Now or Never: A Last Chance Romance (Part 1) by Logan Belle Read Free Book Online Page B

incomplete without sharing it with him.  I hesitate only for a second before typing the text, First item on the list officially checked off.
    I stare at my phone, waiting for a response.
    And I wait.

Chapter 9
    I’m at lunch when I finally hear from him.
    Congrats on a successful evening.
    I smile, my heart leaping.
    “Something funny?” Patti asks across the table.
    We’re eating at Bella Italia, a pizza place on Lancaster Avenue that has had the same red, white, and green awning since I was a kid.  It also happens to have the best cheese steak for miles around, but it’s a neighborhood secret.
    It’s a five minute walk from the store, and Patti and I come here at least once a week — always saying we’re “just having a salad.”  Today we order identical steak sandwiches with onions and sweet peppers.  I forgo my usual Diet Coke and instead just opt for water.  It’s one of the healthier lifestyle changes I’m making — no soda.  I should probably cross cheese steaks off my list, too.  But…baby steps.
    It was tough to find a table.  The place is filled with the student lunch crowd from nearby Lower Merion High School.  When I was a student, sneaking off-campus for lunch was a suspension-worthy offense.  By the time Max was a senior, the kids were allowed to leave.  It seemed crazy to me.  Maybe Patti is right — I’m not good with change.
    She looks at me expectantly.
    “Oh, just a text,” I say.
    She cocks an eyebrow.  “From Max?”
    Of course Patti thinks the only one who would be texting me is my son.  Still high off my make-out session with “Allen with an e,” I’m tempted to correct this assumption.  But I don’t.  I’m not ready to tell her about Justin or The List.  She wouldn’t understand, and I’m not sure I can explain it to her.
    “Yeah.  Sorry to be texting while we’re here but it will just take a sec,” I say, bent over my phone and already tapping away.
    Looks like you had a successful evening yourself.
    He writes back , Looks can be deceiving. It was pretty anticlimactic.
    “Look at you — you’re positively beaming!” Patti says.  “Seeing the joy you get from your son really makes me regret that Geoff and I were never blessed.”
    I hate lying to her.
    “But you have each other , Patti,” I say, suddenly feeling wistful.  I have a mental image of them together, and it makes the kiss and my adventures with Justin seem positively trivial.
    And then, for a reason I do not understand, I start crying.  Maybe it’s my exhaustion from a late night.  Maybe it’s alcohol-induced depression.  Whatever it is, my mood goes into free-fall.
    “Oh, hon, no. I didn’t meant to upset you,” she says, reaching across the small table and holding my hand.
    “It’s not you. I’m sorry.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”  I blow my nose into a paper napkin.
    “You don’t know what’s wrong with you?  You have cancer, for god’s sake!  Frankly, I’m relieved to see you expressing some emotion over this whole thing.  You’ve been holding way too much inside, Claire.  It’s not good for you.”
    She thinks this is about the cancer.  I wish it was.  I know how to fight the cancer.  I don’t know what to do with these new feelings.  Last night was fun, but maybe it’s too much for me.
    My car is still downtown.  I took a cab to work.  See — everything was so simple before I tried to be happy.
    “I’m fine,” I say.  “Really.  But can you do me a favor?”
    “Anything,” she says, squeezing my arm.
    “Can you drive me downtown after work to pick up my car?”
    She is obviously taken aback by the request, but quickly recovers.  “Sure, honey.  But why is your car downtown?”
    “Don’t ask.”
     
    *** ***
     
    “Claire Romi?”  A young, redheaded guy wearing a black t-shirt that reads “Spee-D Delivery” in yellow lettering appears at my counter, holding a package. He’s got his ear buds in and I hear his music,