Chapter 2
Quincy
The apartment was quiet as I pulled on my new super-cute jean capris with my Henry’s Restaurant T-shirt, yesterday’s buzz of excitement spilling into today in spite of a medium-sized hangover from the celebration.
The capris would probably be my last unnecessary clothing purchase for the next few months as I needed to save up as much money as I could.
I wasn’t going to feel bad about buying these though.
They were cute. They had bling on the pockets.
I smiled at myself in the bathroom mirror even though I had shadows under my eyes from the late night, popped some acetaminophen to remedy the dull headache, then accidentally dropped the bottle of pills on the floor before I’d gotten the lid screwed on.
I crouched down and played fifty-two pickup—or more like a hundred fifty-two pickup—not letting a minor thing like my chronic clumsiness get me down today.
My headache would go away soon enough, but maybe I was getting too old to stay out drinking until the bars closed, at least on nights when I worked the next day.
Was twenty-eight too old? I’d definitely have to make a lot of changes in January when I went back to college.
Coincidentally that was one of the things we’d been celebrating—my acceptance letter.
I swept my hair up in a messy bun, then grinned again, savoring the relief at finally finding a direction for my life. Better late than never, right? Funny how a breakup could help a girl get her shit together.
I walked out of the bathroom, pulled on my lime-green work shoes, and noted Jewel’s door was still closed, which told me she hadn’t woken up for the day yet. Probably for the best, as she’d been overserved last night, even more so than I. She didn’t have to work today.
We’d gone out to the Fly by Night and then the Barn Bar to celebrate Jewel’s promotion to management at Humble’s Pizza Pie and my acceptance letter to go back to school.
It seemed like everyone who’d been out on a Tuesday evening had bought us a celebratory shot.
I’d handed more than a few of mine over to my roomie, knowing I’d struggle with my work shift if I didn’t.
She absolutely deserved the fun times—and the promotion, of course. She was great at her job.
I was not so great at my job as a server, but it was only for three more months. Normally my inadequacy at my full-time job would make my gut tighten, but having an end date and a plan made everything more tolerable. I just hoped the Henrys’ patience with me and my clumsy self would last that long.
I searched the trinket tray on top of my dresser for my cartoon dinosaur earrings that hung off my lobes by their mouths, making it look like they were biting me.
They drew a genuine grin from me, like they always did, and were usually good for conversation—and higher tips—at work, especially on tables with kids.
Since I wore my hair up, the dinos would be impossible to ignore.
I put them on, then went out to the kitchen to fill my water bottle.
The apartment door burst open, and Piper, my other roommate, breezed in, her caramel-colored hair draping over her shoulders and her eyes lit with happiness.
“Okay, what are you up to?” I asked, raising a brow. No one should be that cheery and bright-eyed after staying out till two a.m. on a weeknight. “Where’ve you been?”
“Downstairs working.”
“It’s Wednesday. You don’t usually start so early on Tansy’s day off.”
“I was catching up on paperwork and orders before I open.” Her tone reminded me she, too, loved her job as the owner of Oopsie Daisies, an admittedly adorable flower shop.
“You need your office back,” I said.
When Mitchell and I had broken up a few months ago, my entire world had been turned upside down.
I’d been living with him, so I’d needed a new place to stay stat.
Piper had cleared out the third bedroom in her apartment.
She and her cousin Jewel had helped move me out of his apartment and in with them.
Finding myself suddenly single had messed with my head, made my server job seem less like a life plan and more like a stepping stone to…
something. I hadn’t known what at the time.
But ultimately, the breakup had led to the decision to finally go back to school, something my dad had been encouraging me to do since I’d dropped out at age nineteen.
“I can work just fine in the shop, so hush. Anyway, I have news.” Piper bounced up and down in her daisy-print sneakers.
“Tell me.”
“I heard from the Marks Resort. They’re signing the contract.”
I shed my gloom faster than a stripper could shed a Velcro dress, rushed over to her, and hugged her. “Oh, my God, that’s awesome, Piper! For the weekly service?”
“For the weekly service!”
We jumped up and down together, laughing and still hugging. I gave her a big smackeroo kiss on her cheek and squeezed her tight before ending the hug.
“I’m so stinking happy for you,” I said, my grin as wide as hers.
“Thank you. I can hardly believe it. First delivery is next week, which means this weekend is going to be double crazy what with the homecoming dance Saturday.”
“You know I’ll be helping you Saturday. I took the day off for you.”
“I couldn’t do it without you and Jewel and Tansy. I wish I could give you more frequent shifts.”
I laughed. “But do you really? Think of the vases I could break in a week.”
“There is that,” she said lightly, as if it didn’t matter that I was the actual clumsiest person alive. “What time do you work?”
“Ten. I guess I better get going.”
Piper laughed. “Wouldn’t want to be less than twenty minutes early.”
“Fifteen minutes early is late,” I said with a shrug and a grin. I got a lot of lighthearted teasing from my roomies about my need to be early everywhere. I checked the forecast on my phone. “Suddenly jacket weather is here, huh?”
“Happy fall,” Piper said. “I swear the trees started changing color overnight.”
I ducked back into my room, dug through the closet, and located my cropped denim jacket and my dark blue scarf. Yesterday the weather had been beautiful, but we’d been warned a cold front was coming through.
On my way out, I hugged Piper and told her congrats again, then rushed down the flight of stairs to the sidewalk level, hitting the final step wrong and nearly stumbling. But I didn’t, and I congratulated myself on the save.
The pavement was wet, though it wasn’t raining at the moment.
The clouds were heavy and looked like they could open again soon.
I should’ve grabbed an umbrella, but I was banking on the hope I could make it the three blocks to work without getting soaked.
I had a car, but I walked whenever I could because it was stupid to drive three blocks.
Our apartment was directly above Oopsie Daisies, and I couldn’t help but notice the display window as I walked by. Piper had done more than paperwork this morning.
The window was awash with golds and oranges from an array of chrysanthemums, sunflowers, and pumpkins.
She’d created a farmhouse-style display, with an old wooden ladder, metal buckets, an antique chair, and rustic-looking crocks.
She’d added three wooden signs—something Piper both collected and created—“Pumpkin kisses and harvest wishes,” “In a world where you can be anything, be kind,” and “The earth laughs in flowers.”
My roommate had such a knack for making things beautiful. There was no question she was doing exactly what she was meant to be doing.
As I reached the sidewalk in front of the gym, my phone rang. I pulled it out.
Cynthia. My stepmother. My friends had a litany of not-so-nice names for her, but I tried not to use them. I babysat my younger half-siblings often, had cared for them since they were born, and I’d hate to slip up around them.
As I crossed to the hardware store, I sucked in a breath for fortitude and answered the call.
“Hi, Cynthia.”
“Quincy. You remember the annual awards ceremony for your father’s company is next Thursday evening, right? The one where he’s receiving an award?”
I’m doing well, thanks. How ’bout you?
The lack of warmth between us was the status quo. It could be exhausting, so I mostly tried to ignore it.
I tried to recall mention of a ceremony. “I don’t think you told me about a ceremony,” I said, actually certain she hadn’t. An award would be a big deal for my dad, and I would’ve remembered it.
“I’m sure I did a few weeks ago.”
“If you did, I don’t remember it,” I said, keeping my tone light, making an effort to get along. She was the type of person you couldn’t win an argument with.
She expelled a disappointed sigh. “Fall sports season is extra busy for us, so maybe I forgot. At any rate, the dinner is at seven in Nashville, and we’ll need you to be here to watch Molly by five thirty.”
I tried to remember my schedule for next week. “I’ll have to check whether I work.”
“If you do, you need to switch shifts with someone, Quincy. You know I can’t find anyone else this late.”
Which was why she should’ve asked me about two weeks ago instead of assuming I could stay with my half-siblings.
“This is an important night for your father.”
I rolled my eyes and bit my tongue. I loved my father, everything about him except his choice of second wife. He deserved the recognition, deserved to bask in the spotlight for his normally unspotlighted job in insurance. But I resented her using that to manipulate me.
“It’s just a server shift,” she pressed. “Surely you can find someone to trade with. They do that all the time in the food industry.”
That wasn’t false, but I ground my molars together because Cynthia knew exactly nothing about being in food service.
She had never worked in the industry. She’d had her job as the office manager at Dr. Julian’s medical practice for as long as I’d known her, and her self-importance because of it was off the charts.
It reeked of insecurity, but even knowing that didn’t make her easier to deal with.
“Please, Quincy,” my stepmother said, her tone suddenly warmer, a sure sign my dad had entered the room she was in.
“Hey, honey,” he said in the background, confirming my suspicion.
My dad had a good heart and worked his butt off. His main fault was that he’d fallen in love with Cynthia.
“If I have to work, I’ll find someone to trade with,” I said, not for Cynthia but for my dad and for Molly, my youngest half-sibling, who was eleven and still legitimately needed someone to stay with her when her parents were gone.
“Oh, thank you, honey. Hannah’s got a cross-country meet, so it’ll just be Molly and Brayden. They’ll be so happy to see you.”
Brayden loved me, but I could promise her, at fourteen, he hated having a babysitter, even me. “I’ll be happy to see them too,” I said, even though I’d just seen Molly earlier this week.
Cynthia repeated what time she needed me. Then we said goodbye—without a thank-you from her—and hung up as I crossed the street and turned the corner to Main.
I tried to force my annoyance with Cynthia out of my mind. It was so tiring. I wished I knew how to get along better with her, but this was our pattern, and I had no idea how to change it. It would take two to fix it, wouldn’t it? And working together wasn’t something my stepmom and I did well.
Thankfully, before I had time to get too absorbed in my irritation, a familiar face down the way distracted me.
“Oh, my goodness, is that the cutest girl in the world?” I called out.
Two-year-old Aster and her parents, Tansy and Reggie, were coming toward me.
“Do you see Quincy?” Tansy asked her daughter, who she was carrying.
They were still about two stores down when Tansy let Aster down, took her hand, and rushed toward me, with Reggie grinning and following at a more normal pace.
“Heeeey,” I said, holding my arms out for Aster.
“Kissssy!” the little girl yelled, which was how she pronounced my name.
When she reached me, I swept her up into my arms and gave her a big hug.
“Look at you,” I said, making a point of checking her out in detail.
She wore a long-sleeved black cotton dress with horizontal, rainbow-colored stripes, a denim jacket, and black leggings with a heart print in rainbow colors.
Her black hair was pulled up into two balls on top of her head and held up with pink-beaded elastics. “Did you get a new dress?”
Nodding, her irresistible brown eyes earnest, she said, “’Cause it’s cold!”
“Yes, it is. What are you guys doing out and about today?” I asked Aster’s parents.
“We’re going to the Dragonfly Diner. Little miss, here, used the potty for the very first time,” Tansy said.
“Good for you,” I told Aster, holding out my hand and receiving a high five.
“At this rate, potty training’s going to get expensive,” Reggie said, grinning, a proud sparkle in his eyes.
“Hey, congratulations on your school news,” Tansy said.
“Yeah, congrats,” Reggie added.
“Thanks! It feels weird to go back at twenty-eight, but I’m happy to finally have a plan.”
“Teaching, right?”
I nodded. “Elementary ed.”
“You hear that, Aster? Miss Quincy’s going to be a teacher. Maybe she’ll be your teacher when you go to school.”
Aster didn’t appear to know what to say to that. She just grinned big and clapped her hands together once as she stared at me with her earnest eyes.
“I’d love to be your teacher, Aster.”
“Bet your dad is happy for you,” Tansy said.
Tansy and I weren’t super close, mostly just knew each other through Piper’s shop, but it was common knowledge that my dad had wanted me to go back to school for ages.
I knew he was only trying to help, and he wasn’t too bad about the pressure.
I just hadn’t been ready until finding myself suddenly single.
Waiting tables wasn’t right for my lifelong plan, and I guess I’d been completely invested in the belief that Mitchell and I would marry someday and have a family.
“Where are you heading on this gloomy day?” Tansy asked.
“Work, which reminds me I should probably get going.” I planted a noisy kiss on Aster’s chubby cheek, eliciting a giggle. “But I’m so happy I got to see you.”
“Me too,” Aster said as I set her on the sidewalk.
After telling Reggie and Tansy goodbye, I headed off to work, tripping a bit up the curb but keeping a genuine smile on my face. It might be crummy, chilly weather, I might not adore my job, but my future was looking up. Finally.