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40 - Hannah
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FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 40.1
Tall, Dark & My Boyfriend: Just checking in. Everything okay? Text me if you need help. I can be there in minutes.I wanted to cry reading Lincoln’s message. How was he so sweet? He hadn’t looked at Aunt Betty’s house with disdain. He’d just brought his tools over and helped me fix it. The contrast between him and Liam was so stark, I couldn’t seem to find the words to write back to Lincoln. I guessed Lincoln and I were more alike than I’d originally thought. How did I explain to him why I’d been so naïve? So dumb?So I did what every girl did in times of turmoil. I tuned out real life, headed to the freezer, and found a pint of rocky road ice cream to soothe the hurt. I also found a bottle of vodka in the back I hadn’t put there. If there was ever a time for a drink, it was when your ex showed up and tried to stir the pot of your new life. I poured a shot in a glass and raised it to the ceiling.“Cheers, Aunt Betty.” Then I slammed it back.Voices on the front porch woke me the next
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 41- Lincoln
I hadn’t heard from Hannah in twenty-four hours. I’d sent her four texts and had finally called her late before I’d gone to bed, but the call had gone straight to voicemail.I laid in bed that night, my mind working its way slowly through all the various reasons why Hannah had gone silent, and then throwing up evidence to support the idea that I hadn’t gotten it all wrong all over again. Even my mother thought there was something real between us.Had the muppet appeared in his nice truck with his shiny hair and swept her off her feet so easily? Was everything we’d said to one another nothing more than words, easily spoken, easily forgotten? Had I somehow misinterpreted Hannah’s words or actions?When daylight began to stretch across the sky, I was already up, sitting on the tiny balcony facing the parking lot outside my building, a cup of coffee in my hand and my mind dark. It was times like this when I really didn’t enjoy being myself. When my own mind felt alien to me, like it was w
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 41.1
“You learn,” he said simply. “Let your tongue to decide. The grapes are ready? Or no, they need more sun.” Jacques had a habit of omitting certain words when he spoke in English, though I’d heard him speak fluently when talking to other winemakers at a meeting we attended recently. When he was flustered, words dropped.“I know how to read the refractometer,” I told him, hoping we could just fall back on the science of numbers. Those, at least, were clear.“That is half,” he said, huffing out a breath. “Maybe less than half. Wine . . . it is art. It is shadows of certainty. The winemaker, he is decisive and smart. He—or she—must trust the heart, the mind, the mouth. You decide.” He poked me in the chest, hard.I stepped back and pulled a grape from another bunch, closing my eyes and letting the juice burst on my tongue. I knew I was supposed to be measuring the sugar content to determine whether these grapes were ready to harvest or not, but I didn’t have a lot of experience trusting m
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 42- Hannah
Tall, Dark & My Boyfriend: Goodbye, Hannah. I really do wish the best for you.That’s it?Goodbye, good luck, and thanks for everything?So he and his mom wanted me gone. Well, that solved that mystery.The brownie chocolate chunk ice cream turned to dust in my mouth reading the latest text from Lincoln. I had a shift at Paint It, Pal starting in an hour, but for the first time since I started, I planned to call in sick. But first, I needed to change Lincoln’s contact name in my phone. Maybe that would help me accept that Lincoln had broken up with me via text in the vaguest way possible. I mean, I knew he communicated better via text than in person, but I firmly believed some things should be said face to face.My phone rang, startling me as I hit save on Lincoln’s new name: Tall, Dark, & Silent Heartbreaker. It was my boss, Barb, the old lady who ownedthe paint store and who I hadn’t talked to since the first day she hired me. “Hello?”“Hannah? Is that you?” Barbara said loudly in
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 42.1
Barb’s face fell and I rushed to finish that thought.“It’s the loveliest offer I’ve ever received, but I think I should at least consider it before agreeing to anything.”Barb’s smile came back. “See? You’re a natural businesswoman! You’ll do great! Think on it all you need, but let me know soon. I have a cruise I want to book and I’d like to know the shop is in your hands before I leave.”Barb patted my hand a few more times and then left, leaving me in a stupor at the little café table. People hustled around me, off to work or running errands. I stared at them all, making a list of pros and cons in my head. Should I stay and start my dream job in a town where I’d see the man who broke my heart? Or should I leave it all behind and start fresh somewhere new? No matter how long each side of the list became, I couldn’t seem to make a decision.“Han?” Liam’s voice came from behind me.Oh, for heaven’s sake. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I was invisible. Why did that man have to keep
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 43- Lincoln
“Lincoln, slow down please. This isn’t the Solano Creek Grand Prix.” Mom’s voice carried all the annoyance and irritation she’d had for me all day, and I knew that I should have cancelled our post-birthday lunch plans, given my crappy mood.We’d been arguing through most of the meal, Mom trying to get me to talk about Hannah, about feelings, about life—and me trying to forget seeing the clear evidence of Hannah moving on without a second thought.I knew my life experience had been limited. I knew I wasn’t the most emotionally savvy of guys. But it still hurt to have the evidence of my own shortcomings thrust painfully in my face, and the last thing I wanted to do was chat about it with my mother—or with El’s mom, who had mysteriously joined us for lunch, though I sure didn’t remember inviting her.And I thought lunch had been bad, but at least I’d survived the prying questions and then the irritable silent treatment Mom had given me as we’d finished up. Robin, who had never even heard
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 44- Hannah
When I woke the next morning, the sheets were twisted and nearly sliding off the bed. I’d spent more time awake than asleep during the night. A heavy heart and a racing brain tend to do that to a person.Barb’s offer gave me a nice distraction from the situation with Lincoln. I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around him and me being over, just like that. I’d gone from thinking maybe it was just Pam that wanted me to leave to accepting the fact that he wanted me gone too, based on Lincoln’s texted goodbye and his hurt look at me and Liam at the café.But Barb didn’t want me to leave Solano Creek. She wanted me to grab hold of my dream and put down roots. Problem was, could I do that when I’d be locking myself into seeing Lincoln and his family every single day?“Ugh!” I said out loud, pushing off the rest of the sheets and eyeing the house that still needed major work. “What should I do, Aunt Betty?”The water stain on the ceiling didn’t answer me. I slid out of bed and put on a pair of
FALLING IN LOVE WHEN YOU'RE TEXTING 45- Lincoln
Mom, Robin, and Jacques all stood staring over my shoulder at my phone, which lay silent and cold in my hand.“She’s not going to say yes,” I told them, my heart hammering in my throat. “She’s already made up her mind. She’s leaving. I saw the moving truck.”“I’m telling you,” Robin said, “you don’t have a clue what you saw. I talked to the girl myself.”By the time we’d finished hashing out what Robin and Hannah had talked about and Robin had insisted I give her ‘my side,’ so she could play Judge Judy and pass judgment on the fate of my non-existent relationship with Hannah, the woman had imbibed at least one full bottle of Mom’s chardonnay on her own. And that was in addition to whatever had been in that flask. I wasn’t certain she was the person I wanted to rely on to save my relationship with a woman I was fairly sure I was in love with.Mom’s hand was on my shoulder, and I could feel her tension. I didn’t have children, but I knew enough from having my parents in my life thatmot
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