Page 20 of The October Arrangement

I wasn’t expecting that. Shit. When he reached over and wiped the sauce off my cheek, my entire body tingled. It had been a long time since I’d ever felt anything like that, if I ever did.

“Since we’re sitting here sharing a pizza, tell me about yourself,” Simon said.

“There’s not much to tell. I’m twenty-nine. I live in Massachusetts. The company I worked for closed. And I’m an only child.”

“What about your parents?”

“I don’t really remember my father. He was killed in a motorcycle accident when I was three. My mom lives in Massachusetts with her boyfriend Harry.”

“She never remarried after your father passed?”

“She came close once until she found her fiancé cheating on her with one of her friends. She stopped dating after that until she met Harry. They’ve been together a really long time. He wants to get married, and she keeps telling him no.”

“Do you like Harry?”

“Yeah. He’s a good guy.” I smiled.

“What about college? Did you ever attend?”

“For two years. That’s how I met Daisy. I took some marketing, public relations, and journalism classes. At one time, I wanted to be a journalist. But I never finished college.”

“Why not?”

“I met George.”

“And what does George have anything to do with you not finishing college?”

“I met him when I was twenty. We were together for six months when he bought an RV, dropped out of college, and convinced me to travel around the country with him. I thought I was in love.” I breathed out a laugh. “What I didn’t know was that he was Bi-Polar and went off his meds right before we met. One day we were at a diner in Tennessee. He told me he was going to the bathroom, but instead, he took off in the RV and left me there.”

“What? Why?” Simon’s brows furrowed.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was because he was mentally unstable. Anyway, I called my mom, and she booked me a flight home. I’d spent all the money I had during our trip. So, I had to find a job when I returned to Massachusetts.”

“Which was?” His brow arched.

“I was a waitress for a couple of years. Then I worked as a bartender for a while. School just kind of fell by the wayside. Then I got a job at a boutique as a sales associate.”

“How did you get into the job you’re doing now?” he asked.

“The boutique was already failing six months after it opened. Customers weren’t rushing through the door, inventory was high, and nothing was selling. Wanda, the owner, would sit at her desk in the back room and sob almost every day. It had always been her dream to open her own boutique. The thing was that she didn’t like or use social media. So one day, I sat her down and explained that she needed a Facebook page for the boutique and an Instagram account. She wanted nothing to do with it, so she asked me to set everything up and run it.”

“I assume you did?”

“Yes. And within a month, people were coming into the store, and sales were up. A couple of other struggling business owners saw the content I’d created and asked if I could do the same for them. I loved doing it, so I agreed. But when Wanda found out, she fired me. Then, Hearth and Harbor reached out, offered me more money than the others paid, and I went to work for them. Now, I’m here temporarily working in New York City.”

“Do you understand now how one bad decision can alter your life?”

“What do you mean?” I furrowed my brows.

“If you had stayed in college instead of dropping everything to go on some ridiculous road trip with a guy in an RV, you would’ve graduated with a degree. You’d probably have a stable job right now, a steady paycheck, savings, and your own place. You wouldn’t be scrambling because the company you worked for shut down, and you sure as hell wouldn’t have to rely on other people to put a roof over your head.”

“Wow.” I stared at him.

“You made a choice, Bella. You walked away from your education for some guy and an adventure, and now you’re dealing with the consequences of that choice. You wouldn’t be here right now if you’d made better decisions.”

I sat there as my jaw tightened. He wasn’t finished.

“You’re twenty-nine years old. You shouldn’t have to call a friend and ask if you can crash somewhere because you can’t afford a place to stay. You shouldn’t be depending on someone else’s generosity to get you through the month.”