Fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes until Gretchen arrived.

I was excited to finally see her again. We’d exchanged text messages after Ashton got me the phone, but neither replaced the face-to-face conversations we used to have. So many things had changed since I last saw her; some good, while others . . . well, let’s just say the jury was still out on those.

“Elena.” Her voice was so loud, almost every head in the restaurant turned to stare. Thank God it was only the lunch crowd.

“Gretchen.” I waved, hoping to calm her until she got to the table.

But that was Gretchen. She didn’t apologize for who she was. It was often said that opposites attract, and this was true in the sense the Gretchen was everything I wished I could be. She was strong to my weak, confident to my cowardice. In the past, when she’d spoken about me leaving Dominic, she’d made it sound so easy, and every time I left after one of those conversations, I’d be full of good intentions; wanting to head home and let him know how unhappy I was, and ask him to change. Then I see him and all my fire would die. Yet, even though this to and fro happened often, she never despaired of me. She was always there in the background helping me, keeping me sane. And for that I’d be forever grateful.

Ashton was nowhere in sight, then again, I had a feeling he wasn’t faraway because he’d promised to come over and meet Gretchen at some point during lunch, and help set her mind at ease.

“Oh my God.”

Suddenly I was yanked from my seat into a crushing embrace, squeezed to the point where I couldn’t draw breath. “I missed you so much, you had me so worried.”

“I text you all the time,” I forced out.

She let go. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to squish you.”

“It’s okay,” I laughed. My stomach settled and I felt myself relax.

“I was just so worried,” she rambled, taking her seat. “You sent me texts but anyone could have the phone, claiming they’re you. And you could have been tied up in some creepy basement dungeon with whips and canes and God only knows what else.”

A throat cleared behind me. Gretchen’s eyes snapped up and her mouth dropped open. Then a warm hand curled over my shoulder and blood rushed to my face.

“Elena.” There was a hint of amusement in his voice. Oh God, how much of that had he heard?

“Ashton.”

He squeezed my shoulder then stepped into view. Reaching out, he offered his hand.

“And you must be Gretchen.” Slowly, she lifted her hand and took his. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“It’s a . . . a . . . a—” Gretchen swallowed hard. “Nice to meet you too.”

He brought her hand to his lips and her cheeks went pink.

“Excuse me, ladies, I need to take care of something, but I’ll be back. I just wanted to introduce myself.”

He placed a soft kiss to my lips and stepped away. Gretchen sat there, nodding dumbly. I snapped my fingers in her face, trying to get her attention. When her eyes returned to mine, I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped my lips.

Her expression. Not often was Gretchen speechless. Her eyes were practically popping out of her head when she looked back at me.

“That’s him?”

“Yeah, that’s Ashton.”

She gave her head a quick shake. “Holy shit. It’s about time you found someone like him.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad you approve, but he’s not exactly mine.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” She watched me for a moment. “Although, I’m kinda liking this new snarky attitude you’ve got going on.”

Watching my finger trace patterns on the tablecloth, I said, “I’ve learned a lot in the last two months.”

“Hey.” I looked up into soft, understanding eyes. “It’s never easy to see what’s wrong when we want it to be right.”

Tears blurred my vision. “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. That jerk had your mind so warped and twisted with his bullshit and lies that you couldn’t see what I was saying. What matters now is that you finally see the truth.”

“I do. Ashton helped.”

Gretchen peeked over at him and smiled. “Now I’ve seen for myself that he’s not abusing you in some underground room of pain, I want to know what you’ve been up to. You have so much time now that you don’t have to take shifts at the diner—what do you do all day?”

I hadn’t thought about those early mornings in a long while. For the longest time, the only thing that kept me going was my routine. Not that I didn’t still have a routine; this one was just markedly different. The corners of my mouth lifted.

“Actually, Ashton got me an audition for the new musical opening up in the theater district in a few weeks.”

Her head tilted to the side. “An audition?”

“I guess I never told you what I went to college for.”

“I didn’t even know you’d been to college.”

“Dominic and I got married right after graduation. Up until then, I wanted to sing on Broadway.”

“Really?”

“From the time I was a little girl.”

“Okay,” she said nodding. “When is this audition?”

The waiter came over, interrupting the conversation. In his hand he held a bottle of wine, resting in an ice bucket. He set it up on a stand next to the table before presenting me with the bottle and popping the cork.

“Compliments of Mr. Hawes.”

I glanced over my shoulder; Ashton’s eyes were on me. He lifted his chin slightly, gave me a wink, and turned back to what he was doing. When I turned back to the table, the waiter had poured a glass. He held it out to me. Swirling the liquid like Ashton taught me, I took a sip, savoring the flavor.

“Perfect. Tell Mr. Hawes he has good taste.”

The waiter took our lunch order and after handing over the menu, I looked at Gretchen, who was gaping at me. “Look at you being a flirt.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Oh yes you were.”

Maybe I was, but I wouldn’t admit that to her. “What were we talking about before?”

She laughed. “That quickly that man fried your brain cells.”

I ignored her comments. “Auditions, wasn’t it? Well, I already auditioned and got the part.”

“You did?” she squealed, my reaction to Ashton completely forgotten.

“Yes. It opens in two weeks. Will you come?” I asked, shyly.

“You bet your ass I’ll be there.”

“Thank you. I could use some familiar faces in the audience. It’s been a long time since I’ve been under those lights.”

The waiter brought over our salads and Gretchen picked up her fork to eat. Pointing it at me, she said, “I’m sure Ashton will be there.”

“He will, but the more the merrier.”

She studied me for a moment. “What aren’t you telling me?”

I shook my head, hoping she would see how it was so much more than flirting with Ashton for me. “Nothing.”

She gave me a dubious look. “Okay, fine. Since you won’t ’fess up, tell me more about Ashton and what you do outside your time between the sheets.”

My face flamed. “I never said we’d slept together,” I whispered harshly.

The corner of her eyes crinkled and she laughed. “You don’t have to. I can see the sparks from here.” She grabbed her napkin and started fanning herself.

“Oh my God. Stop that.” I grabbed the napkin from her hand. “We don’t have that kind of chemistry. He’s just really sweet.”

She scoffed and lowered her voice. “You just called a loan shark sweet.”

“How else should I describe him? Ruthless, conniving, maybe selfish? Because he’s been none of those to me.”

Gretchen covered my clenched fist on the table. “Calm down, Elena. That’s not what I meant. It only seems like an oxymoron. ‘Loan shark’ and ‘sweet’ definitely don’t go together—unless you happen to be Ashton Hawes, who is obviously different.”

“He is.”

We finished our salads just in time for lunch to be delivered to the table. The waiter placed Gretchen’s in front of her and when I looked up, Ashton set my lunch in front of me with a flourish. “Enjoy, sweetheart,” he whispered, before disappearing again.