Chapter 33 #2
“Where are you?” Roxie replied, completely ignoring the panic in my voice.
“I have so much to tell you. I think I could go for a drink, maybe five. Who’s to say?
Wow, I had no idea the kind of weight quitting would lift off my shoulders.
I’ve got so much energy and have no idea what to do with it all. ”
“I’m at lunch with James,” I told her. “Can we walk it back to when you said you quit?”
“Send me the address. I’ll meet you there.” Then the line went dead. I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at my call log, like I needed proof it had even happened.
“What’s wrong?” James asked. His brow creased with concern, and it was that concern for my friend that made my chest squeeze. Somewhere, in the chaos of this arrangement, we’d started to genuinely embed ourselves in each other’s lives enough to care.
“Roxie just said she quit the art gallery,” I told him.
“She quit?” James echoed, matching my shock. “Did she say why?”
“No, she just asked to meet me here.” I hesitated for a beat. “Is that okay?”
James reached across the table and curled his fingers around mine. “Hal, your people are my people. Of course it’s okay.”
I smiled down at our hands, my heart doing that traitorous little stutter it had started to do lately whenever he said something that made me fall for him all over again.
Roxie was many things and impulsive was definitely one of them. But quitting the art gallery without at least talking to me about it first was the last thing I’d expected from her. She loved her job. The only thing she loved more was when she got to photograph beautiful food.
I ordered something for her when the waiter stopped by. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t hear the end. And thank God I did, because right when the food was being brought out, Roxie walked in like a storm sweeping through town.
“Who chose Greek between the two of you?” she asked. “Because good choice. Oh my gosh, I could eat a whole lamb’s worth of gyros right now.”
I could never understand how Roxie could walk through life with no anxiety. Meanwhile, I lay in bed most nights thinking about things I’d said years ago and what the person I’d been talking to that day thought of it.
“Roxie, please. I can’t take it,” I told her. “What the hell happened?”
“Michelle Granger came in today while the gallery owner was in. I was going about my business, walking Michelle through the different pieces we had gotten in since the last time I’d seen her.
The owner decided they were going to hijack the show and when Michelle bought a piece, I went to put my name on the sale so I would get my commission.
You know, since my salary is pennies and all my money comes from commissions?
And guess what? That motherfucker told me I didn’t earn the sale.
It was staying with the house because he did all the work. So, I walked out.”
James and I both stared at her, slack jawed. Roxie was a master at letting no one know her next move.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, thinking about our very expensive rent bill that we’d just paid. Which meant Roxie had only a month to figure it out before we would have to pay it again.
“About that,” Roxie said casually as she picked up a fry. “Remember our conversation about coming together to start our own business?”
“Roxie, that could take months for us to do! We have bills and other things to pay now.”
But Roxie swatted my concern away like it was merely an annoying fly. “I know it could take months. I’ll pick up freelance work in the meantime. But why not just take the leap?”
I could feel James’s gaze on my face. Knowing how supportive he was of me was comforting.
When he’d originally asked about this very topic after my clear frustration over Anthea not coming through on our agreement, he’d been nothing but encouraging.
I’d almost taken the leap when I’d broached the topic with Roxie a few weeks ago, but when she’d put a pause in the conversation, I’d shifted my priorities back to Sophisticate . This felt like whiplash.
“Things are turning around at work. My review of The Social Eatery is doing well. Anthea really liked it. I have one more week of the ‘Love on Wall Street’ series and then I’ve fulfilled my end of the agreement with Anthea.
” James shifted uncomfortably at the mention of our fifth and final agreed upon date.
I’d basically forgotten that our time together could end soon.
Not after the turn of events that were these past few weeks.
“Do you want to see what shakes out there?” Roxie asked, unbothered that I was the one now turning down the opportunity to work together. That was why I loved her. There were rarely hard feelings between us.
But as the three of us continued to eat our lunch, I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that wondered if turning down the opportunity for artistic freedom and working with my best friend was the right move.
Because what would happen if Anthea went back on another arrangement in the future?
What if she promised me something that would change my career forever and then go back on it?
Despite those risks, I knew I had to see this through with Sophisticate .
I had to do this for the little girl that used to cut out articles and pictures from her magazines and hang them on her walls.
When there were moments when I wished I had an older sister and didn’t always have to be the oldest sister, Sophisticate was there.
I couldn’t just walk out on my younger self. I had to give it my best shot in the big city for the sake of the small-town girl I used to be.