✔︎ | Part of Me (Trilogy)

32 | straight Will would say no

32 | straight Will would say no

A couple of days ago

Will's POV

I wake up on the couch in Avi's dark apartment and groan. No one else is home: Axel and Avi must have taken Jem to the movies already. I get up to flick on a light. I should have gone too, but I have other plans that I didn't want to tell them about yet, mostly because I don't want them to get their hopes up. 

Both of them have been begging me to move to Seattle. Honestly, I have no connection to our little town in Cali at all except that I have a good job there, and that's where mom and dad are. I don't want to live without my parents because of my girls. I feel bad sometimes that they're always taking care of my kids, but I really don't want to think about what I'd do without full time babysitters. 

I don't think they would want me to leave either. They love the girls. I can't imagine how mom and dad would handle me leaving to Seattle with them. 

But that might just happen. That's what I'm considering while I'm here, actually. I'm looking to move my shop. I do alright in Cali, sure, but the town we live in is small and I don't get that much business. Most of the guys that would come to the shop were just close friends with Dave, but ever since he sold the shop to me and started travelling the world with his granddaughter Shiray, the shop lost business. 

Also, it's so dull. I haven't really made any friends, other than the guys that work for me, but they're all older. The only friends I have in Cali are my parents and my daughters, and that's just a little sad. 

I tug on a shirt and a hoodie and a coat overtop, and a red toque Avi got me for Christmas and decide to grab a coffee first before I do anything else. I slide into a pair of boots and find a Starbucks not far from Axel's and Avi's apartment. It's flipping cold outside when I trek through the lightly snow dusted sidewalk, shoving my hands into my pockets to keep them from freezing.

It's refreshing though. It's a good break from Cali, and honestly, I could use a good, long break from the Golden State. 

I enter the coffee shop and stand in line, taking my hands out of my pocket to blow on them. My eyes immediately land on a figure at the counter, waiting for his coffee. I recognize him as Axel's friend, whatever his name is. I look away before he sees me looking at him, and pretend not to notice that he's here too, still in his law enforcement gear, and get myself a latte. 

Awkwardly, I make my way down the counter, shoving my hands back into my pockets, and try to act casual. Jamie, right, that's his name, only notices me once I'm standing right next to him, our shoulders almost touching. 

I'm not looking at him, but I hear him say, "hey handsome." 

I glance at him embarrassedly. I don't know why my cheeks flush, or why I'm so surprised. He hit on me the first time we met too.