Haven Harbor • a.i. •

Chapter 59

I followed Ashton into the coffee shop, him politely holding the door open for me.

We waited in line at the counter until it was our turn.

"What would you like?" He asked me.

"Cinnamon latte." I answered.

He told the barista my drink order and his and we went to pay. I took my wallet from my pocket but he placed a gentle hand on mine to stop me.

"I've got it." He gave me a little smile. "Why don't you go find us a table."

I nodded and walked around the little room until I found a table for two in the back. Taking a seat, I stared at the dark wooden table top until a drink was placed in front of me.

Looking up I saw Ashton setting his drink down and then taking the seat across from me.

My eyes moved down and I could see a light patch on his tee shirt from where I had cried on it and I felt bad for ruining his shirt.

"So did you uh...find a place to stay?" I asked him, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah, there's a little bed and breakfast up the street. The owner is really sweet, she makes me food and washes my clothes for me, so that was nice."

"That sounds good." I said, trying to keep the conversation light.

"Not really." He shook his head and I gave him a confused look. "I was away from you Carter, and that's never a good thing."

I sucked in a breath at this.

"I kicked you out of the house without any of your things, and I'm sorry, that was wrong of me." I said and he shook his head.

"No, you had every right to. And don't apologise for being mad at me, you should be." He gave me a light hearted smile and then his face turned serious. "And by the way have you been drinking?"

"What?" I asked him, taken aback. "No."

"Why was there a bottle of scotch on counter?"

"Oh." I answered and blinked a few times. "I just had a few sips that's all."

"Please tell me it wasn't because of me..." He said.

"I just wanted to take the edge off." I explained.

I couldn't decipher Ashton's expression, he was either upset or disappointed, and I didn't know which one I'd rather him be.

"That's not the way to solve this." He said slowly as if carefully choosing each word he said.

"I wasn't trying to solve it, I was trying to make myself feel better." I bit back harshly.

"Okay, I don't want to fight with you. We're taking a step back when we need to be going forward." He raised his hands in surrender and I looked down at my coffee cup.

I was being mean to him, I knew that. But it didn't matter that I still loved him, he had hurt me.

I wanted to fix this, to make my broken heart stop hurting, but I honestly didn't know how.

"How do you think we can fix this?" I asked him, hoping he had an idea.

"You said you wanted to know the real me, so get to know him. Though I must warn you, he is quite similar to the me you already know, he just has a cooler job." He said adding a bit of humour to lighten the situation and I couldn't help but chortle at his horrible joke.

"So I'm guessing celebrity status doesn't improve your joke telling skills." I smirked slightly.

"Not at all." He laughed.