Some Sort of Happy (Skylar and Sebastian): A Happy Crazy Love Novel by Melanie Harlow Read Free Book Online Page A

your average guy.”
    I looked out the door again, recalling the punch-in-the-gut feeling I’d had when he’d turned to look at me. Then I noticed the notebook on the sidewalk—the red spiral one I’d seen earlier at the beach. “Hey, he dropped something.”
    Hurrying out the door to pick it up, I looked down the street in the direction he’d gone. There was no sign of him, so I took it back into the shop.
    “He’ll probably be back for it in a minute,” Natalie said. “He’s always carrying that thing around.”
    “It’s soggy,” I said, holding it by one corner. “What the hell does he do with it?”
    “Writes in it, I assume.”
    I slapped the thing onto the counter next to the dollar bills he’d left and sat down, eyeing it curiously. “I wonder what he writes about.”
    “No clue. Now tell me how you two know each other. Was it school?” Natalie picked up a rag and began wiping the counter, moving the notebook aside. “He’s not much of a talker but he did say he grew up around here.”
    “Yes, you don’t remember him? He was in my class, so a few years ahead of you, but he looked totally different back then.”
    “What did he look like?”
    “He had this long shaggy hair he used to hide behind and he wore really baggy clothing all the time.” I thought for a second. “Or at least it seemed baggy. Maybe he was just really skinny.”
    Natalie’s eyebrows shot up. “Not anymore. One time he took off his jacket and he was wearing this really fitted t-shirt. That guy is ripped now—his arms and chest are amazing.”
    “Seriously?” Spinning on the stool, I glanced out the door again, wondering where he’d rushed off to. “Does he ever come in with anyone else? I don’t remember him having friends in school.”
    “That’s sad.”
    I frowned. “Yeah, but he was a pretty odd duck. He used to be obsessed with germs, like total OCD. People used to tease him about it.”
    She nodded. “That makes sense. The first time he came in here, he brought his own cup.”
    My jaw dropped. “He did? That’s weird.”
    “It was weird,” she admitted, “but also kind of pitiful. And at first he just said he preferred to use his own cup, but after he came here a few times, he told me about the germ fear and said he was working on it. And then one day, he didn’t bring it.”
    “Did you, like, congratulate him?”
    “Nope, I didn’t even mention it. I just poured his coffee and went about my business. Like I said, he’s not really a talker, and I didn’t want to embarrass him. And I think…” Her voice trailed off and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
    “What?” I asked, suddenly eager for any scrap of information on him.
    “Nothing. I shouldn’t spread gossip.” She focused extra hard on her cleaning rag.
    I rolled my eyes and put a hand over her wrist, stopping her frantic motion. “Nat, please. Who the hell would I tell? No one is even speaking to me around here!”
    She sighed and stopped wiping. “Well, after he left here one day, I heard these women talking about him, something about his having a nervous breakdown last year and moving back home to recover. One of them might have been a relative of his.”
    “A nervous breakdown? Really?” My heart ached a little for the lonely, frustrated kid he’d been and the awkward man he’d become. Memories long forgotten surfaced—the way he’d arrived mid-year in the fourth grade and struggled to make friends. The way he’d stayed in at recess once to help me in math. The way he’d struggled to meet my eyes the few times we’d been lab partners. The way he’d eaten lunch alone. I should have been nicer. Then and now. I’m a horrible person. As if I needed another reminder.
    “That’s what I heard. Apparently he was a lawyer in New York City, and engaged to be married.”
    Intrigued, I reached for a chocolate chip cookie from under the glass lid of a cake stand and took a bite. “Wow. I wonder what happened to the