Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
"It just didn't work out."
Frankie had to work extremely hard not to challenge Blake's words. Just didn't work? It could be true with any other dreaded C-word. But Blake and Thornton? Never. Things couldn't just not work out for people like them.
Blake had fallen so hard for her boss that despite witnessing countless times just how crazy mercurial her so-called beloved could be, she still thought of him as perfect.
And then there was Thornton. The man used to have a batting average of three words per week. For several consecutive years. And yet after Blake, he had undergone a 180-degree change and now had a working vocabulary of about fifty words (and counting).
Frankie might not have been in favor of their relationship at the start, but she wasn't blind either. She had seen the way Blake blossomed under his attention and how much Thornton had loosened up because of her friend. The two of them being together might not have made sense on paper, but they had felt right.So right that Frankie knew things just couldn't stop working out between them.
It had to be something else.
Or...
"There's someone else, isn't there? A third party? Right?"
The words, blurted out just as Frankie and Blake entered the cafe, fell in a chasm of awkward silence. Because apparently, they had arrived a lot earlier, and the only ones inside were Elizabeth, Arden, and the Blackwood brothers.
All three accounted for, Frankie realized with a gulp, and all three also seemed to have heard everything she said.
It took a dreadful amount of time before anyone thought to move, and the first one who was able to do so...had to be Thornton.
Naturally, Blake found herself thinking, even though she wasn't quite sure what was so natural about it. His ability to respond first, wherever she was concerned? But if that were true, then that meant he really did care for her...which was impossible.
Her heart was racing against her will, so, so fast it made everything around her move in seeming slow motion. And that included Thornton, who was heading...straight...for her.
Thornton could feel his entire face harden when Blake suddenly ran past him like he didn't exist.
"Elizabeth, it's been so long!"
Elizabeth suddenly found herself engulfed in a desperately tight hug. "Y-Yeah." Like...fifteen hours too long?
The noise inside the cafe rocketed sky high in the next second. Everyone was talking a little too loudly and laughing a little too much. It was like one big joke, a pointless conspiracy where everyone was keen to have Thornton forget the way Blake had ghosted him.
In person.
Ethan quickly threw an arm around Thornton's shoulder when he saw his brother's face starting to harden.
"What do you want to drink?" Aidan asked while making sure to block Thornton's view of the girls.
"Did you hear her?" Thornton gritted out under his breath.
"Hear what?" Ethan asked cautiously.
"Exactly," Thornton said between clenched teeth as they swung back up on the stools by the counters. "Frankie talked about a third party—-" He grabbed the whiskey bottle and poured himself a shot. "And she..." His fingers reflexively tightened its grip around the shotglass. "Didn't. Fucking. Say. Anything."
"I'M SO SORRY ABOUT that," Frankie was apologizing under her breath as she and Elizabeth rushed Blake towards one of the corner tables. The further away from Thornton, the better.
"It's fine." Blake's tone was wobbly. She had seen the look on Thornton's face when Frankie uttered those ugly hateful words, and it had nearly killed her. The pain...looked almost real. Almost made her want to forget she knew the truth and just pretend.
Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Arden crank the music up as they took their seats. They might end up deaf in a couple of minutes, but at least she could be sure that whatever was spoken among them...stayed among them.
Tuning back to her friends' conversation, Elizabeth heard Blake asking Frankie if there even was a party to begin with, and she knew it was her turn to confess.
"That's my doing," she admitted apologetically. "I'm sorry, B. There is a party, but it's at six, not five, and I just couldn't say no to Mr. Blackwood. He just looked so..." Miserable, she almost said, but it suddenly didn't feel the right word to say, with Blake looking just as heartbroken.
"Is it true, though?" Frankie couldn't help asking uneasily. "I heard Mr. Blackwood and Mayor O talking, and he says..."
I've tried everything, Oliver. But she doesn't even want to talk, and she can't even seem to bear looking at me. It's almost like she fucking hates the sight of me—-
Blake bit her lip hard at the look on her friend's face. Frankie usually loved anything that had to do with Thornton's suffering, but this time...
"What did he say, Frankie?" she asked tremulously.
Frankie took a deep breath. "He—-"
An explosive sound cut her off, and all three girls jumped in their seats. Elizabeth was the only one of them facing the counter, and Blake couldn't help stiffening when she saw the girl's jaw drop. "What is it?"