24. Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Juniper
W hen I woke up, I stared at the date on my phone for far too long, in disbelief that January nineteeth was already here.
Opening day.
Everything should be fairly straightforward today. We scheduled a ribbon cutting at nine to give the press an opportunity to do whatever they needed until guests trickled in for their afternoon check-in times at three. Rachel scheduled everything so that way the staff could all break for lunch together in celebration.
When I finally made my way to the lobby, dressed in a button-up, blazer, and slacks instead of my usual flannel and baggy jeans or sweats, Rachel was already there. She had a glow about her she hadn’t had when she arrived. There was a flush to her cheeks, both from the cold and whatever blush she wore over her makeup. Her hair shone and her brown eyes sparkled like garnets. While winter was known for death, it seemed to have brought Rachel to life.
Her green dress was professional but form-fitting in my favorite places, making it difficult for me to take my eyes off of her as she spoke to a reporter who’d arrived early. That customer service voice of hers was long gone, replaced by her more natural tone and a natural smile, even when speaking to the press. And even with her more formal attire, she still wore funky earrings, as usual: this time, a pair of chairlifts like the ones outside.
As I approached them, I could better see the reporter: LeAnn Weiss from Action 6, the very same who’d run a feature on the upgrades we implemented to give her viewership a tour of the resort.
“I’m glad you could make it, LeAnn,” Rachel said.
“And I’m glad you invited me. Given not a whole hell of a lot happens around here, this is the story of the month, I think. Maybe even the year. And it’s all thanks to you.”
Rachel waved a hand in dismissal. “Oh, I mean—”
“No, no. Everyone’s going to give Juniper most if not all the credit because he paid for everything and he’s the big name. Right?”
“Sure, but—”
“But, I know. I’m sure he helped a lot. However, I also know a woman’s touch when I see it. I’d love to do a feature on you, Rachel. I’m thinking, ‘Ski Lodge Manager Brings Florida Warmth to Refurbished Resort.’”
“We can work with that.”
I stepped in beside her, our shoulders touching through our sleeves. LeAnn smiled and extended a hand to me. I shook it.
“Juniper. Congratulations on your opening.”
“Thank you. And my apologies for our rocky start a while back.”
“It’s quite alright. I understand. Consider it water under the bridge.”
I shifted my weight. “Also, LeAnn, I’m going to tell the rest of them the same one-liner, but if you wanted to do a deep dive, I’m willing to give you the story. An Action 6 exclusive, if you will.”
LeAnn’s eyes widened. So did Rachel’s.
“You’ve had our backs,” I said. “And if people are going to talk anyway, I’d rather control the narrative.” I nudged Rachel’s elbow with my own. “That’s what you’d do, isn’t it?”
She smiled. “Something like that. But if you’re not comfortable, Juniper, you don’t have to.”
“No, I’m ready,” I said. “We don’t need to drop names or point fingers. But I think it’ll feel good to let it out and share my story. Freeing, even.”
LeAnn nodded. “Say the word and we’ll get set up. We can now before everyone else arrives, or we can wait until they leave.”
“Let’s do this now and get it over with,” I said, “before I change my mind.”
When I’d emerged from my interview with LeAnn, feeling equal parts relieved to have finally said my piece but also anxious as fuck about its future reception, all chaos had broken loose. The two of us looked around at the lobby, eyes wide and jaws slackened as someone nearly ran into us, apologized, and then scurried along.
“What the hell?” I said to no one in particular.
LeAnn whistled. “You can say that again.”
The new staff members zipped about, talking to each other so quickly I couldn’t even comprehend what they said. There was no sign of Rachel, but I did spot Edgar heading down the hallway that led to The Elk’s Head.
“Hey!” I pushed my way past the crowd, making eye contact with him so he could spot me. “Where’s Rach?”
“In the kitchen,” Edgar said. He held up his left hand where he held car keys with five different keychains on them that jingled above the noise and commotion. “Mia’s having me grab something from her car. I’ll be back.”
“Let me see what’s going on,” I said to LeAnn. “Thank you for your time. We’ll be back but let me know if you need anything else.”
I left before she could reply, heading down from where Edgar came. When I entered the kitchen, the metal doors swung open and then shut behind me. Rachel and Mia were meticulously decorating the sides of a three-tier cake. From the way they worked over it, I could only make out the white frosting and some filigree on the sides. They both wore aprons to protect their dresses from any frosting incidents.
“Juniper! Hey!” Rachel exclaimed. “How’d it go with LeAnn?”
“Good,” I said, feeling breathless. “Whatchya got there?”
“A cake,” Rachel said as if it were a perfectly normal response and not completely out of pocket given the circumstances.
My brows furrowed as I felt only further out of the loop. “What kind of a cake?”
“Nora made it,” Rachel said. “She had it sent up the mountain this morning as a surprise gift to congratulate us. We just need to make some… adjustments, that’s all.”
“Why?” I stepped in next to Rachel and examined the cake. “What’s wrong with it?”
Plastic foxes and trees decorated the top of the cake, meant to emulate the name of the resort and the woods on the mountain. But it was the filigree on the sides they were concerned with, and now that I was up close, I saw they were flattening the frosting entirely.
“Look closely at the filigree and tell me what you see,” Rachel said.
“We didn’t have the heart to tell Nora,” Mia said with a pout, and then, with forced enthusiasm, “So here we are!”
The filigree looked to me like a fox’s face from straight on, with the ears at a slight diagonal and the tail coiled around it. Flowers branched out on either side of the fox’s head.
“It’s a fox, right?” But as soon as I said it, I got what Rachel and Mia meant. “Oh. Oh . That is… very much not a fox.”
Rachel muttered, “Bless Nora’s heart, seriously, but fucking shit. I knew today was going too smoothly.”
I stepped back, examining it from different angles. No matter which way I looked at it, it looked more like the outline of a uterus than it did a fox—or any wildlife, for that matter.
“First the icicle, now this,” I said. “What’s next?”
“Tit balloons, probably,” Rachel said.
As she said it, Edgar returned. “I’m not even gonna ask,” he said with a shake of his head. “Alright, Mia, I got your piping bags. You got it flattened?”
“We did,” Mia said. “Okay, I got the last one on my side.”
“Same,” Rachel said. She wiped her hands on the apron she’d borrowed. “All set.”
“I’ll take it from here,” Edgar said, running to the sinks to clean the piping bags at a breakneck pace.
“You had piping bags with you?” I asked.
Mia nodded. “A friend had me go to her house yesterday to decorate her kid’s birthday cake. I was too lazy to get all the shit out of my car.”
“Lucky happenstance, right?” Rachel said. “Thank you, Edgar.”
“Don’t worry, ladies. Nora won’t even notice we changed it.”
“She’s so sweet,” Rachel said as she removed her apron and hung it on the wall rack where Edgar kept them. “I feel awful, but it is what it is.” She gave me a quick peck on the lips and then said, “Shall we?”
I nodded, offering her my arm. She linked hers with mine, smiling all the way as we made our way back to the lobby. “We have to cut the ribbon soon, no?”
“We do. I’m going to give a longer speech than initially planned to kill time so Edgar can get the cake out here. Then it’ll be in the pictures and Nora won’t feel slighted.”
“Good thinking. I can muster up a few extra words, too.”
“Between the two of us, that should be enough cover for him. Mia told me they used to decorate cakes together every year for her birthday, so I bet he could do it with his eyes closed.”
Once we turned the corner, Rachel smiled and waved to the crowd of press who waited on the other side of the ribbon. The front doors were wide open, letting in the cold from outside. I fought the urge to wince at the chill as I followed Rachel’s lead, putting on my best smile and waving with my free hand. We must have looked like quite the pair, arm-in-arm.
Rachel gave her scripted spiel, not deviating too much from it as she thanked everyone for coming and shared our excitement. As I did the same, Edgar lurked behind us, setting the cake down on a table off to the side so that it would be visible in the photos, but not distracting as we cut the ribbon. Once we finished speaking, Beatrice and Avery carried the scissors over, then extended them to us. Rachel took one handle as I grabbed the other. There wasn’t much weight to the scissors, which shone gold in the light of the antler chandelier overhead. The scissors were half as tall as I was, which felt admittedly excessive, but Rachel had assured me this was the norm.
And then, just like that, the ribbon was cut and fell to the ground by our feet. After everything we’d done, it felt so small to simply cut a ribbon and call it a day. I knew it was supposed to be a photo opportunity for the news, not even proper symbolism beyond something to attach to a headline. We still had a long way to go, what with ramping up our staff and actually operating an open resort. But as I held the cartoonishly large golden scissors, it felt like the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.
As we moved through the motions with the press, the morning moved in a blur. It almost felt as if I was watching my own body, hearing my own voice, but unaware of what I was doing or saying. Maybe it was after all the shit that happened four years ago, but it was hard to believe that something positive was happening to me with no drawbacks—nothing that wasn’t life-shattering, anyway.
When the afternoon rolled around, Rachel’s family members all held their arms open wide as they ran through the front doors, not giving her a chance to fight them on the group hug that ensued. Her mom and dad—Abba and Ima, she called them—led the charge, her mother’s large, faux-fur coat brushing against her skin as her dad’s beard did the same to my face. As the hug dispersed, cheek kisses followed. I stood to the side, watching the scene unfold and patiently wondering when I could properly be introduced to them in person. To prevent my leg from locking up, I swayed from side to side. Rachel would understand.
In the group hug that followed once all of her sisters—the sorority ones tagged along at Sarah’s urging—had their individual embraces, Rachel reached an arm out for me, extending her fingers as if to say, “Take my hand. You’re one of us now.” Not letting the crowd bother me, I did, unable to resist. The moment I felt her hand wrap around my own, she pulled me in with a gentle tug.
“Abba, Ima, this is—”
But one of her sorority sisters—Ariana, I think it was, with her black ponytail—cut her off, her Southern accent thick as molasses. “Oh, you must be the hot boss Sarah told me about!”
Her father added, “You must be so excited about your grand opening!”
My cheeks warmed and flushed. “Hot boss?”
It was Rachel’s turn to blush now. “Wow, apparently that conversation got around fast.”
“Oh, you two weren’t kidding,” her mother said to Rachel and Sarah. “Juniper, right? Oh, I know I’ve told you this before, but you’re so handsome!” She squeezed my cheeks with one hand before kissing each one; were it anyone else, I’d have pulled away already. “Nice to meet you in person, honey.”
“You too, Miriam.”
Once Miriam let me go, her father clapped me on the back. “Mazel tov, Juniper.”
I nodded as I realized I didn’t remember his name. Ash? Asher? I didn’t bother to ask out of fear of sounding like an asshole; someone would bring it up in conversation eventually, and if worst came to worst, I could ask Rachel later. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without Rachel, really. She deserves most of the credit.”
He said, “This place is stunning. The two of you must make a great team.”
“Thanks, Abba. I think we do, too.” Rachel playfully nudged me with her shoulder, to which I kissed her hair in response, feeling grounded by the familiar raspberry scent.
“Hope you’re ready for these ladies to take over the resort, Juniper,” he playfully warned. “My girls can be a rowdy bunch, but they have nothing but love in their hearts.”
When I smiled, I could have sworn I felt tears well behind my eyes. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. And besides, that’s what incidentals are for.”
As her father laughed from his gut, Rachel squeezed my hand, silently letting me know she was here and that everything was okay. I remembered some of the first vulnerable words I ever told her, about how a good family was hard to come by. I swallowed my tears back, keeping my emotions close to my chest once more. I’d let them out in the privacy of my room later.
Over her dad’s shoulder, I saw my father standing by himself. Once I spotted him, he waved and I excused myself, stepping aside to approach him.
“Dad?”
“Hey, Juniper.” My father wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug. He’d sounded almost melancholy, struggling with his words as much as I struggled with my own. I didn’t bother to fight my smile as I returned his embrace and he said, “I’m proud of you.”
“Did Mom come?” I suspected I knew the answer already since she was nowhere to be seen, but I still felt the need to ask.
“No. It’s just me.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Hope that’s okay.”
I nodded as we pulled away from one another. “Of course it is.”
“I think it’ll be just me from now on, if you get what I mean.” He sighed. “We can talk more about it later. I don’t want to put a damper on your big day.”
“No, it’s fine. I get it.” I smiled at him, trying to ease his worries. “What’s next for you?”
“Apartment hunting. I’m letting her keep the house. I don’t want any trouble. I was thinking of getting a place in the village here. It’s real cute. What do you think?”
I found my smile growing. “I think you’d love it.”
It felt like ages before the crowd died down. Once we had a moment alone in the lobby, I reached for Rachel’s wrist. I’d been wanting to talk to her alone all day, needing a moment to recharge my social battery and process my feelings.
“Can I talk to you for a second? Just us?”
Her gaze softened as she smiled, tugging at my heartstrings with a simple look. “Of course, Juni.”
We walked down the hall to my suite, Sasquatch in tow. Once I closed the door, I cupped her face and kissed her, feeling too much at once to think of the right words. All I could do for now was give my all to this kiss. Rachel melted against me, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling herself closer. I never thought I could crave the touch of someone actively connected to me as I kissed and gripped her in hopes of communicating better than I could with words. How I hadn’t fucked it up with her yet, I’d never know, but Rachel seemed to cling to me as much as I clung to her, despite all of my flaws. When we pulled away, I pressed our foreheads together. The need to stay close to her took over, and I didn’t know what else to do or say.
I just needed her.
“Juni?”
“These have been the best few months of my entire life.” My hands trailed back, gripping her raspberry-scented hair. “I know when you started, we said we’d figure out housing when we were ready to cross that bridge, but I don’t want to lose you. I know we can’t live in a fucking hotel forever, but don’t want for you to leave and me to leave and for us to lose whatever this is. Maybe this is all too fast, and if it is, tell me to fuck myself, but I know that I can't be away from you.”
I’d fully expected that Rachel would take a moment to process my words. After all, I’d essentially just confessed that I want to move in with her and take our relationship to the next level, despite the brevity. But I knew—I knew deep down that she was it for me.
To my surprise, though, Rachel didn’t need a second to process anything. Without a beat passing between us, she said, “Me neither. I don’t want to lose this or be away from you, either.”
That was not the response I was expecting. Even though I knew Rachel felt the same way I felt about her, my imposter syndrome usually won my internal arguments with myself. I could feel my jaw drop. “Really?”
When Rachel nodded, I kissed her again, except now the words came bubbling up. I couldn’t stop myself as I said, “I love you,” muffled against her lips. I couldn’t remember the last time I told someone that other than Sasquatch.
Between kisses, she said, “I love you too, Juni.”