“Willow.”
“I have to go.” She grabs her bag off the floor by the door and I stalk after her as she swings the door open. Grabbing her bicep when she hits the button for the elevator, I swing her around to face me and the look of panic and tears in her eyes catch me by surprise and cause my gut to clench.
“Hey, what’s all this about?” I gentle my tone and watch her eyes slide closed.
“I can’t do this.” She tries to duck her head, but I capture her jaw.
“Will—”
“I don’t want this.” She cuts me off and I watch a single tear slide down her cheek before she pulls away from me and the elevator doors open. As she gets in, I stand there for a moment then get in with her. “Clay.”
“I’m just walking you to your car.” I press the button for the main floor, and we ride down in silence. When the doors open up, I make sure she makes it through the maze of shit all over the place then lead her down the sidewalk once we get outside.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers as we reach her car, and she swings the door open.
I don’t know what the hell is going on inside her head, but it’s obvious that me pushing her right now won’t work in my favor, so I keep my mouth shut and then force myself to let her go as she gets in her car and drives off.
Chapter 9
Willow
YOU KNOW THOSE people who always say, “It could be worse”? Well, those people are all idiots. Not only am I questioning if I made a huge, gigantic, colossal mistake running away from Clay when he ruined me forever for any other man on this planet with one stupidly amazing kiss. I’m also pretty sure that kiss and me backing out of our deal set off a series of unfortunate events in my life to remind me on a daily basis just how idiotic I am and that it, in fact, can be worse.
It’s been four days since that kiss and every single day something bad has happened. The day after the kiss, I finally got the license plate for my car in the mail that I’ve been waiting anxiously for since my temporary one was expired. Of course, I put it on my car not even thinking about the tag number until Leah pointed out that morning I took her to the airport that 8DX-247 looks like it says, “Ate dicks twenty-four seven”. Now, I can only imagine what anyone behind me in traffic is thinking.
Then yesterday I went to the mall after work so that I could return a pair of jeans I bought and, while I was getting off the escalator, my shoelace, which I didn’t know was untied, was sucked up by the teeth at the bottom of the escalator and after getting my foot out at the last minute, half my shoe was gone causing the whole machine to break down. After that near death experience, I ended up going home with only one shoe, a migraine, and the pair of jeans I didn’t get to return.
But no that run of bad luck just couldn’t be enough. I shake my head as I stare at my empty parking space, the one where my car normally is, and exactly where I know I parked last night when I got home. Apparently yesterday when I got home after the mall fiasco, I forgot like an idiot to hang my car tag on my rearview mirror, so they towed my car. Or, at least, I hope that is what happened, because honestly, I can’t remember if I hung the tag, but I do know I didn’t check to see if there was another tracker under my car.
With a curse I head back into the building, hoping like heck that the front office is already open so that I can ask them about my car, because if they are not, I’ll have to spend the next however long calling each and every tow company in the city to see if one of them has it.
When I get inside, I make my way through the maze that is the inner building and thank my lucky stars when I find the office open, and Libby, one the girls who runs the front desk, sitting in her chair behind the counter.
“Hey.” I greet her out of breath as I step inside, and she lifts her head and smiles at me.
“Hey, Willow.”
“I was wondering if you could tell me if my car was towed.” I walk up to the counter, and she frowns.
“I don’t think so.” She stops whatever she’s doing and starts to type something into the computer, then a second later she looks up at me and cringes. “It was towed last night. There’s a note that no tag was displayed.”