Mariella approached from behind the counter after ringing up a customer. “If you tear that to shreds, I hope it means you’re going to buy it.”

Angi looked down, surprised to find a scarf from a nearby display held tightly in her hand. She’d placed the promotional flyers on a shelf so she could try on one of the flowery prints as she waited for Mariella to finish the sale. Now her fists were clenched around the silky fabric.

She sighed and gentled her hold on the scarf. “I might need a stress ball instead of a scarf,” she admitted.

“Unfortunately, not something I keep in stock.” Mariella’s gaze clouded for a moment. “I should think about ordering some. For myself more than anyone else.”

Angi smoothed out the scarf and hung it back on the hook. “Maybe you won’t even notice Alex Ralsten is in town.” She picked up the stack of flyers.

“You grew up here,” Mariella observed as they walked toward the counter. “Are there people from your childhood that you try to avoid?”

Angi snorted, then tried to hide it with a cough. “Almost all of them,” she said after a contemplative moment. “I don’t like the person I was back then, and a lot of the people who were my friends haven’t changed much over the years.”

“How’s that going for you?” Mariella arched a brow. “The avoiding old friends in a town this size.”

“I work at a restaurant on Main Street. Not only do I have to see those people, I have to wait on them and make small talk and act like their petty digs about what I’ve done with my life don’t bother me.”

“But they do?”

“I let them,” Angi admitted.

“Now imagine that the people you didn’t want to see weren’t jerks. You were the jerk, and you ruined their life and your own in a very public manner.”

“Do you remember how I acted toward Gabe when we first started working with him last summer?” Angi’s face heated at the memory.

“You weren’t kind.”

“I was embarrassed and defensive,” Angi clarified. “He’s the person I humiliated in a very public way. He thought of me as a friend and I turned on him because the little jerks I wanted to impress expected me to.”

“That’s rough.” Mariella took the flyers from her hand and placed them next to the cash register. “And now you’re fake dating.” She gave a harsh laugh. “Or maybe it’s real dating by this point. Either way, I don’t see that happening with me and Alex.”

“You don’t have to fall in love with him. But take a lesson from my failure. Don’t be a jerk. You made a mistake that impacted both of you. He doesn’t have to forgive you for it, but don’t take out your humiliation on him.”

She’d been fiddling with a pair of earrings hanging on a turntable, her gaze glued to the little gold hoops because it was too difficult to look at her friend and admit how she’d failed so miserably. When Mariella didn’t answer, Angi finally looked up, unsure what had caught the other woman’s attention.