Lena gently shook me. I groaned and stretched my body over the sofa before staring at her. She wore a knit sweater and had done her hair in a high ponytail. The cottage look suited her well, I thought. When she saw I was up, she smiled and offered to make us breakfast. I beamed at her suggestion, feeling my stomach rumble, and slowly righted myself in a sitting position. After I ended my call with Dominic, I retreated close to the fire and fell asleep. The warmth of the flames heated my blanket and lulled me into a comfortable slumber. I felt much more rested and ready to tackle another day of killing time. Nate was supposed to return today but couldn’t stay the entire weekend. He was coming over with a few supplies, clean clothes, and hopefully, new board games. Lena and I had already played with everything we had and were tired of doing the 2000-piece puzzle of a boring fruit basket. I heard the clatter of dishes and moved away from the sofa, ambling into the kitchen to help her

Lena helped me bring my stuff back to my flat. Afterward, she called Chuck to ask if he could come over and back us up. Chuck was over six feet tall and shaped like a football player. He was a big teddy bear on the inside and would never hurt anyone, but Richard didn’t need to know that. My stepfather wouldn’t dare try anything if I had him with me. The next thing on my list was finding out where Richard was staying. We would have the upper hand if I could find him before he saw me. At least, that’s what I thought. After that, I simply needed to find my old phone to get important things from it. “Alright,” called Lena from the hallway. “Chuck is on his way as soon as he gets off work tonight. It’s an hour-long flight, so he’ll get here around eight-ish. Did you call McHottie to tell him we’re back in town?” I winced and started chewing the inside of my cheeks. When Lena walked inside my bedroom and saw me wriggling with anxiety, she huffed and crossed her arms disapprovingly. “You

One year later It was my last shift at Crowns, and the place buzzed with clients. Tourist season ended, which meant more of our regular clients than drunken visitors, but that also meant fewer tips since summer was the peak of our year. From the comforts of the back of the bar, I laughed with Luke and Martin, who threw dishcloths at each other for something funny the other said. I stayed in my corner, laughing at their silly banter and poured a Rum and Coke to a man before he disappeared back into the crowd. After tonight, I was taking a leap of faith with writing full-time. I had finished my book and sent it to multiple publishers. I knew my novel wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It was basically my story. My story with Dominic and the struggles I had lived through these last few years. I had debated longly about penning it as a romance. As I went through the third and fourth drafts of re-writing and making it better, I thought it looked more like a tragedy with a happy ending. I h