Heart's a Mess by Kylie Scott

fallen
down her back. One of the chopsticks clattered to the floor and he picked it up
with a sigh, held it out to her.
    “I have to work with him,” she said. “What
must he think of me?”
    “Sweetheart, John doesn’t think of anyone
but himself. I guarantee it. He won’t even remember this happened tomorrow.”
    She grabbed the chopstick from him, her
shoulders slumped. She seemed to have wilted before his eyes. “Why does this
keep happening between us? Every time I convince myself I can stay away from
you and every time I screw it up.”
    “Because there is something between
us. You need to give it a chance.”
    “What I need is to keep my job.”
    Frustration filled him from top to toe.
“Damn it! Will you listen to me? This doesn’t affect your job!”
    “How can it not?” she cried. “Say we see
each other for a while. Do you really think when things go sour it’s not going
to make us working together beyond awkward?”
    “Wait up. When things go sour?”
    “Yes.”
    Ah fuck. Give him strength. “So, you’ve
already decided this is going nowhere before it’s even begun?”
    She said nothing.
    His mind reeled. “Hang on. Is this about my
divorce and your rebound theory again?”
    “I don’t have a great history either,
okay?”
    He scrunched up his face, trying to put all
the pieces together in his mind. Fact is, maybe she was right. He couldn’t
guarantee she wasn’t, with things the way they were. His divorce had been
nasty. Maybe she had a point. Or maybe he was too fucking tired to deal with
this right now. Either way, he couldn’t convince her if she’d already closed
her mind to the idea.
    “I need to get home,” she said.
    “Are you all right to drive?”
    “The cut isn’t hurting and I only had a
couple of sips of the gin. I’m fine.”
    “Are you sure?”
    She nodded, stepped around him and left. He
didn’t try to stop her.

Chapter Four
     
    Violet knew she’d done the right thing.
Better a sting at the beginning than things getting stabby by the end. She
wasn’t the princess to his prince, and fairy tales were for fools and children.
Time to move on with her plan of paying off her tiny, bedraggled house and
getting her shit sorted. Time to be an adult and stop screwing her boss. Again.
But she meant it this time.
    It had been three days since the scene in
the storage room. She’d had her mid-week weekend to get herself together and
she had. Sure, the first time she saw him again would be awkward and
potentially painful. Then it would be over with and things could move on.
    Life would go on as it should.
    “What is this?” hissed Marie as if she’d
stepped in shit. Surprising, given Violet had never met anyone quite as sweet.
The woman stood with John at the restaurant counter, perusing something on the
computer. Violet had only just arrived. There’d been no sign of Alex yet.
Thankfully. She just hoped to God John hadn’t told anyone about the scene in
the storage room.
    “Huh?” John looked up, he and Marie
checking out the scene at the front of the bar. “Oh, her.”
    “Why is she here?” asked Marie in a flat,
unhappy tone.
    “Alex asked her to go to couple’s therapy
with him.”
    “What? Why?” Marie’s pert nose scrunched up
in disbelief.
    “How should I know?” The chef shrugged.
    “That’s Jane?” asked Violet, already
knowing the answer. The sick, unhappy feeling in her stomach confirmed it.
    “Hey,” said Marie, overly cheery. Her smile
looked wide and strained. So obviously she knew. “Hi, Vi.”
    John plastered an equally awkward smile on
his face then walked away. Though, she’d never seen the man actually smile
before so it might have been his usual. Hard to tell.
    All the same, Violet wanted to be beamed up
to the mothership immediately, to disappear into thin air.
    Marie glanced nervously at the scene at the
door, where Alex kissed the tall, thin, beautiful, horrible Jane goodbye on the
cheek. The man certainly didn’t waste any