Page 437 of The Doctors Will See You Now

As I reached for apple number four, my gaze locked with the most familiar blue eyes. I knew those eyes. They’d once brought me all the happiness in the world, until everything had fallen apart, and they’d left me feeling like an empty, heartbroken mess.

“Char?” Remy stared back at me, his hand paused mid-reach toward the bananas.

Holy shit.

And at that very moment, my hands decided it was the perfect time to forget how to work. I dropped my produce bag with a thud, and my coveted apples scattered across the tile floor.

“Shit,” I muttered and bent down to pick up the fruit before someone tripped or ran over them with their cart.

As I reached for the last one sitting below the cartons holding the pineapples, Remy’s face came into view again, his gaze locked with mine as he picked up my apple and set it back into my produce bag.

“Thanks,” I said, and we both stood up from our crouched positions.

He offered a soft smile. “It’s been a long time, Charlotte.”

“It has.” I nodded and fidgeted with the plastic bag in my hands. “How are you, Remy?”

“I’m good. How are you?”

Cripes, this was awkward. It was like neither of us knew what to say, even though we each had a million things we wanted to say.

“I’m good.”

“So, you’re back—” he started to ask, while I simultaneously said, “It’s good to see you.”

“Shit. Sorry.” I laughed nervously, and he smiled.

“So, you’re back in New York?”

“Yep,” I answered. “I moved back permanently this past year.”

“Still with the same job?”

“Uh-huh. Still working for CMI.”

“That’s good.”

“Thanks,” I said for lack of anything better to say. It wasn’t easy seeing your ex-fiancé in general, much less in the middle of the produce aisle at the grocery store. Eventually, I found a good topic to hopefully mix things up from our new pattern of using the word good every thirty seconds. “So, how’s Winnie?”

He slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet. “She’s good.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Fucking hell. How many times had we said the word good in the span of five minutes?

The count had to be up to fifty by this point.

“She’s really happy. Married,” he added. “And has a little girl that I adore.”

“I’m so glad to hear that.” I smiled even though I already knew those things. The idea of Winnie happy made me happy. Even though I’d lost contact with her once Remy and I had split, I still cared about her. She’d been a huge part of my life when I was with her brother.

“And I bet you’re an awesome uncle.”

“Of course I am,” he teased. If there was one thing about Remy that I loved, it was his sense of humor. He’d given me so many funny memories during our relationship.

“Always with the ego,” I joked back, and he laughed.

We stared at one another for a quiet moment, until I admitted, “It’s really good to see you, Rem.” It was the truth. It felt good to see him smile and laugh. I guess it simply felt good to see him. To feel that he was doing okay.