Operation avoid Nate had gone surprisingly according to plan, and since that night at the diner six days ago, things had more or less reverted back to normal.

Roy was none the wiser about the biker fight that had taken place in his classy establishment, though he continued to act like the slime ball he was, and Nate hadn't showed his face in the diner since, much to Stacy's disappointment, who finally showed up to work the next day with a poorly concealed love bite on her neck.

I, on the other hand, was relieved that Nate had yet to make an appearance, since it meant I could put any thoughts of liking him behind me and focus on what was important.

Getting out of Pinewood.

Though it was starting to dawn on me that Nate intrigued me more than I cared to admit, and during my shifts, I couldn't help but jerk my head every time the diner door swung open, my heart rate increased with the thought that it could be Nate walking in. It never was, and disappointment would stir in my chest, my cheeks hot with rejection.

It was ridiculous, I barely knew the guy, but even I couldn't deny that Nate's arrival had shaken up the mundanity of my life and had forced me to finally engage in the world around me.

And the thing that was bugging me most of all was that I didn't have any control over the situation. I wasn't avoiding Nate if he wasn't even here to avoid, which meant he had all of the power and now I was helpless, staring at the diner door like an eager puppy awaiting its owner–the exact kind of girl I always prided myself on not being.

"So, he punched a guy in the face for you and you haven't seen him since," Stacy summarised as we sat out back for a cigarette break, not that either of us actually smoked.

Being a smoker himself, Roy knew he couldn't get away with constantly taking cigarette breaks without allowing anybody else to, and so smokers were allowed a break pretty much whenever they pleased, such was the way of our backward system.

"That's correct," I said lightly, wishing we could talk about something else, but Lacy had mentioned something about the fight to Stacy and now I'd been forced to fill in the blanks.

"That's so romantic," Stacy smiled, looking out toward the overflowing trash cans in the distance. If the customers of Barney's Diner could see what went on behind the scenes, I doubt Roy would be able to claim this was a classy establishment any longer. "He's probably just at home recovering from his injuries."

"Getting into fights is not romantic, Stacy."

She scoffed at that. "The guy did it to defend your honor, Meg. Cut him a little slack."

I fell silent, realizing she had a point. I'd been trying to find reasons to keep Nate at a distance, wanting to protect myself from any future pain because I knew that I would be leaving this town soon enough, but I couldn't deny that Nate had been defending me, something nobody had ever done before.

I was used to being the only person I could depend on, the only one I had to defend me, and having someone else do it for a change was so strange that I didn't exactly know how to react, but what I did know was that Stacy was right, for once I needed to stop thinking about the future and give Nate a chance.

I just hoped I hadn't scared him away for good.

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