Chapter 13 #2
Anne could feel her cheeks redden as she avoided Sophie’s gaze and put her laptop away in her bag.
Another moment passed before Sophie sighed. “Please feel free to tell me to shut up if I’m out of line, but… what happened between you and him?”
There was an odd lurch in Anne’s chest, and she had to work to keep her expression impassive. “He went to Argentina, so we decided to break up.”
“Yeah, I know that bit,” Sophie replied. “But what really happened?”
Anne sighed. “We were so young. We talked a lot about the future, but we never really talked about it. By the time we did, we were already moving in two different directions. Neither of them was wrong, but they couldn’t coexist without one of us having to compromise.”
Sophie’s forehead knitted with confusion. “I don’t get it.”
There was a part of her heart that wanted to hold back the truth, keep it locked away from other people’s judgment or critiques…
but why? Keeping it secret hadn’t protected her.
If anything, it only left her more exposed, forced to relive and examine what happened over and over again all on her own.
“Sophie…” Anne hesitated, then finally let it go. “He said he was going to turn down the Buenos Aires program to stay in the city while I went to Columbia. He would have stayed because I would have stayed.”
Recognition slowly bloomed across Sophie’s face. “Are you serious? He wouldn’t have started his company if he hadn’t gone, or done half of…” Her voice faded as another wave of understanding hit her. “Holy shit, that’s why you broke up with him. So he would go. How did I miss that?”
Anne tried to smile, but it faded almost instantly. “He would have lost out on so much. I couldn’t have him make that choice. Especially when I had no idea what I wanted past my MBA. We loved each other, but…” She let her voice fade.
“I get it,” Sophie said with a slow nod. “Sometimes love isn’t enough to fix everything else.”
Anne paused. “What?”
Sophie’s head cocked to the side, like she was trying to find the right words to explain it.
“Take me and Jimmy. We didn’t fall apart because we stopped caring.
It was everything else, the small things that got overlooked, the resentments we pushed down and ignored.
We didn’t talk about any of it, so it ended up festering until it swallowed us up.
” She paused, taking a moment to shrug. “Maybe it was because we had been together so long. We got together as kids, you know? And even though we grew up like we were supposed to, we still saw each other as those same kids.”
“You still love him, though?”
“Maybe,” Sophie said with a shrug. “But we never learned how to grow together. And if you can’t grow together, you grow apart.”
Another moment passed, then Sophie suddenly shook her head and stood up. “What the hell are we doing? Lamenting past relationships? We’re literally here to plan for the future! And I think the first item on our to-do list should be that party.”
Anne laughed. “How about we start with organizing your list of vendors and go from there?”
“Hey, I can multitask,” Sophie said with a wink. “Okay, I’m going to lock up. Meet me out front?”
Anne nodded, throwing her bag over her shoulder and heading to the front room. She had just made it to the sidewalk when her phone pinged somewhere inside her bag. When she pulled it out, she saw a text waiting.
THEO
Hey! Just checking in on those documents? Would also love to run my talent contracts by you. And get your thoughts on the post timeline? Maybe it’s too aggressive, but you tell me.
Anne frowned. It seemed every time she finished reviewing one of Theo’s spreadsheets, another one suddenly needed her attention.
ANNE
Okay, feel free to send it along, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get to it until after Thanksgiving.
THEO
That’s perfect. Gives me an excuse to ask you out for coffee after I’m back from LA that week. I’m meeting with the network and if all goes well, I think I’ll have a pretty good deal on the table.
She replied with a thumbs-up emoji just as Sophie emerged from the shop, pulling the large key ring from her bag and locking the front door.
“I’m already picturing the postcards I’m going to send out to promote this place,” Sophie said, checking the handle one more time, then turning to Anne with a wide smile on her face.
“There can be just an explosion of flowers and then big, dramatic font announcing the opening of…” Her expression deflated.
“What’s wrong?” Anne asked.
Sophie looked up at the storefront again. “What the hell am I calling this place?”
“It doesn’t have to be anything too complicated,” Anne assured her. “Just something that hints at that feeling of getting flowers.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately, it’s been a while, so I don’t remember.”
It had been a while for Anne, too, but she wasn’t about to admit that to Sophie, especially since the last time she got flowers was eight years ago, from Freddie.
The moment rushed back to her in an instant, and suddenly Anne could almost smell the lilacs, feel the soft petals under her fingers, see the triangle note attached.
Annie— It’s a Wednesday and you just got a C for the first time in your entire life. Congratulations, I’m so proud of you. Who wants to be good at microeconomic analysis anyway?
—Freddie
She tried to put the feeling of that bouquet—that gift—into words. “There’s the surprise when flowers arrive, the warmth when you realize why. The euphoria when you open the card…” Then she paused. “Euphoria and flora… That could be it.”
Sophie’s eyebrows stitched together. “What?”
“You could call the shop Eufloria.”
A smile slowly spread across Sophie’s lips. “That’s really fucking good.”