Page 188 of Unsuitable

It wasn’t as expensive as I had expected. Don’t get me wrong; it was a lot of money, but it was affordable for me.

I asked if I could view it. The estate agent told me she had a free spot that day.

So, I got showered and changed, and I headed back to the coffee shop where the agent was waiting outside for me.

The minute she let me inside, I just knew. It was meant to be mine. It was perfect. I loved everything about it.

I asked her why the owner was selling and selling so reasonably. She just said they had to leave the country unexpectedly due to a sick relative, and they wouldn’t be coming back for some time.

As awful as it sounds, their bad fortune became my good fortune.

So, I told the agent I would think about it. But my mind was already made up.

It would cut into the money, but it would give me a good income to help with Jesse’s future. And there would still be a decent chunk to get him started in whatever he decided to do when he left school.

I put an offer in on the coffee shop the next day. Lower than the actual asking price.

It was accepted an hour later.

I couldn’t stop smiling. And I couldn’t help but think that Kas would have been proud of me.

He was the first person I wanted to call. But, of course, I couldn’t because I didn’t know where he was, and I no longer had his phone number.

After he’d left, I’d deleted it, knowing that I would probably break down and call him. And I couldn’t do that.

So, I had no way to contact him.

And then I realized that I also knew absolutely nothing about running a business.

It wasn’t just about making coffee—even though I do make an awesome cup of coffee. This was running a business. It was huge.

And I thought I would probably fuck it up.

I started to panic, thinking I’d made a mistake, before rationality decided to make an appearance.

Look at everything I’d done…overcome. I could run a fucking coffee shop.

I could do it.

So, I got Cece’s laptop out and went searching for business management courses. I found one at my local college. The classes were at night, so it was perfect.

I enrolled and was accepted.

Then, I focused on making the shop mine. I gave the place a lick of paint and put my own stamp on it, and then I renamed the coffee shop to Thessa’s. It felt right to call it that. It was because of Kas that my name was cleared. He was the reason I could afford the place.

And I just wanted something of his, some connection to him, to remind myself that he was real. Because, sometimes, it felt almost unreal. Like Kas had never actually existed. Like he’d never really been mine.

But he had.

I’d had him for a brief moment in time, and then I’d had to let him go.

Kas was never meant to be mine forever, and I had to come to terms with that.

And I did.

Kind of.

But then Thessa’s was open, and I actually had customers. I was busy, and I got on with life.