Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
When Lizzie arrives on Main Street, ready for the Cookie Stroll, she thought Cranberry Harbor is looking even more beautiful than usual, but maybe it was merely reflecting how she is feeling about being there. There were a fresh couple of inches of lovely ocean-effect snow covering everything, and with the sun now out in a cloudless bright blue sky, it is sparkling as well. Lizzie smiles to herself and shakes her head, it’s like Hollywood came and dressed the town for the day. She starts taking pictures right away, thinking their Instagram feed is going to look amazing. If you weren’t already in Cranberry Harbor this morning, you were going to want to hop in your car and get there immediately.
Her first stop was Jess’s Vintage Bridal Shop where of course she had lacy looking snowflake cookies which were sparkling in the sunshine on a beautifully adorned table outside the shop. While nibbling on the cookie she wanders in, and then quickly changes her mind, a bridal shop is not where she wants to be today.
“Hi!” a very friendly woman, she assumes is Jess, says. “Can I help you find anything?”
Lizzie continues chewing the cookie in her mouth, holding up a finger. “No, thank you, I just wanted to compliment you on these gorgeous cookies. And this beautiful shop,” She swallows the rest of the cookie in her mouth. “I’m Lizzie Martin,” she shakes her hand. “I’m going to be working with my dad, Peter Martin, at the Gazette.”
“That’s so wonderful! I’m Jessica Taylor, and this is my shop. “Your dad and Stan have been so wonderful to me since I opened. They really helped me to get the word out about my business.”
“I'm so glad to hear that. Now that I’m here I want to do a lot more with social media, as well as the print edition, so we’ll have to talk about how we can help each other.”
“I’d love that, especially in the off-season, we really need to keep shining a light on all these great year-round local businesses.” She goes over to the counter, “Here’s my card. It’s my cell and email, after the holidays we’ll have to get together, maybe have coffee sometime or something?”
Lizzie puts the card in her pocket, “I’d love that.” She has moved past her bridal shop panic and takes the store in. “This really is exquisite,” she says looking around. “I love that you have vintage and new, and all the accessories. It’s pretty amazing a bride can get everything she needs right here in Cranberry Harbor. Back when I was…” she stops herself. “Well, it used to be you definitely had to go to Boston, so this is great.”
“There’s lots of wonderful businesses right here, we just have to get people to come to town and then we’ve sold them!” She says, smiling.
“I have to keep moving to get some more photos, but I’m so glad I got to meet you. I’d give you a card too, but I just started this job yesterday, so no cards yet,” she laughs.
“No worries, I know where to find you,” Jess smiles. “I’m sure I’ll see you around town. Or maybe you’ll be back soon shopping for your own wedding gown,” she teases.
Lizzie laughs, “No immediate chance of that happening, but maybe we’ll see each other getting a caffeine fix at Sea Coast. I’ll see you soon, Jess. Merry Christmas!”
She’s about the run across the street to the town toy store, Kid Works, when she sees Jack walking in her direction. She tries to go back into the bridal store before he sees her. It doesn’t work.
“Lizzie!” he yells, “wait!”
She starts to open the door when he catches up with her. The last thing she wants is to have a conversation with him, especially in front of a bridal shop.
“Lizzie, we need to talk,” he says, touching her arm. “Just let me explain…”
“No. Not now, I have work I have to do. I’m fine. It’s all good. You don’t owe me a thing, Jack. I hope you and Penelope will be very happy.” She turns to cross the street. “Merry Christmas,” she says, and quickly crosses the street to the toy shop. She stands outside for a moment, trying to pull herself together. She refuses to turn around to see if he’s still standing there, but she senses he is. “Forget about it, forget about him,” she says to herself, and then she heads into the store.
It had been a long time since she’d gone into Toy Works, it had opened when she was in middle school just on the cusp of not playing with toys anymore, but still liking games. She doesn’t recognize the woman behind the counter, which isn’t surprising.
“Hi,” she says, “I’m Lizzie Martin, from the Gazette, and we’re just getting some photos for social media of the Cookie Stroll. Your jam thumbprint cookies look amazing by the way.”
“Hi, Lizzie, I’m Justine, my aunt and uncle own the shop, and I can take no credit for the cookies,” she jokes.
“That is very forthcoming of you,” she jokes back. “With no one else here you could have taken total credit and I would have been none the wiser.”
Justine shrugs. “I would not want the weight of that deception on me, it would be far too much.” She then points to a row of boxes of Elf on a Shelf , “And with all of them watching me, well, I have to be good, or you know…”
Lizzie likes this young woman, she’s funny. “Oh, can you imagine the implication of lying in front of…” she begins to count, “...seven elves?! That could ruin Christmas for you for years.” She wanders around looking at all the Hello Kitty swag, Legos, and games. Lots of things have changed in the toy world, but it was nice to see that some things hadn’t. “Are you okay if I take a few photos for our Instagram and Facebook?”
“Of course, go right ahead. Wait, the Gazette doesn’t have any social media, or it didn’t before.”
“Yeah, it’s been live a whole 12 hours, so please follow us, and I’ll tag you in the photos.”
Justine takes out her phone. “Done!”
“Thanks so much Justine for letting me poke around,” Lizzie says as she gets ready to leave. “It’s nice to see other younger adults here. Now that I’m moving back I’m a little worried about not having anyone my age around. There’s a few people I went to school with here, but knowing three or four people does not a social life make.”
“I hear you! There’s several of us who do yoga together a few times a week, and we even started a book club, as weird and maybe old as that sounds,” she laughs. “but we take turns picking books from light fiction to more serious social justice titles. You should totally join us!”
“I’d really love that, thank you. After the holidays I’ll definitely stop in and see you.” She suddenly remembers she needs some things for Sophie and decides to create a small collection of fun things like sparkly stickers and a little book to put them in, a stuffed cat, and two puzzles.
Justine wraps them all together beautifully in a reusable bag, and ties it with a big red ribbon. “There you go,” she says, handing it to her. “I’m so glad you came in!”
“Me too, I just ran into my ex out there, so this has been a nice mood changer,” Lizzie says.
“Make sure to take a cookie! Cookies make everything better.” Justine says as Lizzie walks to the door.
“I will! Thank you again, I look forward to doing yoga and reading serious and not-so-serious books together!” Lizzie says as she leaves.
Back on the street she decides to stop by Sea Coast to sit down and do some social media posting. She looks around to see if Jack is there, and once she deems the coast clear claims a table with her coat and goes to the counter to order some coffee.
Once back at her table, she quickly gets her posts up, tags all the businesses, and hopes she’s done alright with all her hashtags. She makes a mental note to talk to Leah sometime, she seems to be the queen of social media, and get some tips. She’s drawing the line at creating a Tik Tok account though, that’s one generation below hers and she doesn’t want to look like she’s trying too hard.
She takes a few photos inside Sea Coast too, encouraging people to stop in and warm up with a beverage, because it’s all part of the spirit of the Cookie Stroll. It’s a lot of work, but it’s the kind of work that helps the community. At least she hopes it does. She’s getting a bit of a late start this year, but next year this will all be in place and she can promote the town earlier. She stops for a moment and thinks, am I really planning on being here a year from now? Apparently the answer is yes.
“Hey you,” she hears Alexis call to her as she walks over and sits down with her coffee. “So rumor has it you are going to be here for a while.”
“Boy, I forget how small this town is,” she laughs. “Why am I even bothering with social media, I can just come here and tell two people something and in an hour everyone will know.”
“Yeah, but it won’t have pretty pictures to go with it,” Alexis says, laughing.
“To answer your question, I am back, for how long I don’t know, and well, I wanted to see if you’d ever be interested in writing a column, maybe once a month?”
“I can’t say I consider myself a writer, but I’m up for anything! What would it be?”
“I was thinking about you writing about housing, community, the need for younger people and diversity. Things like that.”
“That sounds really good, I might even be able to work in some of the things I’m doing to wrap up my Master’s into this. I’m definitely interested, thank you for thinking of me!”
“Are you kidding? Of course! I want to make the paper interesting to all ages and all of the community, that starts with bringing in fresh voices, like yours,” Lizzie says, excited that her ideas are so far working out. “We don’t have a lot of money right now, but I can give you a free subscription,” she jokes. “I promise it won’t be working for nothing for long. I hope.”
“I’m happy to contribute. I think it’s fantastic, and just what this place needs.” She looks down at her coffee and slyly looks back up at Lizzie.
“What? I know that look, it’s the same look you gave me when you talked me into sneaking into the drive-in with you, that look is dangerous and makes me do stupid things,” she laughs.
“Oh, I’d forgotten about sneaking into the drive-in. We got caught pretty quickly as I recall,” Alexis says.
Lizzie nods, “Yup, and our families made us write letters of apology.”
“That your dad put in the paper! Oh my gosh, how could I forget that! Okay, so this has nothing to do with trespassing or any law breaking at all, well, unless you consider being tone-deaf a crime,” Alexis mysteriously says.
“Okay, so what are you talking about?”
“A bunch of us - Sean, Ben, and um, Jack, were going to go to Murphy’s Pub tonight for some Christmas karaoke, and you have to come, it won’t be nearly as much fun without you.”
“Ugh, I don’t know. For one,” she points to herself, “totally can’t carry a tune, and two, Jack and Penelope being there? I don’t think I’m up for that.”
“Where have you been? Okay, Penelope left, and have you forgotten, we stood next to each other in the middle school chorus and you can totally carry a tune.”
“What do you mean, Penelope left? I saw her yesterday at Bradford’s. So she’s gone back to California to wait for him to come back? Is Jack leaving too?”
“No, he’s not. Ben told me that Jack was shocked that she showed up here. He’d ended things months ago, but she thought putting in the effort of showing up here would change things. He was not at all happy that she just swooped in. Apparently she’s very much a West coaster and made it clear she would never, ever want to live in Cranberry Harbor. And that was always his goal. To settle down here.”
“I had no idea, I thought–”
“He told Ben he kept trying to reach you and you wouldn’t take his calls, or answer his texts.” She’s quiet for a moment. “He was pretty devastated that you wouldn’t let him explain.”
Lizzie is stunned. She sits back in her chair, speechless. “I have been a total jerk.” She feels like crying. “I thought he’d had this girlfriend all along and was just being all nice to me out of guilt or something. He must think I’m terrible. And I am for believing the worst without even giving him a chance to explain.”
Alexis puts her hand on Lizzie’s, “I think he’s confused. And yeah, hurt that you wouldn’t even let him tell you himself what was going on.”
“There’s a reason they tell people to never assume, huh?”
“Maybe some karaoke would be a good way to break that ice between you two?” Alexis offers.
“I don’t know, seems like a recipe for public humiliation all the way around.”
“I’m not going to twist your arm,” she says as she gets up to go back to work, “I’ll just say we’re all going to be there at 8 o’clock, and I’d love for you to come. And sometimes what you can’t say you can sing,” she shrugs and smiles at her.
“Okay, I’ll think about it. And Lex, thanks for telling me about Jack, I really appreciate it.”
“I’ve always got your back, friend, forever and always.”
Alexis heads back to the kitchen and Lizzies sits a little longer thinking about how badly she’s handled things. If she were Jack, she wasn’t sure she’d ever want to talk to her again.