There was something about her tone that made my brow furrow. She sounded on edge. “Well, no, not yet. But if you need me now, I can head that way—”
“No, no!” she blurted quickly. “No, don’t do that. As a matter of fact, maybe just take the rest of the day off.”
“Sylvia, what’s going on? Are you all right?” That question caught my friends’ attention, and they stopped the whispered conversation they’d been having to listen more intently to me.
“I’m fine. Just dealin’ with a little issue here at the shop. But don’t you worry, the police should be here soon enough.”
My back went straight. “The police?”
Before she could get another word out, I heard a familiar voice shouting in the background. “Is that her? You tell her to get down here right this instant!”
“Oh my God,” I breathed. “Is that—?”
“For the love of Christ, Krista? Will you just shut the hell up?” a masculine voice growled through the line.
“Are you kidding me?” I snapped.
Aunt Sylvia let out a defeated sigh. “Believe me, lovely. I wish I were.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Disconnecting the call, I dropped the phone back into my purse and shot to my feet.
“What’s going on?” McKenna asked as she and Dani followed suit.
“Alex and Krista are at the shop,” I seethed. Their mouths dropped open, their eyes bulging in shock. “I have to go. I need to get there before the cops do so I have a chance to tear them both a new asshole.”
“We’re going with,” Dani called, scrambling to follow after me.
“Hell yeah we are,” McKenna agreed. “No way I’m missing this.”
I made it the few blocks from Muffin Top to Divine Flora in record time, having power-walked at an Olympic speed. I spotted Alex’s Mercedes right away. There was also a police cruiser sitting outside the shop by the time we hit the parking lot, and next to it, surprisingly, was Micah’s truck.
I could hear the raised voices before I yanked the door open, and what I saw when I stepped inside would have been laughable if I wasn’t so pissed off.
Sylvia stood behind one of the counters with Sonya and Raul. The three of them were bent at the waist, elbows to the counter with their chins in their hands, watching the scene in front of them like they would watch a cage fight. With rapt fascination. All they were missing was a bucket of popcorn.
Front and center were Krista and Alex, engaged in a shouting match as a uniformed officer stood between them, arms out to keep them separated. Micah and Leo stood off to the side, with much the same demeanor as my aunt and our employees, only I could sense an undercurrent of anger radiating from Micah.
“What the hell is going on?” I cried just as Dani and McKenna came stumbling in behind me.
“You!” Krista shouted, pointing an accusatory finger my way.
My chin jerked back in bewilderment. “Me?”
“Why can’t you just stay gone?”
McKenna leaned in and stage-whispered in my ear. “Is that your ex-best friend?”
“Yep.”
“He traded way down, babe.”
Krista heard that and slapped her hands down on her hips. “And who the hell are you?”
“I’m her new best friend,” McKenna offered snottily.
“Yeah? Well no one was talking to you, so stay the hell out of it.” She turned her venomous gaze back to me. “You need to leave Alex alone. You two are over! Just accept that and move on already. This is just pathetic.”
“Krista,” Alex growled in warning, but we both ignored him.
I tried to hold back my laugh, which resulted in me letting out a loud snort. “Are you serious? Krista, sweetheart, you may want to get a few things straight with your man before you drive forty-five minutes out of the way to confront someone,” I said condescendingly. “You’re just embarrassing yourself, because it’s obvious you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I’m not her man,” Alex blurted before she could get a word out. He started toward me but was stopped when Micah moved fast, cutting off his path.
“That’s close enough.”
My ex’s face grew red, his features twisting up with anger. “You need to stay out of my way. This is between me and my wife.”
“Your wife?” Krista shrieked.
“For the love of God, I am not your wife!” I cried in frustration.
Meanwhile, Micah moved closer. It was only one step, but it was more than enough to scare the hell out of any regular person. “Gave you one warnin’ already, pal,” he snarled. “That’s all you’re gonna get. You call her your wife one more time, you’ll be eating all your meals through a straw.”
“You can’t threaten me!” he blustered, looking to the uniformed officer. “Did you hear that? This man just threatened me.”
I didn’t recognize the man, but I knew instantly that I liked him when he scrunched his face in confusion. “Huh? Sorry, didn’t hear that.”
“This is outrageous! I’ll be calling your superiors—”
“Alex!” I shouted, cutting him off while sidestepping Micah so I could get this whole thing over with. “Just say why you’re here and leave. This is my place of business, not the set of a goddamn soap opera.”
“Hady Cakes, I want you back,” he blurted. “I made a huge mistake, honey. I didn’t appreciate what I had when I had it—”
“Well no shit,” Aunt Sylvia muttered loudly.
“I still love you,” he continued. “I never stopped. You have to believe me. I know we can get back to where we once were. Remember all the good times?”
“You mean like that trip to Disney you texted me about?”
He smiled wide, his gaze filling with hope as he took a step closer. “Yeah. Exactly! Remember how great that was?”
“Actually, we were just talking about that, weren’t we, ladies?” I glanced back at Dani and McKenna. “You know, I’m curious about something. Did knowing your wife and daughter were just on the other side of the door make it difficult to get off when you were having phone sex with your slut? Is that why your “business calls” took so long?” I scrunched my face into a mock look of pity. “Did you have a bit of stage fright?”
I heard a snort and looked over just in time to see Leo and the other officer duck their heads, but not before I saw the grin on each of their faces.
Alex’s eyes got huge as all the color leached from his face. “I didn’t—that wasn’t—”
“You’d already been fucking her for three months by the time we took that trip, dumbass. I guess you forgot that when you were texting me that little trip down memory lane.”
“Damn,” the officer muttered, shaking his head in disapproval. “That’s a whole new level of stupid.”
“No one asked you!” Alex rasped quickly before jerking back around to me.
“You need to take your fiancée and leave,” I said firmly. “Get out of my shop and my town.”
“Hayden, please. You have to listen to me—”