so I won’t be tempted to answer it again.

My breath heaves, and everything on my face feels tight, from my lips to my ears. Tears scratch at the back of my eyes. My fists are so clenched, my nails dig little crescent moon shapes into the flesh of my palms.

I glance up again at the visor mirror and my eyes are red and inflamed. I hate Chris. I hate that he does this to me. He doesn’t deserve to have any power over me at all.

How the heck am I supposed to go inside and see my family like this? They’ll know something happened, and I don’t want to rehash the whole thing.

Frannie’s in town, too. She’ll see right through me.

I close my eyes and focus my senses. I can smell the scent of the jasmine iced tea in my water bottle, and the floral-sweet taste lingers on my tongue. There is the heat of the sun through my windshield. The buzzing of my phone in my purse. I’m going to leave that in the car.

It’s time to fake it.

I plaster a smile on my face before I step out of the car in my bright floral sundress. Dress the part you want to play, that’s what Ma always said.

I pause one step from my car door, one thought nibbling at the corners of my mind.

Did I just tell Chris that Jesse and I are dating?