CHAPTER 37
River
She looked up and handed the teenager a bag of candy.
“Thank you,” the girl said.
“You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by today. Come back and let me know if you liked the sour citrus one.”
“I will. Thanks,” the girl replied, and when she left, the shop was finally empty.
They weren’t closed yet, but people had stopped coming in around five-thirty, which meant that River had been able to breathe starting around five-forty-five.
“Want me to go count down the drawer?” Michaela asked her.
“We might still get another one,” she replied.
Then, River saw the look on Michaela’s tired face. She had a full class load in college and had been working close to full-time hours at the shop since things had gotten busy.
“Go count it down. I’ll close us up. What’s one more customer in the grand scheme of things?”
“Thank you,” Michaela said, sounding relieved.
“Hey, if you want to go full-time in the summer when you don’t have classes, let me know, okay?”
“Really? That would be great, yeah,” Michaela replied. “I applied for this internship, but can I let you know when I hear back about that?”
“Of course. Take some fudge home, too, if you want, or a few bags of whatever. I really do appreciate you taking on the bulk of the load while we’re this busy.”
“Thanks. And no problem. I don’t mind it. It’s a cool job. A lot of my friends have to work on campus as part of a work-study thing, and they’re in the bookstores or libraries or at the other campus shops. I get to be around candy all day.”
Michaela smiled and grabbed the cash drawer.
“Exactly how I feel,” River agreed.
Then, the door opened.
“There goes that plan,” Michaela said and went to put the drawer back into the register.
“No, you’re good,” River replied quickly, seeing who’d just walked in. “I’ve got this one. Just count it down for me, and you can head home.”
“I don’t need to clean up?”
“No, I’ll take care of it. Thank you.”
“Hi, Michaela.”
Michaela looked up then, saw Kennedy, and said, “She knows my name?”
River laughed a little and said, “Yes. Go.”
Michaela, still wide-eyed, walked into the back, carrying the cash drawer.
“I didn’t know you were stopping by,” River said then. “I didn’t even know you were still in town. Are you still in town, or did you drive here from LA?”
She hurried to the front door past Kennedy and turned the sign to closed before locking the door. It was five-fifty-two, but she could stand to close a few minutes early today to find out what Kennedy was doing there without worrying about a customer seeing them together.
“I’m still here. I’ve been driving back and forth the past few days, and I rented a house instead of living in a hotel.
It’s small and just what I need right now.
I don’t cook much, but I got tired of the hotel’s room service menu and not being able to make my own good coffee.
I went back and got some of my stuff from the house.
Not everything, obviously, but– That doesn’t matter. It’s not why I’m here.”
“Okay. Why are you here, then?”
“Are we alone?”
“Up here, we are, and Michaela will be gone in maybe two minutes. We don’t do many cash transactions these days, so it won’t take her long to count it all and write down her totals. Then, she’ll leave out the back. Are you okay?”
Kennedy walked a little farther into the shop, away from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and door.
River pulled up two stools that she kept behind the counter for the employees to sit on if they needed to and flipped off the light switch.
It wasn’t dark outside yet, and with the lights on inside, everyone outside would’ve been able to see them clearly, but with them off, they’d only make out two people sitting behind a counter.
Kennedy sat first, and River joined her, wondering what Kennedy was about to tell her.
“I am okay, yes. I think for the first time in a long time, I’m okay.”
“That’s good,” River replied.
Kennedy pulled her phone out of her purse, did something with it before turning it to River, and asked, “I take it, you haven’t seen this?”
River took Kennedy’s phone and read the screen. It was an Instagram post with a colorful abstract background and a message.
“You posted it?”
“Jessie did. Well, the social media manager for our accounts did, but it’s out now. I am officially single in the eyes of the whole world.”
River read the message, and it was the standard celebrity breakup stuff that she didn’t really care about, so she handed the phone back to Kennedy.
“How do you feel about that?” she asked.
“It’s been interesting. It posted this morning, and I’ve been good.
I haven’t read the comments. Jessie texted a few times that most of them were supportive or shocked that we broke up.
Others were less supportive. You know, the classic ones, ‘I saw this coming. Cameron threw a glass at her. #TeamKennedy.’ Or, ‘Cameron deserves way better. Kennedy yelled and almost hit her. #TeamCameron,’ and other stuff like that, so that’s been fun.
I haven’t read them, like I said, but that’s what Jessie told me.
Anyway, it’s out there. And while it sucks to have people think that they know the truth about things when they don’t, it still feels good, knowing that it’s done. Cam and I can finally move on.”
“I think she’s already moving on with my ex-girlfriend,” River replied.
“True.”
“River, I’m done. I’m going to head out,” Michaela said, peeking through the door.
“Thanks, Michaela. Have a good night.”
“You too. And hi,” Michaela said to Kennedy.
“Have a nice night, Michaela,” Kennedy replied with a kind smile.
“She knows my name,” Michaela whispered and hurried off.
“She’s a little starstruck.” River chuckled.
“You’re not? Did my luster rub off already?” Kennedy joked.
“No, I’m still plenty struck by you. Come into the back where no one can see.
” River stood up and opened the door for Kennedy, who walked through it.
“Hey, look at the positive. At least, Jessie didn’t use some ridiculous phrase to refer to you and Cameron breaking up. You didn’t consciously uncouple.”
Kennedy laughed and walked over to a counter, where she stood and leaned back against it.
“Thank God for that. And I’m sorry to just drop by like this, but– Well, Cam and I have texted a little before and after today, and she told me she was at Lacey’s.
She wanted Lacey there with her when the news went out, and I felt so alone, sitting in this one-bedroom house I’d rented for the week in Anaheim when I have a giant house in LA that I know Cameron doesn’t want.
It reminded me that while I came down here to get away, yes, I could’ve gone anywhere. ”
“Like your place in New York?” River guessed.
“Or literally anywhere. I have the money. I’m not working. I could’ve hopped on a plane, sipped champagne in first class, and ended up on some island with no internet, blocked out from the world for months.”
“Why didn’t you?” River asked as she sat down in her desk chair and turned it to face Kennedy.
“Because I’m not the kind of person who runs from her problems. I suppose I’ve been doing that a little bit recently because dealing with this much change is a lot for me, but I don’t want to do that anymore. I also don’t want to run away from you.”
River swallowed and asked, “Does that mean I am a problem to you?”
“Yes and no. You’re a problem in a good way.”
Kennedy shrugged a shoulder and smiled at her.
“In a good way?” River laughed.
“River, I have been struggling to figure out what to do because when you’re with someone, whom the whole world thinks is perfect for you up until very recently, when they were accusing us of throwing things at each other, it’s hard not to think of this ending as a failure.
It’s hard to trust yourself to try again, and I never anticipated meeting someone I wanted to date so soon after Cam and I ended.
I thought we’d just be miserable for a while, and if we did decide to break up one day, that I’d probably find that island I just mentioned and not talk to anyone, let alone find someone I wanted to be in a relationship with.
Then, we’re breaking up – at least in part because of us both meeting people – and Cameron is already dating Lacey.
I have no idea how far they’ve gotten, and they might be together already, but it honestly doesn’t matter.
I want them both to be happy, like I’m sure you do, too.
Cam told me she didn’t want to be alone when the announcement went out, though, and that she was with Lacey, and I realized that I didn’t want to be alone, either.
I wished immediately that I’d come here to make candy with you and block the whole thing out, or that I had at least asked you to take the morning off and be with me. ”
“I would have,” she said quickly. “We’ve been slammed ever since that picture of you in here, but I would have, Kennedy.”
Kennedy smiled at her and replied, “I know you would have. And I thought about coming in earlier today, but I’ve been following you online, and you’ve been posting pictures, River.
This place has been very busy.” Kennedy smiled again.
“So, I figured it would be best for me to wait until the end of the day, but it took everything in me not to show up and just hang out back here.”
“You could have. No customers come back here.”
“Yeah, but you would’ve been there.” Kennedy nodded to the front of the shop. “And the whole point was to be with you.”
River smiled at her and said, “Well, we’re closed now, and I need to prep for tomorrow. Want to help?”
“Can I? You trust me not to add too much sour stuff to the candy you sell to your customers?”
River laughed and stood up.
“How about we skip the sour stuff today? What do you want to make?”
“River, you don’t have to let me help you. I don’t want to get in your way.”
“You’re not in the way if you’re helping. I keep waiting for business to go back to the way it was before that picture, but it hasn’t yet.”
“It won’t now,” Kennedy said and took her hand.
River looked down and saw both of Kennedy’s hands on one of her own, pulling River a little toward her and playing with River’s fingers.
“That picture will now take on a different meaning to people,” Kennedy added.
“It was of me and you, and we were wearing matching shirts when I just met you on that double date thing. Plus, you had your hand on my arm, and whenever I look at you, even when I’m lost in a candy shop, trying to help you get the line down, I think it’s pretty obvious how I feel about you. ”
“It’s obvious?” River asked. “Really? To whom, exactly?”
Kennedy looked down at their hands and then back up into River’s eyes.
“I think it’s obvious to you, too. I was just giving you the whole hot and cold thing, and I’m sorry for that.
I was trying to do what I thought was right, but when push came to shove, I was sitting on a sofa this morning, looking at a social media post and getting a text from my ex telling me that she was with someone when the news hit, and the face that flashed in my mind was yours.
” Kennedy moved one hand to cup River’s cheek.
“I missed you, and that phone call the other night, where you were so tired, you were barely coherent, wasn’t enough.
I wanted to be next to you in that bed. I wanted to be here, telling you to get more sleep or helping up front so that you could be back here, making more candy or taking a break.
I didn’t want to be alone, yes, but it was much more than that, River. I wanted to be with you.”
River swallowed again and said, “So, what do you want to do about that?”
“I want to kiss you,” Kennedy replied. “I feel like I’ve been waiting so long just to kiss you, River.”
River dropped Kennedy’s hand, Kennedy dropped her hand from her cheek, and Kennedy’s face told her that Kennedy was worried that River was about to pull back.
But she wasn’t pulling back at all. She’d waited for this just as long.
She moved into Kennedy, who spread her legs to allow her to press against her more fully, and she pushed Kennedy’s hair away from her neck and face.
Then, River stared into her eyes and gave her a soft smile, trying to tell her silently that everything was going to be okay before she leaned in and captured Kennedy’s lips.
The kiss was slow at first, with them trying to find the right rhythm, but when they did, it felt so right to River that she couldn’t stop herself from wanting more. Her hand moved to Kennedy’s waist, and when she went in search of a shirt that she could slide under, Kennedy laughed.
“I’m wearing a dress, babe,” Kennedy said.
River smiled with her lips still touching Kennedy’s.
“I’d love to take that off of you,” she said. “But not in my shop.”
“At least, not for the first time, right?” Kennedy asked.
River kissed her again, a little slower than the first time, and when the kiss ended naturally, she replied, “At least not until after we go on a real date.”
She pressed her lips to Kennedy’s forehead.
“I’d like that,” Kennedy replied, resting her face against River’s chest.
River wrapped her arms around Kennedy and held on to her. Kennedy did the same, and they stood like that for a long time, just holding on to one another.
Then, River sighed.
“Good sigh or bad sigh?” Kennedy asked.
“Very, very good sigh,” she replied and sighed in relief again.