“Great job, Tiffany,” Nikki came up to congratulate me after my first women’s empowerment meeting. I’d just spoken for an hour in front of fifteen of my co-workers. Although I was nervous, I’d to admit, it did go well for the first time. Tim wanted me to start off with two meetings a week and see where it went from there.

“Thank you,” I said, gathering some notes from the table in front of me. We’d had a general discussion about women in a male-dominated workplace. Despite being different ages and having different roles in the company, the women had similar concerns and ideas.

As the women began to leave the room, Cayden snuck in. As soon as we made eye contact, he smiled. I hadn’t seen him since Friday night, and memories of our hot sex session danced in my head.

“How did it go?” Cayden asked me. We had spoken on the phone about it last night. Cayden had calmed my fears about speaking publicly.

“Just speak from your heart,” he had told me. “You have something special, Tiffany. You can help other women find their confidence, too.”

“It went well,” I said. “We had a decent turnout, about fifteen women. It was a good discussion. I look forward to picking it up later this week.”

Cayden gave me a high-five.

“I told you that you had nothing to worry about,” he said. “Anyway, I’m also here to ask you if you would like to come over for dinner tonight? I thought I would make you something to celebrate your first day of leading this course.”

I smiled. Having someone make dinner for me sounded great. Brad never made me dinner, despite me always making him dinner. Then again, Brad didn’t reciprocate a lot of the things that I did for him, especially in the bedroom.

“Sure,” I responded. “That sounds great.”

“Awesome,” Cayden said. “I’ll text you directions to this grocery store near my place. We can meet there after work and get the ingredients that we need. Does that sound good?”

I nodded.

“Sounds great.”

Cayden said goodbye and left the room. I watched him leave, wondering how I’d gotten so lucky. I’d a great man in my life, a dream job, and I was teaching other women to be more like me. How had I gotten here in such a short amount of time?

Work went by quickly. I’d a lot to do, between finishing up my fact checking position and transitioning into my writing position. Plus, we were all on a time crunch to get the holiday pieces finished and published before Christmas. There was a lot of stress, but I didn’t mind it. The stress made me work harder, eager to move up in the company. It would all be worth it.

In the afternoon, I started to move my belongings into the empty office next to Cayden. I wanted to pinch myself. My new office had a great view of the city. The office was spacious, much bigger than my own bedroom. I would need to get some plants and trinkets to fill up all the space.

After work, I drove to the grocery store by Cayden’s apartment. I wasn’t sure what he had planned for dinner, but I was craving some sort of Italian. My father was Italian, and the food always reminded me of him. Plus, I was a sucker for garlic bread.

“Hi, beautiful,” Cayden greeted me as I walked into the store. He leaned in and kissed me softly.

“Hey, handsome,” I returned the greeting. We grabbed a basket and walked into the store.

“What would you like for dinner?” Cayden asked. “I was thinking of shrimp scampi?”

“That sounds great,” I said. I’d barely had time to eat lunch earlier and my stomach was already growling. We walked down the aisles, picking up the ingredients that we would need.

“Do you have a good shrimp scampi recipe?” I asked him. He looked down.

“No,” he admitted sheepishly. “But, I do have the internet. I’m sure I can easily find a recipe on Pinterest. It can’t be that hard, right?”

“I may need to help you,” I winked at him.

We laughed as I grabbed a bag of shrimp. We were both in great moods, despite it being a Monday evening.

“This looks like everything,” Cayden said. We walked toward the front of the store with all the ingredients, plus a bottle of wine and tiramisu for dessert. I was excited for a delicious dinner, and hopefully an even better experience after dinner. My body needed Cayden, especially after my double orgasm on Friday night. I’d thought of it all weekend, even taking matters into my own hands a few times.

Cayden began to put the items on the check-out belt when he turned to me.

“Shit,” he said. “I forgot to grab some olive oil.”

“I can grab some,” I told him. “Is there any specific type that you want?”

“Any brand, as long as it’s extra virgin olive oil,” Cayden said. I nodded and walked away. Since I was unfamiliar with the store’s layout, it took a minute to find the right aisle, but I was finally able to find the olive oil. I grabbed a bottle and walked toward the front of the store.

As I turned, I froze. Over by the milk, I saw Brad. Rather, I thought I saw Brad. His back was toward me, but I knew those arms from anywhere. He had on gym clothes and a baseball hat that covered his blonde hair. As I walked closer to him, he turned and quickly walked further away. He still had his back to me and I could not see his face.

I debated on what to do next. I could follow the mystery man deeper into the store or I could turn the opposite direction and head toward the front of the store where Cayden was waiting for the olive oil. I turned to look down at where Brad had walked, but he was gone. Feeling defeated, I walked toward the front of the store.

“Thank you,” Cayden said, grabbing the olive oil as I approached him. I tried to avoid looking at him.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “It looks like you have seen a ghost.”

I quickly pulled myself together, not wanting to reveal who I thought I’d seen.

“I’m fine,” I lied. Cayden smiled. I could tell that he believed me.

After we checked out, Cayden and I walked outside.

“I’ll meet you at my house?” he asked. I nodded. He kissed me before getting in his car.

“See you soon,” he grinned. He drove away, and I walked over to my car. I turned back to look at the store, hoping I would catch another glance of Brad, or the person I thought was Brad. I got in my car but did not turn it on. Instead, I waited, staring at the grocery store doors. I needed to confirm that it was Brad. If it was Brad, what was he doing here? Why was he grocery shopping in Miami when he lived in Tampa?

My mind began to spin with possibilities. Maybe he had broken up with Jessica and moved back to Miami. Maybe he was single now. Maybe he had realized his mistake and was trying to track me down to apologize? As much as I wanted the last possibility to be true, I knew it wasn’t. He wouldn’t have to work hard to track me down. I’d the same phone number and I hadn’t blocked him. I’d thought about it, but I wanted to keep the lines of communication open just in case.

He had many ways of contacting me – phone, email, social media. He hadn’t tried to contact me at all since we broke up. I thought he might have called last Christmas or for my birthday, but my phone had stayed silent. Every holiday that passed was a reminder that Brad had moved on and I’d not.

I waited for five more minutes, but the mystery man did not come out of the store. I thought about going back in, but I stopped myself. Cayden was probably already back at his house, waiting for me. He thought I left right after him. Finally, I turned on my car and left. Even if it was Brad, I didn’t have time. I’d someone else waiting for me.

“Call Mandy,” I instructed my car’s sync system. In a few seconds, Mandy’s voice came over my car’s speakers.

“Hey, girl,” she said. “Are you at Cayden’s?”

“On my way,” I said. “We went grocery shopping before.”

“Aww, that is so cute. You two are already doing real couple things together.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but, listen. I’m not calling for that. I’m calling because I think I saw Brad at the grocery store.”

Mandy gasped.

“No,” she said. “You did not!”

“I think I did,” I said, turning on Cayden’s street. “I’m 99.9% sure that it was him. I didn’t see him from the front, but it looked just like him. I didn’t have time to investigate any further, but I think he is back in town.”

Mandy sighed.

“I think that you think you saw him,” she said. “He is in Tampa, remember? He’s with Jessica and they have their own life there. He’s not here anymore, Tiffany.”

She was a bit tough with her words, but she had to be. I’d been pining over Brad for a year and she had heard it all. She hated him for what he did to me. I didn’t blame her.

“Listen,” she said. “Cayden is a great guy. He has a great job, he treats you very well, and he’s hot. You cannot screw this up, Tiffany. You need to let Brad go. You needed to let him go a long time ago, but now you really need to let him go.”

She was right. Still holding on to Brad could ruin my relationship with Cayden. I felt stupid for not being able to let go of the past, especially when Brad had been such an awful fiancé. He had cheated on me, for crying out loud.

“Thanks, Mandy,” I said. “You’re right. I need to focus on Cayden.”

“Anytime,” she said, as she hung up the phone.

I turned into Cayden’s complex, but still felt conflicted. I knew what I’d to do, I knew why I’d to do it, but I still could not let Brad go. I walked up to Cayden’s door, noticing the Christmas lights in the trees around his neighborhood. Everyone was in the Christmas spirit, except for me. Cayden opened the door, a glass of wine already in his hand for me.

“Did you get lost?” he asked. I walked in, taking the glass from his hand. I shook my head.

“No,” I said. “I’d to stop for gas. I’m sorry.”

“No worries,” he said, as we walked inside. He already had all the groceries unloaded and had started to boil the water. I sat down on a barstool and chugged my wine. As I put the empty glass down, Cayden looked at me with a shocked look on his face.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He was genuinely concerned. I faked a smile.

“Of course,” I said. “It was just a long day. I barely slept last night. I was psyching myself out about the meeting this morning.”

He nodded understandingly.

“I get it,” he said. “You do have a lot going on this week. But, it’s all exciting stuff, right? You feel good about this, right?”

“I do,” I said. I really was excited about my new job and leading the empowerment group, but I still couldn’t shake the thoughts of Brad. He was going to ruin this excitement in my life, whether he knew it or not.