Page 41 of Hammer and Hops

I shrugged him off. “Whatever.” I didn’t want to get into it with him.

“You break up or something? You should get back with him. That’s so obvious. He’s into you. Whatever happened, fix it.” He held up a hammer, gesturing with it as he spoke.

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. I never know with him.” Wasn’t that the truth. First, he hates me; then he likes me; and then we go out. Fool around. Then the douche bag fucks with his business and he hates me again. Thinks I’m fucking with him. And now what? He brought me lunch. I leaned over the side of the building, looking for my truck. I could just see the back end of it, not the front, but it didn’t matter. I knew that lunch was sitting there in the dash. I also knew I wasn’t going to eat it. Simply thinking about it made my stomach turn. How could I eat what he brought, knowing it was a peace offering that I turned down? I didn’t know what to think about anything anymore.

Chapter thirty-five

How To Win My Man – Everett

Sitting at my desk, looking out into the non-functioning brewery, normally gave me hope. Today, it made me sad. The demo crew had finished removing all the damaged drywall and flooring. It hadn’t taken them long, despite having to move our equipment over to the undamaged flooring. We’d have to do the same thing in reverse when we laid new floors. The rafters were now the big issue. We needed someone to come in and build a temporary support structure to remove the damaged beams and replace them. That wasn’t going to happen soon, though, because we couldn’t get anyone to commit to coming out.

But my mind kept wandering from all of that. I flipped my pencil around and around and around like my spiraling thoughts. How could I win Cameron back? He didn’t seem the type to not give second chances, but he was obviously not interested in doing that with me.

Conroy knocked on the door, breaking into my thoughts. “Come in.”

“Hey, Boss. I have a question for you.”

“Sure.”

“How long before we get back to work? When will you need me?”

“Oh. Yeah…I’m not sure. I’ll pay you to wait for me. Like being on call. Will that work?” I didn’t want him to go without the paycheck he needed. And apparently, I had a lot of donations on the site Cameron had set up, so I could do it.

“Okay.” He lingered in the door, one hand on the knob, one foot in the room.

“Anything else?”

He pursed his lips then shook his head. “I’m just going to say it. Don’t fire me.”

“What?”

“I think you broke him.”

“Broke? Him?”

“Cameron. I saw him last night at Nuts and Bolts.” That was the local hardware store. “He, uh, he looked like that.” He pointed at me.

“What are you talking about?”

Conroy blew out a long breath. “You and him both. But you were grumpy before, so I get that. Cameron though? Never. Last night was the first time I have ever seen a frown on his face.”

“And you think I did that?”

“Didn’t you?”

How could I argue with that? The truth was I’d broken both of us, and now I had to put us back together, and I wasn’t sure I could. “Conroy?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“How about brainstorming some ways to fix this with me?” I needed help from someone, and he was the only one brave enough to tell me like it is.

“Sure.” He stepped fully into the room and sat at one of the side chairs. “Don’t know how much help I’ll be. I don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend or anything.”

“No, but you know Cameron, and you saw that we were both hurting. So, let’s do this.”

“Right. Hmm…”

We both took a moment to think. What did I even know or like about Cameron? He was outdoorsy, fit, happy, and cheerful all the time. He probably had the biggest heart in the county. He deserved better than me for sure.