—Don't Leave Me Hanging—

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JENNIE

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The Manoban Cap celebration is fantastic.

Lisa stays over at my place afterward and keeps me up until an ungodly hour in the morning. I tamp down my resentment over her peaceful, sleeping form sprawled over my mattress, dead to the world as I tiptoe around my room and try not to trip over our discarded clothes while I get ready for work.

We only have three days left to prepare for the street party, which means I have a lot of things to take care of. I leave Lisa in my bed, ruing my lack of sleep, but aware it's my own damn fault for staying out until two in the morning and then letting her persuade me to have slightly drunk marathon sex until four. My short sleep seems woefully inadequate right now.

I'm running behind this morning, so I have to rush through decorating today's cupcakes before BB opens. I'm grateful that Callie is around to help, because I'm still in decorating mode when the doors open. The shop is bustling with morning customers and people picking up orders. I help Callie get things under control, tragically under-caffeinated for this level of on-the-ball. I can't say I'm disappointed by the number of customers we have, though. It's busier than it has been as of late, possibly because of the best bar winner announcement and the Top 10 list Tori posted on its heels.

Once we're past the initial rush, it slows down until lunch, which means I can start tackling the event prep and the eleven million questions that come with it. I expect Lisa to stop by and say hello, get her cupcake fix, and go over the last-minute stuff we need to get in order for Saturday. Except that doesn't happen.

I pop over to The Manoban Cap after the lunch rush dies down, hoping to touch base with Lisa, but she's not there. Chan isn't on until the evening shift and Lana, one of the other bartenders, doesn't seem to know where Lisa is or when she'll be in.

I send her a message, asking about an ETA and when we'll have time to go over any last-minute emergencies. Two hours and another influx of customers later, she still hasn't responded so I start fielding questions on my own.

It's almost four in the afternoon by the time she rolls in, looking a hell of a lot more chipper and rested than I feel. "Hey, babe." She leans over the counter and kisses me on the cheek. She sweeps a thumb across the hollow under my eye. "Sorry I kept you up so late. You hanging in there?"

I fight that melty feeling I always get when she touches me and remind myself I'm kind of annoyed that the day is more than half over and she's been MIA. "I'm okay. Where have you been?"

"Oh, you know, running around, picking up stuff for the weekend."

"Did you get my message?"

"Huh?"

"I sent you a message hours ago." I can feel my irritation building at her less than remorseful expression.

"Really? I must've missed it. What's going on? What do you need?"

I blink at her, trying to figure out why she's suddenly so…off. Preoccupied? I don't know what it is, but I find it frustrating. "We have an event in two days. I could've used some help fielding questions from all the other local businesses and coordinating with them, but you were nowhere to be found."

She seems to realize I'm pissed off. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you hanging. I was taking care of last-minute stuff. Who needs questions answered?"

"No one anymore, for now."

"Fantastic. You're always so organized. This is going to be smooth sailing until Saturday." She pats her pocket when her phone starts buzzing. She checks the screen. "I gotta take this. I'll stop by later." She kisses me on the cheek again, grabs the cupcake I plated for her—like the sucker I am—and disappears out the front door, her phone at her ear.

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She doesn't stop by later, though. And when I drop by The Manoban Cap again to see if she's around to go over the fine details, I discover that she left a couple of hours ago to take care of some things, according to Chan.

"Do you know when she's going to be back?" It's already after nine and I've been going all day. I'm barely functioning on the limited sleep I managed last night.

Chan shrugs. "Dunno. She left in kind of a hurry and said she'd try to be back before closing."

"She'd try?" I parrot. "What the hell could she be doing at this time of night?"

Chan gives me an apologetic look. "I honestly don't know. She's been holed up in her office most of the day, and when she's come out she's stuck around for a few minutes before she had to field another call. Do you want me to tell her you stopped by?"

I wave him off, feeling pathetic and highly annoyed. "No. Don't bother. I'll just talk to her tomorrow. I'm beat, and I need actual sleep tonight."

"Celebrations went well into the wee hours of the morning, huh?" He tips his chin up and nods knowingly.

I don't bother to respond. I'm sure my expression says everything.

"Aren't you a wild one? All sweet and pretty and proper and buttoned up on the surface, but you leave some marks behind when you really let loose?" He cocks a brow in question.

I glare at him while my face turns the same color as the red in his plaid shirt. There were some scratch marks on Lisa's back last night and my handprint on her butt from me smacking it, telling her to go harder. The handprint was likely gone by the morning, but I'm sure the scratches are still there. "What the hell has she been saying to you?"

Chan's grin widens. "Absolutely nothing. Lisa couldn't be more tight-lipped if she tried. It was just a guess on my part, and obviously I was right. Lisa's a lucky asshole."

I laugh, unsure how he managed to turn that into a compliment. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I consider texting Lisa when I get home, but I figure it's her turn to reach out. I change into comfy clothes but don't even manage to wash my face or take my makeup off before I pass out. On top of my covers.

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The next morning I'm slightly better rested and feeling less like garbage and more half-human. I have a text from Lisa about being sorry that she missed me last night, but she'll make it up to me. It's followed with a slew of emojis, including eggplants, the panting-tongue thing and a bunch of hand symbols that indicate what she may be planning to do with them.

Normally I'd think it was cute. But this morning I do not. I decide not to respond right away because I'm inclined to say something snarky and less than friendly in my current, grumpy state. Clearly the sleep wasn't enough.

As it turns out, I don't run into Lisa.

Because she's not at The Manoban Cap. Her car isn't in the parking lot and hasn't been there all day. I may or may not have looked outside every single hour to check.

"Okay, what's the deal?" Rosé asks when I come back down the hall after checking for the seven millionth time if Lisa is here. "I don't know what's going on, but maybe you need a cupcake and some valium so you can chill the eff out."

"I'm totally chill," I snap.

She grabs me by the elbow and steers me toward the office.

"What're you doing?"

"Avoiding a scene. In you go." She shoves me inside and closes the door behind her, barricading me in.

I fling my arms in the air. "I don't have time for this! There's too much stuff to do!"

"Take a breath, Jennie. We are ninety-five percent ready for tomorrow. It's just little things that need to be taken care of. Social media is blowing up and people are excited. But you're freaking out poor Callie the way you're snapping every time she asks you a question."

"I'm not snappy!" I close my eyes and rub my temple. "Sorry. I'm just… overwhelmed and I thought I'd get some actual help from Lisa, but she's nowhere to be found and left me to do everything."

"Isn't she next door?"

"No. She's not. She hasn't been there all day and she wasn't there yesterday."

Rosé's tone softens. "But you know where she is?"

"Running errands, apparently. The last time I actually saw her for more than five distracted seconds was two nights ago when she stayed at my place after she found out she won Best Bar." I pace my small office. It's not big enough for effective, angry pacing, though, so I'm forced to turn around after two steps and then I run right into Rosé. "What if she's using me as a means to an end? What if it was convenient to bone the chick who's super organized and loves to take control of events? What if she was having her cupcake and eating it, too!"

"Pretty sure she has been having her cupcake and eating it, too," Rosé mutters.

"This isn't a joke. She's been MIA the past two days and I've had to manage everything! With your help, obviously, and Callie's and her staff, but she's supposed to be here and involved and she's not."

"Have you tried asking her where she's been and what she's doing?"

"Well, she'd have to answer her damn messages for me to be able to confirm that. And now that she's won the competition and her grandfather's bar is doing well she's probably going to go ahead and open that brewery, and that'll be the end of us."

Rosé arches a brow. "You're in a pretty fatalistic mood."

"I'm being realistic. Think about it. First all the pranks, hijacking my grand opening, the freaking glitter bomb. And then we call a truce when DB opens and start throwing all these events together. They benefit her more than they do me. And there was that time one of Tori's people came to scope things out. It was the same morning Lisa convinced me to stay at her place for breakfast."

"That seems like a pretty unfortunate coincidence," Rosé hedges.

"Except she made it to work in time to meet up with Tori's people and win them over with her charm and her charisma." I throw my hands in the air. "What about the time I found her making cappuccinos, only the damn machine crapped its pants while she was right there! If I hadn't had someone to fix it, I would've been in a huge bind on a seriously busy night."

"I didn't know about that." Rosé chews her bottom lip.

"It got fixed, but it was expensive, and then everything was fine and I forgot about it. But then Chan gives me the name of a shitty comedian on the same night Tori shows up. What if Lisa's distracted me with her exceptional bedroom skills and all along she's been sabotaging me! Remember how crazy it used to be in the food truck business? People constantly slashing tires, fighting over what area they were allowed to target. It was nasty. Maybe she's only been sleeping with me so she can win this damn thing and get what she wants, which is her brewery!"

"That would be a pretty calculated, somewhat sociopathic thing to do, don't you think?" Rosé sounds less like the voice of reason and more like she's just as worried as I am now.

"Well, she won the entire competition, and Gramps will fork over the start-up money for her brewery, which is always what she was working toward. And now here I am, with no win and an absentee girlfriend who's probably going to dump me." I flap my hands in front of my face as if that's going to stop the tears. "Damn it! I can't afford a meltdown right now!"

"Take a deep breath, Jennie. I get that you're upset, and all of these individual things together might seem bad, but until you've had a conversation with her you really can't know for sure, can you? And honestly, this is nothing like the food truck business, which is literally insane."

"Doesn't it seem like a pretty big coincidence that she's suddenly impossible to get ahold of right after she wins the award and we have this huge event we're trying to pull off so our businesses don't end up in the shitter?"

"Yes, I agree that it does, but I also don't want you to go off half-cocked and blow up this relationship without having the whole story."

She has a point. "I just don't want my shop to fail. I can't afford for it to fail because if it does it means my dream is dead."

"Let's not borrow trouble. You have a weekend of awesomeness planned, and we've done everything we can to promote it. Have some faith in yourself and your ability to make this a success, regardless of whether Lisa pulls through for you."

"I'm supposed to have a partner in this." And maybe that's the biggest kick in the pants for me. Because that's what this felt like, a partnership. A real one on all levels. So it hurts more than I'd like that the woman who I thought was with me on this whole thing was only here for as long as I was useful and necessary, sort of like how Raphael used me to get closer to my family. In the end, my parents cared more about his skill set than my broken heart. I thought I'd been smarter this time. I thought I knew better.

"I'm your partner right now. You don't need Lisa to make this a success. She's great arm candy and I'm sure she's a rock star in bed, but she isn't essential to pulling this off. You've been the one to set up all the cohosted events. You made those a success."

"Well, they weren't successful enough."

"So what if you had one bad comedy act? So what if you didn't win the Best Bar title? Put that aside and focus on the here and now. You have the respect of your peers. They've come to you with every question, so remember that when you're getting down on yourself or thinking you're not enough. And honestly, if Lisa did just use you for a ride I'll happily kick her in the balls for you."

"While wearing steel-toed boots."

"Yes. Or cleats. Then she could be textured for your pleasure."

"That is not a pleasant visual."

Someone knocks on the door timidly and Rosé opens it up. "What's up, Callie?"

"Um, I'm really sorry to interrupt." She wrings her hands nervously. "But the McClellands are here and they have an order for pickup, but I can't find it in the stack."

"I'll take care of it. I didn't put it out front because it has a custard filling and needs to be refrigerated. Tell them I'll be right out," I say, much more gently than I have all day.

I push Lisa's absence to the back of my mind. I can't afford to fixate, and Rosé is right: I'm scaring Callie when I should be building excitement for the weekend.

I retrieve the McClelland order and reset my attitude. It helps put everyone else at ease, and we're all in a far more positive mood by the end of the day.

I send Callie home an hour early and post a sign that our hours will be modified for the weekend so we can stick around for all of the festivities.

The specials have already been added to the board, tomorrow's cupcakes are decorated and in the fridge, and we're well stocked with drinks and everything we could possibly need to make Love Is in the Air a success.

I pull up my Instagram account to check interaction, and the first thing that pops up on my feed is a post from Tori Taylor, which isn't all that surprising. But the fact that it's a picture of her and Lisa sitting in a cozy-looking bar that isn't The Manoban Cap sure is not what I expect to see. And it was posted half an hour ago. So much for running errands and helping prep for the event. I'm tempted to comment on the post, but I decide it's not in my best interest to be petty where Tori is concerned.

I pop over to The Manoban Cap before I head home, not because I'm looking for Lisa at this point since clearly she's too busy making plans with Tori to be bothered with the event, but because I want to touch base with the bar staff and make sure they don't have any questions.

Chan is tending bar along with Corbin, who was hired last week and seems to be a great addition to their team. He's got the whole surfer dude look going on, long blond hair, tanned, and always calling everyone "bro" and "sweetheart." The women eat it up.

Chan cringes when he sees me approach. I hold up a hand, feeling even worse based on his response to my presence. "I'm not looking for Lisa. I just want to make sure you're all set for tomorrow."

He blinks at me a couple of times but says nothing.

"Do you need any clarification on anything?" I ask.

"Uhhhh…I don't think so. I'm supposed to be here at nine thirty to help prep the bar and the doors open at eleven. I'll be serving drinks all day and managing whatever else needs to happen to make things go smoothly."

"What about the rest of your crew?"

"I think we're all good. We got your to-do list, and Lana is huge on the decorating shit." He motions to the heart garland strung all over the bar interspersed with lei-wearing cupids. The hearts are red and black plaid, to match the rest of the décor. "So I think we're okay unless something major happens tomorrow."

"Okay, great. Text me if you need anything or if there's something you're unsure of."

"Will do." A couple of college girls approach the bar.

"I'll let you get back to it."

As I turn to leave, Chan calls out, "Jennie."

I pause and give him a questioning smile.

"Try not to think the worst."

I nod, and he turns back to the girls.

It's easier said than done, though. I give in and send Lisa a message before I go to bed. I don't anticipate sleeping well, or much at all, but I figure it's worth a shot. It's well past midnight before I fall into a restless, fitful sleep. And still nothing from Lisa.

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