Chapter 70

DAHLIA

The lunch rush was supposed to be over. Supposed to. But apparently, the universe decided today was “Let’s torture Dahlia” day.

The restaurant buzzed with the kind of chaos that made even the sound of the espresso machine feel personal. Trays clattered, orders overlapped, and my head throbbed somewhere between too little sleep and too much stress.

And Loren… oh, Loren was being weird.

Not her usual tight-lipped, passive-aggressive self. Not the woman who side-eyed me every time Sebastian so much as breathed in my direction. No, today, she was being nice. Just like my previous shift. She’s been like that since the day Aidan showed up.

Talking about Aidan, he said he was coming to the restaurant today. I don’t know why; he didn’t tell me. It’s got to be business.

Back to Loren. Painfully, suspiciously nice.

“Dahlia, sweetie, you missed a spot,” she said with a chirpy tone that didn’t belong to her voice box. She even smiled. Smiled. “He