Chapter 1 One

"Don't you dare," Petra grounded out, walking into the store and wincing when the loud bell, just underneath the door rang out.

"I might put my fist through your teeth."

Mabel laughed, untying her apron and opening the small gate that barred the counters from the customer's reach.

"At the risk of losing my smile, I will tell you that I told you so. If there's one thing you have learned from this, it is that you never mix business and pleasure.

You'll always get bitten in the butt at the end."

Petra rolled her eyes, taking a piece of candy from the jar with an open hand slot, throwing it into her mouth, and collapsing on a chair.

"Hey, you are not supposed to use your hands to touch that!" Mabel protested, "I have that for customers, which is why I always wear gloves."

Petra shrugged.

Her problem was far more important than a half jar of sticky candy, and she needed comfort food to process the news.

"I can help eat everything; you know that."

"Pray tell, how are you going to pay for it when you no longer have a job?"

"I saved...or wait, I bought a dress with the money. And new boots," Petra dissolved in tears, "I was going to take him on a date since we haven't been to one in forever."

"You were going to take a man ten times richer than you, on a date? When no one knows that the both of you were dating?

After he kept you in the dark for three years, feeding you with lies about how he prefers a private life? I can't believe you are my friend." Mabel shook her head and sighed.

"He's been the one paying all the time, and I thought I would do something special for our anniversary.

How could I have been so dumb?"

"Dumb, is the right word," Mabel concurred, and Petra lifted her hair, blowing on the terribly cut bangs she was sporting, so she could glare at her friend.

"Call me all the names you want, but you haven't been in love that's why. When you fall in love with a man, you'll understand the way I left," she argued.

At least, she thought it was love that kept her by his side for the past three years. She kept waiting for the day, when they would announce to the entire office that they were, in fact, a couple.

Petra was hoping to bring up the conversation last week, after she treated him to his favorite restaurant, and paid out of her nose for his favorite bottle of wine.

But it turned out that there would be no grand announcement. That was because she showed up to work one morning and her coworker was sporting a large diamond engagement ring, given to her by the man she had only been dating for a month.

Who did the man turn out to be? Her jackass, good for absolutely nothing, the slimy ex-boyfriend who kept saying he wasn't ready to make things official because the best relationship stories thrived in private and she ought to have more patience.

Patience should have been her first name. The asshole started sleeping with her coworker and did not waste time in letting everyone know she was the best thing that ever happened to him. What about the woman who stewed in silence!?

When Petra confronted him, he did not bother denying it. All he had to say was the coworker- Sophia was better wife material than she would ever be. Why? Petra hated cooking, and Sophia once worked as a chef before quitting to follow her dreams.

Not that the douche could make instant noodles.

And then, as if the insult to her wasn't enough, he said that the fact he was going to be married did not stop them from seeing each other. He wanted both women for different reasons. Enraged by his nerve, Petra went ahead to tell Sophia, and the woman called off the engagement.

Which led to her getting fired because her ex- who was her boss, was the one who hired her for the job four years ago and they started dating a year after that.

He, when Petra protested that it was unfair, proceeded to tell her just how incompetent she was at everything, and she ought to be grateful he picked her out of the many that applied that very day.

Oh yeah, she did feel lucky.

Very lucky, that all her years of hard work had been reduced to rubbles, and the mere knowledge that he had to get someone else on the outside, to redo almost every project she worked on. It was a slap on her face.

Mabel scoffed.

"If this is what love is supposed to look like, then I don't want to be in love. I'm fine with having a piece of eye candy every time a handsome man walks into my store.

And it looks like this is the season because they have been coming nonstop. And, so have I." she winked.

"Ew, gross. I really don't want to hear you talk about having sex with a guy or guys or whatever. Too much information."

"Wait. How long did you and Ian...you know?"

Petra covered her reddening face from betraying the truth, but Mabel caught the color between peeking fingers.

Mabel's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and disappointment. Don't tell me, what did I tell you? What do I always tell you? I can't believe you would stay with a man who cannot at least do one thing right."

"I get you, okay? I do," Petra raised a pleading hand. The migraines that came around anytime she talked about Ian, after she found out his news, came again in full force.

"I need to drink and lay down. Then start job hunting tomorrow." The bell rang and a customer walked in.

"Okay, scoot. To the back room. A hunk just walked in." Mabel lifted Petra by the hand, and gave her a push past the small gates, to where she found a bottle and an air bed.

Sleep was the only escape from the reality she had been thrown into, by a man she wasted her prime years on.