The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen Read Free Book Online Page B

parents when he graduated from law school. She had some furniture left from her great- grandparents' house, along with hundreds of boxes of books that had appeared over the years, in a small storage rental. She'd never asked to put her things here. She didn't know why now. She guessed she didn't think they would fit. And she had wanted to fit in Jake's life, wanted it so much she got lost in it.
    Adam walked over to her and put his hands on her arms. He had to bend a little to make sure he met her eyes. "You're not losing anyone, least of all me. It was a one-time thing, three months ago. He was stupid. People do stupid things. I mean, you don't do stupid things. Asking him to leave wasn't stupid. I'm not saying that ..."
    She smiled at him again. "Adam?"
    "Yes?"
    "You're really bad at this."
    He seemed relieved that she'd called him on it. "I know." He dropped his hands from her arms. "I guess I should be going." He went back to the bed and zipped up the suitcases, then he noticed a book on the nightstand. "Is this your book?" he asked as he picked it up.
    She looked over at it, expecting it to be that damn book that had been following her all day.
    But no.
    This was a new book. Old Love, New Direction.
    "This is good, Clo." He held the book in the palm of his hand like a scale, as if the words had weight. "It's good that you have this."
    Confused, Chloe leaned out of the room and looked over to Finding Forgiveness, back on top of the couch cushions in the living room.
    Good Lord, it had called in reinforcements.
    "I should go," Adam said, putting the book down. He slid the suitcases off the bed and she followed him to the front door. "Do you want me to tell Jake anything?"
    She opened the door for him. "That I look happy?" "Clo . . ."
    "No, I don't want you to tell him anything. Good night, Adam," she said, and closed the door behind him.
    She whirled around. Old Love, New Direction had joined Finding Forgiveness on the couch, like they were waiting to have a talk with her. Great. She was being stalked by self-help books.
    She stomped to the bathroom to take a shower. Books never appeared in the bathroom. Like cats, they hated water. She stood under the spray until the water turned cold. Just when she thought she had washed all thoughts of Jake out of her mind, at least enough to sleep, she opened the bathroom door and found the books, stacked neatly one on top of the other, on the floor in front of her.
    "If I see you again tonight, I'm putting you both in the toilet," she said as she stepped over them and went to the bed to set her alarm.
    When she turned around again, they were gone.

 
    4

    Sno Caps
    The next day at work, Chloe spent her downtime reading magazines from the periodical inventory that had come in that morning. She wanted distractions, any distractions. She wanted to forget about how quiet the apartment was last night, how out of place she felt in it alone. Unfortunately, Finding Forgiveness kept appearing by her on the counter, nudging her, reminding her. At least Old Love, New Direction had decided to stay home, though it had poured out of her box of cereal that morning, clanging onto the bowl and causing Cheerios to fly everywhere. She had just knocked Finding Forgiveness off the counter again when she saw someone crossing the rotunda toward her.
    She straightened as the woman approached. "It's you!" Chloe said, unreasonably glad to see her again.
    Josey Cirrini stopped and turned around to see who Chloe was talking to. When she saw no one was there, she said, "Me?"
    "Yes, you," Chloe said, laughing. "Another grilled to - mato and cheese to go?"
    Josey walked up to the counter. "You remembered."
    "I remember what everyone orders. I get that from my great-grandad." Chloe turned and put on a pair of disposable clear plastic gloves, then she started to assemble the sandwich. "He used to run this shop. He left it to me. I don't get too many orders for grilled tomato and cheese. There was this one woman who