Hooked: A Love Story on 7th and Main

by Elizabeth Hunter

  “I’m not dropping this,” he said. “No matter what either of you say.”

  Either of us? Had Jeremy talked to his grandfather about her? Shit. That wasn’t good. She flirted with Jeremy. He couldn’t get attached. Tayla wasn’t made for long-term relationships. If Jeremy got attached to her, that would ruin everything.

  She left Gus in the back room with the chess kids and drank her lemonade in the corner of the room, watching the crowd that filled the comic book shop.

  Emmie with Ox at her back—he’d finally finished work—laughed with a couple who held a baby in their arms while their younger kid played with the train table in the corner. Daisy, Spider, and Ethan were watching a table where Jeremy was supervising a large tabletop game with a wizard theme. It was the same game set up in an attractive display by the door, the one people had been walking out the door with all night.

  He was good at this. Jeremy had the ability to create passion in other people. If he was excited about something, he could infect others. He was a natural salesman without being obnoxious about it.

  “Just tell me when and where.”

  Never and nowhere.

  Sadly, Jeremy Allen was a keeper, and that was the one kind of man that Tayla strictly avoided. She’d been drawn in, and she needed to be better at keeping her distance.

  Tayla felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She opened it, then nearly deleted the message, thinking it was from the SOKA mailing list. Her thumb had nearly swiped all the way to the left before she caught the subject line: We’re interested if you are.

  She slid her thumb back and tapped on the message.

  * * *

  Dear Ms. McKinnon,

  We enjoyed your interest form, and we’d like to hear more from you. Could you please fill out the extended interest form and attach a current résumé when replying to this email?

  Sincerely,

  Kabisa Nandi

  SOKA Team Building

  PS: No one here would dream of insulting romance novels. We pass too many around the office.

  Well. This was an interesting twist.

  Tayla sat down at Café Maya the next afternoon with thoughts tumbling through her head. She’d filled out the extended interest form for SOKA and quickly updated her résumé to send this morning. She’d spent most of her morning messaging back and forth with various online friends, trying to find out just who else had been getting interest from the company and what the buzz was around social media.

  She was more confused than ever.

  While multiple blogging friends had filled out the interest form, only a few had been approached for more information. She’d been fielding messages every time she checked her phone.

  OMG!

  Ur perfect. Brilliant.

  Btch, id hate u but i like u 2 much.

  Wait, what form? SOKA is expanding? How?

  I havent heard but OMG coolness!

  If you work there do you get a discount?

  They emailed you back? K.

  Tayla raised her eyebrow at that K. Whatever, Lyssa. Be a bitch. The rest of her blogging friends were excited. A few were being cagey enough that she guessed they’d also gotten interest and viewed her as competition. That was fine.

  Tayla never minded healthy competition. She wasn’t a backstabber and she knew her worth. She’d play the game until it wasn’t fun anymore. She had a business of her own, and she was growing her social media presence. She didn’t need SOKA, and she wasn’t going to jump through any hoops she didn’t feel like jumping.

  She regularly brought in a small side income with product placements and scored plenty of freebies from growing brands. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to feed her shopping habit, and it was getting a little bigger every month.

  “Hey!” Emmie set her purse on the extra chair and sat down. “Why do you look mad?”

  “I’m not.” She put down her phone. “I’m not. I’m just…”

  “Online drama?”

  “Always.” She slid her phone in her handbag and looked around the café. “It’s slow enough Daisy should be able to join us.”

  “Cool.” Emmie stretched her neck and rubbed her eyes. “I was shelving used stuff today. My eyes are killing me.”

  “You should have worn your glasses.”

  “I know.” Emmie sniffed and wiped her tears with a napkin. “I should know better by now, but I’ve been taking antihistamines because of the trees, so I didn’t think that much about the extra dust, and I just—”

  “There’s a company in the city that asked for my résumé.” The knot in her stomach loosened as soon as she said the words, but a lump settled in her throat.

  Emmie blinked. “The city? What city?”

  “San Francisco of course.”

  Emmie kept blinking. It was like she’d been caught in a loop.

  Daisy sat down while Emmie was blinking. “What’s wrong with your eyes? Did you forget to take your antihist—”

  “Tayla’s moving back to San Francisco,” Emmie blurted. “She’s leaving us.”

  Daisy turned to Tayla. “What?”

  “I’m not moving,” Tayla said. “Or… I don’t know. They just asked me for a résumé. They didn’t offer me a job or anything.”

  Emmie’s eyes were pleading. “But they will because you’re awesome. And then you’ll leave us.”

  Daisy’s voice was quiet. “What’s the job?”

  “It’s for a fashion start-up. They’re expanding—”

  “Shit. You’re leaving.” Daisy sighed. “Have you told Jeremy yet?”

  “I’m not leaving! You’re not listening. They just emailed me back to ask for a résumé. They haven’t even asked for an interview yet. I have no tech experience, you guys. I’m probably the last person—”

  “Do they have a website?” Daisy broke in. “This start-up?

  “Yeah. It’s called SOKA. It’s kind of like Etsy, but curated international fashion only. Kind of midsized companies and individuals. Fair trade stuff. Handmade things. But from all over the world.”

  “Do they have an app yet?” Emmie asked.

  “That’s what they’re developing right now. That’s why I may be completely out of this. I’m not a tech person.”

  “They already have tech people,” Emmie said. “That would be the first thing they lined up. If they’re advertising for new team members, they want sales. They want marketing. They want word of mouth. You’re brilliant at all that. They’re going to love you, Tayla.”

  Daisy gave her a sad smile. “You’ll be perfect for them. You’re smart and fashionable and business-minded. You connect with people. You’re amazing at reading trends.”

  Tayla put her head in her hands. “You guys are acting like they’ve already offered me a job. They haven’t. There are a million people out there who are going to want to work with them. Literally people all over the world. There is no guarantee they’re going to be interested in a chubby Instagram model currently living in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Metlin is hardly the middle of nowhere. And plus-sized fashion is one of the least-served segments of the marketplace.” Emmie was still wiping her eyes. “If they’re smart, they’re going to snap up you up.”

  “Are you crying about this?” Tayla said. “I’m not dying, Em. I have a job prospect. That’s it.”

  “I know.” She sniffed. “And you’re going to be amazing. And I know you miss the city. We’ll just miss you here. I’d gotten so used to you being here, I just assumed you wanted to stay, and I guess I shouldn’t have.”

  “Will you stop? I haven’t decided anything yet.”

  “Have you told Jeremy?” Daisy asked.

  “Why do you keep asking about Jeremy? I just told you,” Tayla said. “Why do you think I would have told him yet?”

  Daisy and Emmie exchanged a look.

  “What is that look?”

  “Just…” Emmie shrugged. “You two are close.”

  “No, we’re not. We’re friends.�
�� Tayla took a sip of iced tea, trying to rid herself of the lump in her throat. “Just like you and Daisy and I are friends. We’re friends. That’s all.”

  “You’re so full of shit,” Daisy said.

  “Yeah,” Emmie said. “I’m trying to think of the last time we exchanged sexual innuendos the way you and Jeremy do, and I’m coming up blank.”

  “You’re imagining things. Just because you all are happily married and…” She looked at Emmie. “…whatever you and Ox are, doesn’t mean I want a boyfriend. I don’t do boyfriends.”

  “You and Jeremy are perfect for each other,” Daisy said. “And it’s obvious the chemistry is there. Why wouldn’t you—?”

  “’Cause we’re not perfect for each other, okay? And I don’t want a boyfriend.” Tayla’s cheeks flushed. “Some people aren’t made for monogamy. Some of us don’t want to be tied down. Don’t want to come home to the same person every day and every night. Don’t want to get bored always knowing exactly how the day is going to go and what the other person is going to do and what the other person is going to say and…” She looked up at Daisy and Emmie. “No offense. Relationships are nice. For other people.”

  Daisy leaned her chin on her hand. “No offense taken. I just think it’s amusing that you think being married to Spider is either boring or predictable.”

  “I wasn’t thinking of Spider.”

  Emmie was smiling. “She was thinking of Ox. She thinks Ox is boring.”

  “I’m not thinking of either of your partners, okay?”

  “Who were you thinking about?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Daisy said, “She’s imagining a fictional person she’d never fall in love with in the first place. She’s imagining being married to an accountant or something.”

  “Hey! I’m an accountant.”

  “See? Most people think accountants are boring, and aren’t they wrong?”

  “Yeah?” Tayla said. “Most people in relationships start complaining about them after about three years. And then they get married, and it’s one long stream of complaints for the next twenty-five or thirty years. They’re miserable, but they do nothing to change it. Why on earth would I want that?”

  Emmie looked at Daisy. “This is about her parents.”

  “Will you shut up?” Tayla said. “I’m going to miss you so much when I move back to the city. Sarcasm font.”

  Emmie narrowed her eyes. “You know, you don’t have to say ‘sarcasm font’ when you’re actually speaking. We get it.”

  Daisy reached for her hand. “We love you, and we don’t want you to leave us. Who on earth is going to know all the French history answers for trivia if you leave? Spider will never forgive you if you abandon the team and we have to start paying for beer on trivia night.”

  Tayla groaned. “You guyssssss. Why are you making me feel guilty for a job I don’t even have? A job that you both said I’d be perfect for?”

  “Because we love you, you pain in the ass. And Metlin would suck without you.” Emmie stood. “I have to get back to the shop. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “I thought we were having lunch,” Tayla said.

  “Yeah? I thought you wanted to live here. Guess we were both wrong.”

  Tayla narrowed her eyes as Emmie walked out of the café. She nearly followed her to keep arguing, but Daisy put a hand on her arm.

  “Don’t,” she said. “She’s upset. You’re pissed off. Both of you need to cool down. You’ve been thinking about leaving for a while, haven’t you?”

  Tayla took a deep breath. “I’ve been here over a year. I never intended to stay. I moved to help Emmie open the shop. She’s open. It’s running. She’s doing really well. She doesn’t need me anymore.”

  “It’s not about needing you. It’s about loving you. She loves you. Did you tell her you were thinking about moving back to the city?”

  “No.”

  “So you’ve been thinking about it for a while, but she’s just now hearing about it.”

  “She’s not my mother, Daisy. Trust me, she doesn’t have the functional alcoholism for it. And this is all ridiculous because I don’t even have a job offer yet. And if I got one, there’s no guarantee I’d take it.”

  “You’d totally take it.”

  “Okay yes, I would.” Tayla leaned closer. “Working for a company like that is my dream job. I’d be an idiot not to take it. They probably have health insurance. Vacation days. And… retirement contributions. Do you know how behind I am in retirement planning? 401k me, baby.”

  “I know.” Daisy’s smile was sad. “If you get this, I will be so completely thrilled for you. You’d be amazing and fabulous and perfect. And that’s part of the reason Emmie’s kind of bitchy. She knows you have a really great chance of moving out of here and leaving us for a great new job. She will be happy for you eventually because she loves you. But give her time.”

  Like always, Daisy’s calm voice of reason settled her down. She was like the big sister Tayla never had. Or wanted, for that matter. She preferred being an only child.

  “I do think you need to tell Jeremy,” Daisy said.

  “If I get the job, I will. If they never call me back…” She looked at the menu. “Then it’s no big deal. Jeremy’s a flirt. You guys are reading way too much into our relationship.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Chapter Four

  It was Thursday night and Jeremy hadn’t seen Tayla in days. He kept missing her at the bookshop and the Ice House. She and Emmie sounded like they were fighting about something, but Jeremy was determined to stay out of that. It was never a good idea to get in the middle of friends or sisters who were fighting. He’d learned that the hard way.

  But the third Thursday of every month was trivia night at the Ice House, and he knew Tayla would be there. Daisy, Spider, Ethan, and Tayla had a regular team.

  He stepped into the building just in time to hear the next question.

  “Question fifteen!” Hugh shouted. “We’re halfway though, people. In what 1979 movie was a spaceship named Nostromo featured?”

  Jeremy rolled his eyes. They could at least make it a little difficult. There was low muttering around the room as teams wrote their answers down on their papers.

  Spider shouted from the corner. “Gabe, you better put your phone away. If you don’t know that one, you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”

  “I’m texting my mom, asshole.”

  “I’m watching you.”

  Spider took trivia seriously. But then, Spider took everything seriously. When Jeremy had been in high school, Spider had terrified him. At least until Spider figured out that Jeremy didn’t have any romantic interest in Emmie; then they were fine.

  He grabbed a pint at the bar and nearly ran into Tayla.

  “Hey.” He couldn’t stop his smile. It was automatic every time he saw her. “Wow. You look amazing tonight.” She was wearing some kind of wraparound dress with pink and yellow stripes.

  Tayla cocked her hip to the side and posed. “Thanks. You’re not looking bad yourself. I like the vest.”

  “Thanks.” The tweed vest over a clean shirt was his one nod to dressing up that night. “Can I get you a drink?”

  Her blue eyes went wide. “That would be awesome. Spider gets cranky if I leave the table too long.”

  “I’ll grab you a cider.”

  Her dimple peeked out. “You always know what I want.”

  He looked her up and down, from the pink earrings to the tips of her pointed flats. “I’d love to show you just how much.”

  “Shameless.” She winked at him.

  “You like me that way.”

  Tayla laughed as she walked away. Jeremy went to the bar and ordered a cider from Junior, who was behind the bar. He made his way to the table in the corner where Spider, Daisy, Ethan, and Tayla were huddled over a paper.

  Spider looked up with narrowed eyes. “Oh. It’s you.”

  “Yes, and I’m not working with any othe
r teams.” Jeremy pulled a spare chair from a table nearby. “Why do you take this so seriously, man?”

  “I don’t compete in anything unless I plan on winning.”

  “I agree with that philosophy.” Tayla reached for the glass of cider. “Thanks, Jeremy.”

  Ethan caught Jeremy’s eye over Tayla’s head. “She tell you yet?”

  “Did who tell me what?” Jeremy sipped a new stout Hugh and Carly had just put out.

  Daisy and Tayla exchanged a look.

  “What?” Tayla hissed. “I told you—”

  “Did you actually think you could keep news private in Metlin?” Daisy asked her. “It’s like I said. You have to tell him now.”

  Jeremy felt his heart pick up. “Tell me what?”

  Everyone looked at Tayla, and Jeremy could tell she was annoyed, but he was too worried to have any sympathy.

  “Question seventeen! Which American state is known as the Garden State?”

  Spider grabbed the paper and started muttering under his breath.

  “What’s going on?” Jeremy said. “Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is fine. Everything is great.” Tayla’s voice was clipped. “I happen to be exchanging emails with a company in the Bay Area who may want to interview me for a job. It’s not a big deal.”

  Job.

  Bay Area.

  Job.

  Interview.

  He felt his face freeze. “You’re moving?”

  She set her glass down. “I’m not moving. Not yet. But probably someday, yes. I mean, I’m not from here. All my family is in the Bay Area, so—”

  “Emmie says you hate your family.” Spider finished his beer and set the empty glass down hard. “Why the fuck would you want to move closer to them? You have family here. We’re family.”

  “It’s not all about my family,” Tayla said. “This job would be my dream job. Literally my dream job, okay? And maybe it’ll come to nothing, but I applied because it’s my dream job, and I wish you all would stop freaking out.”

  Jeremy forced his face into a smile. “That’s exciting.” His heart was racing. He felt like he wanted to puke. “So they emailed you back?”