When he insisted on paying for the toffees, Harper just shrugged. Who was she to say no to his money? “Alright, then.” She moved back to the register and started punching the numbers in, scooping up the bills he threw down onto the counter and sliding them into the little troughs of the till. She grabbed a handful of coins and a few ones and held the change out in her uninjured hand. She was starting to get tired of today’s exchange; not only had she gone through even more of the usual conflicting thoughts that came up when Josh was around, now she had bitter thoughts about her mother buzzing around in her head. And really, she just wanted to be by herself. ‘You know he didn’t mean anything by it.’ Whatever. She sighed and looked up right as Josh started cramming a cupcake into his mouth. The corners of her mouth started to pull upward and she felt a laugh starting to rise out of her chest. She clasped her hand over her lips to try to prevent the sound from escaping any more than it had already. But seriously, anyone who could demolish a cupcake in two bites or less deserved to be laughed at. The laugh had brought enough of a smile to her lips that it decidedly stayed there when he grinned as well. “Take it easy there, Sparky,” she giggled without really thinking. “There’s caramel and salted pretzel, too. Thought it’d go well with the toffees.” Okay, so flattery worked pretty well on her. Even if it was coming from the one person she’d swore she’d hate forever. And ever.
If Josh had known that his side comment would cause Harper’s mind to jump to thoughts of her mother, then he would have kept it to himself. He was aware that Sherry had passed away. Shortly after his own mother had been diagnosed with cancer, he remembered being shown the obituary in the local paper. Josh honestly wouldn’t have made the connection had it not been for Sarah asking if Sherry’s daughter was the same Harper he had taken to prom, as though Scarlet Oak had an overwhelming supply of ‘Harper Jones’. He wondered sometimes if she had seen the flowers his mother sent, though he was sure she had other, more important, matters on her mind at the time than which flowers came from who. Back in the present, he nodded his head almost solemnly. There was no point dwelling on things that couldn’t be changed. Doing so would only dig a pit for you to wallow in, and Josh had learned first hand how bad that could be for a person.
They seemed to be back to their regular, simple, almost cold interaction with one another again. When Harper’s demeanor toward him hadn’t changed after his third or fourth visit to the bakery, Josh had been tempted to ask her upfront what exactly it was about him that made her so utterly unfriendly. If she had no memory of prom night -- which was the truth, as far as he knew -- then what had he done to put her off so much? Had he not been aware of a very real reason for her to hate him, he might have had more courage to do so. The muffled laugh did not go unnoticed, mostly because it had been so unexpected. Josh hadn’t been trying to be funny when he ate his cupcake that way. It was simply the way he ate: huge bites that most normal people wouldn’t dare take unless they wanted to choke on what they were eating. The habit was born from grabbing quick bites of food from the dinner table before running off to do something -- anything -- that wasn’t sitting still. His mother had tried and failed to break him of it.