Best Friend's Ex Box Set (A Second Chance Romance Love Story)

by Claire Adams

  “You know, I know a little bit about you and Elana’s history,” she replied, sitting back in her chair. “I know that you were Lillie’s fiancé, that you and Elana had been good friends, that Elana always had a secret crush on you. I knew that she would have never betrayed her friendship with Lillie, not for anyone or anything. She thought the world of both of you, and she would mention you in conversation all of the time. Now that Lillie is dead, I can only imagine how hard it is for Elana to move forward with Lillie’s fiancé. It must be a very difficult position to be in, trying to fill the shoes of her best friend, the woman you had loved immensely.”

  I put down my sandwich and wiped my hands and mouth on my napkin. Taking a sip of my soda, I tried to understand what she was saying. Filling someone’s shoes was never one of Elana’s jobs, and I thought that she knew that. Lillie was part of our past, that would never change, but she wasn’t expected to be part of our future. She was gone.

  “I’m sorry, Tammy. I don’t really understand what you are saying.” I looked over at her.

  “When I asked Elana what was wrong, she was very short and defensive,” Tammy said. “But what she did say was that the past just kept coming up in your relationship. Maybe Elana thinks she is being compared to Lillie in some way. Or maybe she thinks that the only reason that you’re into her is because she was the closest thing to your dead fiancée. I’m not saying you’re thinking that way, but I can see how it would be extremely easy for Elana to think that. Was there any kind of conversation about Lillie that night, even if it seemed fleeting and unimportant at the time?”

  “No,” I said with an upset voice. “We didn’t talk about Lillie at all that weekend in fact. It was just me and her, being ourselves and having a good time.”

  “There had to be something that triggered this,” Tammy said.

  I sat there at the table, replaying every moment of that weekend through my mind, trying to figure out if I had messed up somewhere. Maybe I said something that made her think I was comparing her to Lillie, but every memory I had of Elana that weekend had nothing to do with Lillie. In fact, I had gone out of my way to make sure that we had time to be with each other, teach each other, and find out for ourselves if this was going to work out like we wanted it to. I had even been scared to think that our connection in the past might make us realize, when we opened up about who we were, that we didn’t fit together as good as we thought we would. As far as I was concerned, though, I thought we fit together even better than I originally had suspected we would.

  “Tammy, I swear that this isn’t the case,” I said, shaking my head. “I care for Elana because I like her as a person, as her own person. I’m not, in any way, trying to replace Lillie. Lillie is gone, and I want to move forward in life, and I tried to keep myself from Elana, thinking it would be too difficult for either of us to move forward with the past on our backs, but I just couldn’t stay away from her.”

  “Well,” Tammy said, breathing in deeply and taking my empty plate to the sink. “As much as it’s nice for me to know that, it isn’t going to help your situation at all. Maybe you should tell Elana that, or even better, show her that.”

  “You’re right,” I said, smiling. “You are so right. Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I need to show Elana how much I care about her and how serious I am about caring for her as a person, and the past is behind us.”

  I walked over and gave Tammy a hug, listening to her giggle with surprise. I was pumped, and I knew that I needed to do something big to show Elana how much I cared. I grabbed my jacket from the rack and raced toward the door.

  “Thank you so much, Tammy,” I yelled back.

  “You’re welcome.” She laughed, standing in the doorway. “And good luck. My daughter can be pretty stubborn.”

  “That’s one of the best things about her.” I laughed as I closed the door behind me.

  I was leaving with a plan already starting to formulate in my mind. I was going to get Elana back, and this time, she would never doubt my feelings for her again.

  Chapter 34

  Elana

  Monday felt worse than normal. My eyes were swollen, my mind was completely numb, and my body was absolutely exhausted. I had pulled on some clothes for work and gone with a ponytail for my hair, not feeling like putting myself together. I shuffled into the place bleary-eyed, realizing that at least I had something to do where no one would bother me. I was still re-shelving the library, a task that was pretty huge, but I knew it would keep me occupied, and no matter how I was feeling, I could get it done.

  My entire weekend was spent holed up in my house, watching sentimental movies and giving myself permission to be a weepy sap. Usually, I fought it hard, not wanting to be weak and pathetic. This weekend, though, I gave in, and I now felt like I had a hangover, even though I didn’t drink any alcohol. I wondered to myself if you could get a Ben & Jerry’s hangover. Because if you could, I might be dying of one at that moment. I looked up at the other employees behind the desk and made a beeline for the stacks, not wanting to admit I had done nothing that weekend but be a pathetic single cat lady. I was pretty sure at one point, I had an entire conversation with one of my cats. It was mostly one-sided.

  Originally, before the meltdown, I had told myself that I was going to try to get out and meet people. I had spent a lot of time by myself, too shy and too depressed to even attempt to make friends, much less meet a man on my own. After going through the memory box, I had promised myself to do better, to stop being chased down by the ghosts of my past. However, in the end, I hadn’t felt ready. I was scared, weak really, and I found myself giving into the grief of all of it, crying over silly movies, and eating my weight in ice cream and Chinese food. I had barely made it to my mother’s for Sunday dinner, eating and then immediately leaving, not wanting to even hear about the football game because it made me think of Ollie.

  I kept telling myself it was the right choice, that if I wasn’t ready, I shouldn’t force myself into it. I felt like that was what Ollie did, force himself into trying to have a future with me. He was stuck in Madison, and I think he realized it was harder than he thought it would be. So, he forced himself to put the past behind him and start a relationship. In the end, though, he wasn’t ready, and it only ended up with hurt and anger. I didn’t want to do to someone what Ollie was doing to me. I didn’t want to date someone as a replacement. It just wasn’t fair.

  I put my things down in the employee lockers and headed out onto the floor. I snuck behind everyone and grabbed a stack of the books I was working on, realizing that no one even noticed that I was there. They were all too busy talking about what they did over the weekend with their friends and significant others. I wouldn’t have anything to talk about with them anyway, even if I did have friends. This saved me the trouble of awkward conversations. I walked over to the stacks and down the rows, slowing down as I caught sight of a slip of colored paper sticking out of a book on the shelf I was passing. Out of habit, I reached up and grabbed it, figuring it could go into the recycling bin with the rest of the lost bookmarks.

  I stopped and set the books down on the ladder I would be using that day, tossing the paper on top of them and looking up at my next shelf. I reached for the top book but stopped, the colorful and artsy text on the piece of paper catching my eye. I picked it up and unfolded it, reading the words to myself. It seemed like one of those general affirmation texts meant for whoever might find it in the book next. It was a cute idea, but annoying because it made my job harder. At the same time, though, the text was pretty specific to be for just a general audience. I could see how it might work, but I figured the culprit would have gone for something a bit more generic. Who was I to judge art, though? I was just a librarian who would rather people not leave happy messages for others in my books.

  I put the paper down and climbed the ladder, putting the books on the shelf after wiping it off with my towel. I stood there for a second, staring at the book titles in front o
f me. Love in The Time of Cholera stared me in the face, making my mind try to slip away. I shook my head and looked back down at the paper on the ladder beneath, furrowing my eyebrows. I climbed down and picked it back up.

  “When you smile, your eyes are like a clear sky on a sunny day,” I read aloud.

  Strange. It seemed so specific, like it was written specifically for someone. Great, in the mood I was in, I ended up finding some love letter written to a girl who obviously didn’t appreciate romantic gestures, while I’m over here begging for a man to treat me like a queen. It was like the universe was specifically trying to screw with me. I sighed and folded the note, shoving it into my pocket and picking up my books and stepladder. I walked toward the next shelf, stopping at the sight of another piece of paper. I walked up and pulled it out of the book, standing there and staring down at the note. Before I could fully read it, another note caught my eye, then another, and another. I looked up and down the aisle, trying to make sure that I wasn’t being tricked or watched.

  I collected all the pieces of papers and walked to the back of the stacks, sitting down on the stepladder. I opened all the pages and piled them on top of each other. I took a deep breath, knowing that this was more than strange, especially since it was right in the section I would be working. I tried not to think too much of it and started to read them aloud.

  “A dry white wine goes best with a dry sense of humor.”

  I looked up, thinking about the night when Ollie was my servant and how I had been able to throw caution to the wind because of all the white wine I drank. Of course, on top of that, a dry sense of humor was pretty much my calling card, and Ollie had been the only guy to ever get or appreciate my sense of humor. Still, it wasn’t conclusive enough to make me think that Ollie had planted these in the books. There were plenty of people that not only liked white wine, but were sarcastic. At least, that was what I told myself. I put that one to the back and moved on to the next one.

  “When you laugh, your nose scrunches up in the most adorable way.”

  Okay, that was like a signature move. Well, one I couldn’t really help it, but my mom used to tell me it was the most adorable attribute about me when I was a child. I pulled my hand up and rubbed my nose, looking up and pulling the notes to my chest as someone walked past the entryway to the stacks I was sitting down in. When they passed, I looked back down, shaking my head at how silly I was being about the whole thing. Of course, these weren’t about me, but at least for a couple of minutes, I could dream. I flipped to the next sheet and read it, almost dropping it to the floor.

  “You’re terrible at pool,” I read out loud, confused. “But you’re wonderful at kissing.”

  Okay, this was really crazy. There was no way this could be Ollie, right? My mind shifted back to that night after my mom’s house when we stopped off at the pool hall and drank a pitcher of beer. I really had been absolutely terrible at pool, but on the bright side, Ollie had gotten really close, showing me exactly how to move the stick. I swore I hadn’t laughed that much in one day for a very long time. I sighed, a smile trying to force its way over my lips, realizing there was a really good chance these were for me. When I read the last one, though, there was no question about it.

  “I bow to your superior putt-putt skills.”

  When I read this one, I burst into laughter, thinking about how I had owned Ollie during our putt-putt championship game, where he lost the game, and I won a servant. That was one of the best wagers I had ever made. These notes were definitely written for me. Either Ollie had gone out of his way to do this, or there was a serious stalker in my life. I giggled to myself, wondering if the stalker was single, because if so, he seemed like a catch.

  I got up and picked up the books, deciding it was time to get on my game and get these shelves taken care of. I could feel my heart swelling in my chest, thinking about the words printed on the pieces of paper stuffed in my pocket. I thought this day was going to be the worst of all of them, but that simple act just made me feel so much better. Could these messages really be from Ollie? I mean, he was definitely a sweet, romantic guy, but how would he have pulled it off without me knowing? I wanted to believe so badly that it was Ollie, that he was reaching out to me. I wanted to think that someone would do something that sweet and romantic for me, but there was still a small part of me that worried it was some kind of cruel, practical joke.

  Was Ollie trying to show me that I was special to him? That question and others sped through my mind for the entire day. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ollie coming in here and hiding these notes, not even sure that I would be the one that found them. The thoughts alone got me through the rest of my day.

  When the end of the day came, I smiled at the other employees, telling them to have a good night. They looked at me strangely at first and then smiled, telling me the same. I couldn’t imagine that with the events of the day, I would have anything other than a good night now. I walked out to the bus stop and caught the bus, sitting in the back and staring down at the notes I was now clutching in my hand. I was definitely feeling a lot better going home than I was when I came into work.

  When I got home, I walked to the mailbox and pulled out the mail. I groaned at the bills, like always, before stopping on a strange-looking envelope. There was no address, no postage, just my name written across the front in the same font that the notes were written in. I smiled and pulled the letter to my chest. It had to be from Ollie. I walked into the house with a little bit more pep in my step and shut the door behind me. This had turned into a great day.

  Chapter 35

  Ollie

  After talking to Tammy, I went home and really did a lot of thinking about the best way to show Elana how much I cared about her and how much I really knew her as a person. I wrote down a list of things, most of them being too generic for my taste, or hers for that matter. I wanted to get her attention. On Sunday, when I was driving back to my place to watch the game, I passed the library, and instantly, I had a lightbulb moment. I ran home and wrote out several notes, driving back to the library to hide my love slips all over the area where she was working. I was going to miss football, but I didn’t give a damn about that. Elana was much more important. I had to be stealthy, not wanting the people working there to see me scoping out what looked like a disaster area where she was doing a re-shelving.

  I went through the books carefully, making sure enough of the paper was hanging out of the books to catch her eye. I knew with as anal retentive as she was, she wouldn’t be able to help herself, and they would be pulled out immediately. There were just so many different things that could go wrong with this whole scenario. If she did find them, it didn’t mean she would read them. She might just pull them out of the books and toss them into the recycling bin without a second thought, assuming it was some asshole student making her life harder. Then there was the possibility that someone else would find them before Elana did. If they threw them out, she wouldn’t see them for sure. If they read them, they would probably have a really good day thinking they had an admirer or a stalker, which was a possible thought as well. Either way, I was hellbent on getting those notes planted, taking my time to sneak around and pick the perfect places. I figured I had a good opportunity of getting them to Elana since the other employees were avoiding that section of the stacks like the plague.

  If she did find these and happened to sit down and read them all, it then all hinged on whether she caught on to the fact that they were actually about her in the first place. There were a couple in there that could have been said for many people, but then there were those that specifically drew examples from the things that we had done together. She was extremely intelligent, so I had no doubt in my mind that if fate fell in my hands and she actually got to read them, she would know who sent them and what they were about.

  When I was done putting all the papers in, I stood back to make sure they were actually noticeable. They were, especially to a woman like Elana who would be lookin
g for imperfections in her work area. She was extremely meticulous and careful with the things she cared about, and for as long as I had known her, she cared about the library and books more than anything else in her life. She was born to be a librarian, and I had found myself wondering while sifting through piles of investment papers, what it was like to do something that you loved enough that you would do it for free?

  I walked out of the library, throwing my coat over my shoulder and nodding my head at the front desk girls. I felt like one of those romantic heroes in the old black and white movies. All I had to do now was the second part of the plan, and then I would sit back nervously and wait for her response. The second part of the plan was easier to execute. I just had to go over to her place before she got home from work and slip a letter in her mailbox. The hard part about it was actually writing the letter in a way that showed her just how much I really cared about her. She was a beautiful woman, and I wanted her to know that, but I also didn’t want the letter to be all about her physical attributes. The parts that I loved about her the most were on the inside, not on the outside, and I had to say things in a way that told her that and made her realize how much I really cared about her.