“I do.” He took a long breath, looked down at the table, then fixed me with his piercing gaze. “Actually, I’m here because I wanted to ask you something…”
“There you are!” the expo coordinator interrupted, shouldering in next to Hunter. “You ran off while we were talking about your table, Erica. Even though you didn’t pay extra for the corner spot, I’m sympathetic to your financial troubles. That’s the whole point of the Columbus Small Business Expo: to help future business leaders get on their feet!”
Oh no,I thought.Not now!
“Financial troubles?” Hunter cocked his head. “Erica…”
“I don’t have financial troubles!” I quickly said. “I’m doing just fine.”
The coordinator blinked at me. “You just told me you spent your last six hundred dollars on this table, and will need to sell your house…”
I watched as the excited look in Hunter’s eyes changed to confusion, and then pity. My heart sank. I didn’t want him to see me like this. I wanted him to know I was successful, that I was a woman who could stand on her own two feet.
“I…” I stammered. “Excuse me a moment.”
“Erica, wait!” Hunter said.
I ignored him and hurried down the aisle toward the front of the expo. Tears welled in my eyes and emotions swirled inside me. Seeing Hunter after so long, especially likethis, wasn’t how I ever expected things to go. It was even more embarrassing than the last time I had seen Hunter. That moment in the garage, just the two of us, before he suddenly fled town.
I intended to hide in the bathroom to buy myself some time, but my feet carried me out the front door and into the parking lot.
Why are you here, Hunter Cade?I thought bitterly as I raced toward my car and away from my problems, away fromhim.
2
Erica
Five Years Ago
I’d had a huge crush on Hunter Cade ever since his family bought the big corner house down the street when I was eight, but my crushreallyescalated when he moved in with us when I was seventeen.
“Thanks for letting me crash here, Mrs. P,” Hunter said to my mom. It was a warm March day, and he wore basketball shorts and a tight tank top over his lithe body. A cardboard box was hefted onto his shoulder with ease.
“Oh Hunter, you know you’re always welcome in our home,” my mom told him. “You’ve had so many sleepovers with Brad that it feels like you already live here!”
I watched from the dining room table as he walked upstairs with his box. I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off him since he arrived. Every few minutes he would walk by the doorway to the dining room, sweat glistening on his perfectly-tan skin.
Hunter Cade was the most popular kid in school, the most sinfully sexy guy in the senior class, and he was going to be living inmy housefor the foreseeable future.
My brother Brad paused in the doorway. “You gonna gawk, or do you want to help?”
“Do youneedhelp?” I asked. “I’m working on my latest business idea.”
Brad rolled his eyes at me. “What is it now? Pink spray-painted poodles to sell to Freshmen as pets?”
Ever since I was old enough to understand what money was, I’d wanted to start my own business. In middle school, I sold hand-made lanyards on the school bus. After that was a short-lived venture involving pink-dyed hamsters, calledPink Pets. That one wasn’t very successful.
“No,” I said with all the attitude of a girl talking to her brother. “This time I’m going to sell candy in the cafeteria before school.”
Brad looked at me like I was an idiot. “We have vending machines for that.”
“I can sell them forcheaper,” I insisted, looking down at my notes. “I can buy a jumbo box of M&Ms at Costco for twenty dollars, and sell the individual packs for fifty cents. That’shalfthe price of the vending machine, and I’ll still make twenty-two cents per sale.”
“Dad,” Brad complained. “Erica won’t help. She’s too busy trying to become the next Elon Musk.”
My dad walked by him carrying a box. “Many hands make light work, Erica.”
Just then, Hunter walked by with another box. He gave me a friendly grin before disappearing upstairs.