Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
FOUR MONTHS
Iris
Across the bar top at Dark Delicacies, Till slides a thick stack of papers, then carefully sets a pen beside them. A black one. Fancy. Shiny. Professional.
“Read it.” She taps the top copy with all black letters.
Lease.
One year.
Blah. Blah. Blah.
The bottom corner has a spot to initial before the next page comes, along with the fine print.
I’m not sure I’m ready for this big leap.
A store lease means I’m putting down roots.
Not that I haven’t already been doing that since the day Dark brought me here.
If only he knew all that’s happened since then.
My friendship with these women. The house that finally feels like home.
A squirrel I’ve befriended who lives in my tree out back and loves almonds.
But the option is right here.
Do I sign it?
My cell phone, propped on the bar next to my glass of water, vibrates. To avoid thinking about what this change means, I distract myself.
Dee: You can do this.
Dammit. She remembered.
Iris: What if it’s a mistake?
Dee: So what if it is?
True.
So what?
I’m alive. Breathing. If Dark were here, he’d kiss me and force my hand.
I can see his smile. How proud he’d be. It’s almost like he’s here, cheering me on.
Before I chicken out, I don’t bother reading the document Kali already had her lawyers comb through.
I pick up the pen and scribble wherever the little neon tags say to.
Once I’m done, I look up, and Till pulls something out from behind the bar, wearing a shit-eating grin. Off goes a pop as the confetti cannon erupts over my head, raining colorful paper over my lease, into my water, and onto the floor, and I laugh.
I did it!
I actually did it.
Put down roots.
Kali and Cell come out from the back, as does Sugar, the head chocolatier.
“You did it!” Kali cheers, throwing her arms around my neck and yanking me right off the stool. Then comes Till and the rest of the sisters. Their happiness bleeds into me, into my heart, into the possibility of more.
This time I don’t cry.
I celebrate with my friends in this new life.
A life that wouldn’t have happened had I not met Dark.
No matter how long our little thing, whatever it was, lasted, it was worth it.
He was worth it.
He was everything.