Taking Shots (Assassins, #1)(159)
Chapter 31
Elli missed the way Shea slept.
It was one of the main things she missed. As the tears threaten to come down her cheeks all she could do was think about the many mornings she would wake up, and stare at him. His long eye lashes would touch the top of his cheeks, his lips would be parted some, and his breathing would be so even that Elli could only think that he was dreaming about something good. When she would get bored, she would run her finger down from his nose, across his top lip to his bottom, and giggle when he would purse his lips. He would always wake up, glaring at her, but he wasn’t really mad. He would wrap her up in his arms, kissing her long and hard before letting her go.
He loved her.
That was what Elli was thinking about as she stood in the middle of Starbucks, a block over from the arena, the place she was working that day. Out of all the things she could be thinking about, she was thinking of Shea. She should be thinking about the paperwork that was accumulating at the studio and in her office at the Assassins’ headquarters, but nope, she was thinking about her ex boyfriend.
Like always.
When her phone rang, she rolled her eyes, hoping it wasn’t the same person that clouded her brain. It wasn’t, it was her mother.
“Hello?”
“Hello darling, are you coming to dinner with me and Victoria today?”
“I don’t know Mother, I’m not really feeling it, I still don’t want to be around Victoria.”
“Oh come on, you’ve been weird ever since that womanizing ex boyfriend of yours kissed her. Get over him, it’s been, what, two months? And Victoria has apologized profusely, even though she shouldn’t have too, it was him for goodness sakes.”
“I loved him,” Elli said as the tears rushed to her eyes, but she wasn’t going to let them fall, she was in the middle of a damn Starbucks for goodness sakes. She would wait till she got home.
“So, he was trash, tattoos everywhere, he didn’t know how to dress, he wasn’t good enough for you. You’re lucky you found him out before y’all got married or something crazy.”
“I just hate what he did to me, and coming onto my sister out of all people. It just blows my mind; he wasn’t the guy I thought he was.”
“Again, he was trash, so come on, let’s go to the dinner. At the club! You can stay at the house tonight instead of that crummy house of yours.”
Elli rolled her eyes before saying, “I’ll call you this afternoon.”
“You better, sweetheart, bye.”
“Bye.” Elli hung up the phone, when her mother’s call went off and the picture of Shea laying in the snow making a snow angel came up, it felt like she was being punch in the chest. It happen every time she looked at it, with that happening it would only be smart to take the picture off, but ever since Shea sent it to her the day of the first snow fall with the caption saying:
I miss you like the snow misses an angel.
Elli was unable to do it; she set it to her wallpaper and put herself through the torture every time she turned her phone on. She missed him so much, but her pride kept her from returning the nonstop calls the first month, and the random texts she still got from him. She couldn’t do it. He broke her heart, and no matter how much she missed him, she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him. She wouldn’t go through what she went through with Justin.
She wouldn’t, couldn’t.
“That’s a cool picture, your boyfriend?” Elli jumped in surprised, turning to a very tall, very handsome man. Elli looked down at her phone, then back up at the stranger.
“Um, no. Thanks, it is a good picture.”
“Well, you have impeccable taste in photography,” he said with a sly grin, “My name is Joseph Rinehart.” He held out his hand, and Elli took it in hers.
“Elli Fisher, nice to meet you.” He continued to grin at her.
“The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Fisher. Do you work around here?”
“I do, I own Time Standing Still studio on West End, but today I’m working over at Assassins’ headquarters.”
“Hard working woman, would you have time to date?” he said with a suggesting grin, “Me, if you’re wondering.”
Shit, Elli didn’t see that coming, she thought the guy wanted to talk about photography as they waited in line, but nope. He was hitting on her, and he had a damn wedding ring on! With disgust, her smile fell, and she turned back around.
Being hit on was not what she wanted at the moment. The guy said something, but Elli wasn’t listening as she put her headphones in, turning on her iPod. The way guys openly hit on Elli ever since she and Shea had broken up, never cease to amaze her. Yeah, she had lost twenty pounds since the breakup and she was wearing a single digit number, something that hadn’t happen since she gotten sick, but still, dudes needed to back up.
It wasn’t like Elli wanted to lose the weight, but she had gotten sick twice since the break up, and she just wasn’t hungry. Plus, anything she ate reminded her of Shea and she would basically want to throw up, so eating really didn’t happen much. Once she got to the Starbucks counter, her heart broke all over again as she ordered her regular drink. It was really sad that after two months, ordering the same coffee that she knew Shea drank still hurt. Shouldn’t she be over him by now?