CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
A NYA
I couldn’t believe it.
The last two days of sales at The Green Frog had been the best we’d had for more than a decade. Since 2010. Thank you, Jesus.
I pulled my office chair closer to the desk, staring at the Excel spreadsheet as I crunched the numbers again. Then, I toggled between the weekly sales sheet, the monthly one, and the lifetime sales figures.
No, my math wasn’t wrong. My addition and subtraction were correct. We hadn’t just done well in the days and hours since the viral video. We’d done a historic number. It put the store in the black for the month, and a few more days of good sales would put the place in profit for the year. Usually, that didn’t happen until December, and only after I’d run dozens of promotions, discounts, and sidewalk sales.
Not right now. Not this year. Even the rare books were selling—a lot.
I printed the spreadsheets and put them in a manila file folder. I was supposed to see Gwen in about an hour, and she was going to love this news. I knew she understood the video had been a good thing for advertising and awareness about the store, but this was proof. This was undeniable. I grinned as I pictured the look on Gwen’s face when she saw these numbers. This was game-changing.
I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Satisfied, I clicked through the onslaught of online orders and inquiries that also awaited me, thanks to the increased store visibility. I had most of them fulfilled, and I was glad I had enough stock on hand to meet the customers’ demands. I was also glad our website hadn’t crashed and paying for a premium domain and web hosting for a few years had been worth the cost. Now that it had been stress tested, I knew I was on the way to better days.
The doorbell rang, and I started. Then, I swiveled so I could see who was at the front door on the closed-circuit camera. It was only nine, and we weren’t scheduled to open for another hour.
Robert.
I leaped out of my chair, pinching my cheeks and giving the mirror a glance before I walked from the office to the main showroom. I hadn’t seen him in two days. Two long days. Since that morning in bed, when he told me he wanted to open his bookstore ahead of schedule, he’d been pretty much unreachable, answering only a few texts and not meeting up with me at all. I knew this had to be a stressful time, and I wanted to give him space, but I also missed him.
A lot.
I crossed to the front door and let him in the store. After I closed the door, I leaned in for a quick kiss. “Didn’t expect to see you today.”
“Glad you’re here.”
“Where else would I be?”
He laughed once, but he wasn’t smiling. “Yeah, I guess that’s a fair comment.”
“Everything okay?”
Robert shook his head. “Not really. I ... I need to go out of town for a few days.”
“Now? With everything going on?”
He gave me a grim nod and ran his fingers through his hair. “Something has come up that I need to take care of in Miami.”
“Miami?” Maybe I heard him wrong. “As in Florida?”
“Javier says that’s the best place we can get some artwork for the store, and I want to see it in person.”
I raised my eyebrows. I prided myself on smelling bullshit, and this stank at least a mile away. See the artwork in person? Why would anyone want to do that when we had FaceTime and the internet? “They can’t just send you some photos?”
“The seller doesn’t like to use technology.”
I struggled with that answer too, given Miami’s reputation as a destination for art, tech, and innovation. I’d never been, but that hardly mattered. The city was growing and had become a major hotspot in the last few years—more than ever. It was the place to be, and everyone knew it. In fact, there were probably more opportunities there than in Silicon Valley.
“I struggle to think a gallery in that part of the country wouldn’t be interested in the latest ways of doing business,” I replied. “Just doesn’t seem to make sense, given what that city is supposed to be like.”
His jaw hardened. “Not everyone follows trends.”
“Online selling is hardly a trend.”
He let out a long sigh. “Look, I need to go down there for a few days, okay?”
I bristled at his tone. “You didn’t have to come out of your way to tell me. We were supposed to see each other for dinner tonight.”
His shoulders slumped. “I know, but I can’t make that. I gotta cancel. I’m catching an afternoon flight.”
Now I knew for certain that something was up. A decorating emergency so severe he'd booked a last-minute trip across the country. No way. Things weren’t that important and couldn’t be that impressive. And a plane ticket like that probably cost him well over a thousand dollars. Why would Robert waste money like that? Even if he did have plenty of cash to burn...
“For art?” I asked. “Come on, I don’t buy it.”
“I told you, Javier said he wants to make sure I see this in person.”
“You did, and—”
“And we’re moving quickly to make sure we complete this renovation. I think we can open Monday next week.”
“Wow, in like, ten days? I knew things were going well, but that well?”
“We should be able to do it.”
I stared at him, not sure how to reply. Did I call bullshit? Or act like I didn’t suspect something more was happening? “Well, if you need to go to Miami, I hope it will be a good trip.”
“Thanks.” He sighed and pulled me into a tight embrace. “I’ll be back in a few days.” My hair muffled his voice. “And I’ll be counting down the days until I see you again.”
I wasn’t sure about that. Not with him being so elusive with me. Plus, a lot had happened to us in the span of about a week, and... I don’t totally know this guy. Sure, he seemed nice, charming, and oh-so-irresistible, but I’d been down similar roads with other men in the past. It always started out so strong, so fierce, so happy. But inevitably, reality always showed through. It always served as the best disinfectant. The men I had crushes on or liked at the beginning of a relationship always let me down, and many of them did so in the first few weeks. Whenever I looked back on it, I could always pinpoint a moment when the headiness of attraction gave way to the disappointment of reality.
That was probably happening now.
“I hope you have a good trip,” I said, and it was all I could manage. Even in his embrace, I was sure Robert was hiding something, sure he was about to let me down in an epic, nuclear way. Better to prepare myself now than to waste time letting him into my heart. The less I cared, the less painful it would be.
“I’ll text you while I’m gone.” He broke the hug.
“I hear it’s a great town. Hope you have the chance to enjoy it while you’re down there and you get a feel for what it’s like.”
“I’ll take plenty of photos.” He gave me a soft smile. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go home and pack.”
“That’s fine.” I moved to the front door and yanked it open. “I’ve got a few things to do before opening too.” Then I added, “We have a couple of bites on some of the first editions I’ve had trouble selling. People saw the video and Good Morning USA , and they want more.”
“That’s fantastic news.” He stepped forward and gave me a quick peck before walking out of the store.
I didn’t let the kiss linger. I was already in shutdown mode, and if I let him get too close to me, if I made our goodbye too languid, that would do nothing for me and would only make things worse. No, it was better to start building my walls immediately.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, and if he was onto me, his comment gave no indication.
“See you later,” I replied, and as I watched him descend the steps, the moment felt like the end of something.
And it probably was.