6. Isabelle
CHAPTER SIX
isabelle
I can’t believe you’re already going back next week,” I whined to Ellison. Time had flown by so fast; it seemed like she just got here.
“I know. But I have to get back so I can catch up on a few work things before everything gets crazy. And besides, it’ll only be a week without me and then you’ll be in Montana.”
“Ugh, I wish I could move to Montana with you. I could live in the stables with the horses.”
“We both know you wouldn’t last two hours out in the stables!” She laughed. “That would be fun, though, if you moved closer.”
“Maybe one day.” I sighed, finding myself dreaming of a future where Ellison and I didn’t live a thousand miles away again. We’d gone from living together, to living within an hour apart, to living several flights apart.
To be honest, adjusting to her being gone was hard at first and I wasn’t sure what to do with myself for a while. For as long as I’d known them, I’d never been without either Ellison or my sister. Even though Amelia was seven years younger than me, she was one of my best friends. And Ellison and I had been practically attached at the hip since we met during our freshman year of college. So when she moved, I’d never felt more alone, despite constantly being surrounded by other people.
I may have been, by definition, a social butterfly, but I was always the person who initiated conversations and gatherings. That alone could get exhausting. Add in the feeling of only being chosen when it’s convenient, and I start to overthink.
I hung out a lot with Erin Lindsey, one of our mutual friends who also lived in Houston, but it wasn’t the same. We were almost too alike. I needed Ellison to balance me out. I was the sun to her moon.
“What’s next on the list for wedding things?” she asked as she cleared off the dining room table.
“We finished the invitations last week, so those need to go in the mail, and you still need to write your vows. How about I take the invitations to the post office, so then I can also stop by the bookstore and see if they need anything from me. I’m sure by the time I get back you’ll at least have a good start on vows, right?” I suggested.
“I don’t even know what to say. Not for any bad reasons, I just don’t know how to put it in words.” She shuffled a few loose papers around the table, like she was unsure of what to do with her hands.
“Well, if you don’t have anything when I get back I can give you some ideas. Maybe look up videos of other people’s vows for inspiration? Or read some more of my romance books,” I teased as I got up to walk to the front door.
Ellison had never been fully convinced by my books, even when I begged her to give them a chance. She never admitted it out loud, but I knew she thought fictional men were unrealistic and gave real men too high of standards to live up to. What she didn’t realize was Colter was basically a real-life book boyfriend. But if I ever told her that, she’d probably deny it because she didn’t want to admit she was wrong. She’d always been a bit stubborn, but I still loved her.
“I’ll come up with something. Since you’re going into town for the bookstore, can you stop at the Corral too?” she asked as I was reaching for the doorknob.
The Corral was the coffee shop where Ellison and Colter had their first date and a place we frequently visited. I could recall many coffee dates we spent recapping our weeks—spending hours chatting over our sugary lattes—even the ones where we saw each other almost every day.
I looked over my shoulder at her. “The ice is going to melt by the time I get back. Are you sure? Or you could come with me.”
“No, I won’t get anything done if I come with you,” she pointed out. “We can go another time.”
“All right, if you’re sure.” I opened the door, welcoming the morning sunshine. “I’ll be back in a few!”
I drove to the post office, dropping off all of the envelopes, then made my way into the city. As I drove, I decided to call my sister.
“Hello?” She picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Mills!”
“What’s up, sissy?” she asked.
“Running some errands for Ellison. We’re finishing up as many wedding planning things as we can before she leaves, so I dropped off some invitations at the post office for her. I’m also going to the bookstore,” I explained.
Ellison grew up on the outskirts of Houston and had to drive forty minutes to an hour to get into town, whereas I only lived about twenty minutes from the inner city and ten minutes from Novel Imaginations, the main bookstore I’d been working with the past few months. I still worked contractually with a couple other bookstores doing social media, but since I mostly worked in-house at Novel Imaginations, I had gotten to know the staff really well.
“Ooh, you’ll have to let me know what you find! I’ve been needing some good recommendations,” she chirped.
“I’ll try to find something for you.” I giggled. Most of the books I read wouldn’t be appropriate for her, but there were a few I had in mind that weren’t too bad.
The familiar white brick of the bookstore came into view, the bubblegum paint on the door and window trim immediately catching my attention. “All right, Mills, I’m about to pull into the parking lot. I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”
“Okay! Love you, later, sissy.” She ended with the phrase we’d always said. It was never a goodbye for us.
“Love you, later.” I made a kissy noise right before the phone call ended and I pulled into the parking lot.
Bells chimed as I stepped through the front doors of Novel Imaginations. It was a small independent bookstore with a bright, welcoming interior. The shelves lining the walls were white, and a pastel rug covered the light hardwood floors.
My favorite part of the whole store was the romance section. A big, pink, velvet couch sat in the corner, and greenery dotted with orchids cascaded down from the top of the bookshelves. On my days off, I loved to come to the store to hang out on the couch and read.
“Isa! What are you doing here?” Fallon, one of the booksellers, jumped up from behind the counter after she saw me come in. “Isn’t it your day off?”
“I’m always here on my days off,” I replied.
She lifted a shoulder, tilting her head toward it in agreement. “That’s true. But I thought you had plans today?”
“I’m helping Ellison with wedding planning things, but I figured I’d stop in since I was already going out of the house. I also wanted to see if you guys needed anything from me.”
“I don’t think so, but let me check!” She headed toward the back, where her boss likely was.
While I waited for Fallon to come back, I roamed the bookstore, running my hand along the spines of the romance section, looking for my favorites.
Something I’d always loved about romance was no matter how difficult the characters’ lives, no matter how rough and bumpy the road was to get there, the main characters always got their happy endings. Some would consider it predictable, that every ending was always the same, but I found comfort in it.
As I walked, my hand gliding along the smooth paperbacks, a book pulled slightly out of the shelf caught my attention. I stopped, but instead of pushing it back in line, I grabbed the book and examined it. I’d never heard of it or seen it before in the store—and I browsed the books a lot. The cover was a swirl of pastel colors, all blending together like an oil painting.
I flipped the book over to read the blurb but stopped halfway through. The storyline—about two friends who ended up falling in love—seemed oddly familiar. Too familiar .
Before I could continue reading, Fallon came around the corner and interrupted me.
“Georgia said we don’t need anything!”
“Hmm?” I snapped my head up from the book.
“We’re all good here. We don’t need anything,” she repeated.
I looked back down at the book, still distracted. I didn’t know why it bothered me so much, but a specific line caught my eye.
In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.
She gave me a curious look. “Is everything okay, Isa?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. I’ll see you later, okay?” I put the book away, shaking my head as I exited the store, hopped in my car, and made the drive back to Ellison’s house.