43. Sean
SEAN
We exchanged horrified looks.
“That’s not possible!” said Louise, her voice cracking. “They can’t just—”
“They can,” I said, running my hand over my face. “They just have to give us notice—this is notice.”
“But…” She looked around her. “They’re not ready! We need another month!” She was getting paler and paler by the second as the full implications sunk in. I knew, because my mind was making the same connections. The money. Kayley’s treatment. Kayley’s life. She stared at me, tears filling her eyes.
And I felt that same thing I had the first time I learned about Kayley—that deep, aching swell in my chest that for so many years I’d thought I wasn’t capable of.
The feeling I’d been clamping down on as hard as I could, because it led to a fantasy I knew could never be real: Louise and me together and happy.
Only things were different now. I didn’t know if we’d work together—fuck, I didn’t know if I’d work with anyone.
There was so much bad shit in my past that I kept locked away, I wasn’t sure if there was enough me for a relationship.
But for the first time, I wanted to try.
And so I let that pressure build and build in my chest, letting myself really feel the injustice of it the way she did every fucking day.
And I got mad. Only for once, I didn’t let it spill out as swings of hammer and fist. I had to be like her. For once, I had to be smart.
“We are going to move this entire operation,” I said, each word slow and deliberate.
Louise looked up at me. “How? We’ve got nowhere else to grow! We can’t rent a new place overnight! And even if we could, look!” She waved her hand at the tables, the plants, the lights. “We can’t move all that by tomorrow morning!”
After all the months of grim determination and refusal to give up, she’d finally reached her breaking point. She needed someone to back her up.
I’d never fought for a fucking thing, my whole life. Only against things. But I was going to fight for this.
“I’ve got an idea,” I told her, and held out my hand. “Let’s go.”