Chapter 31
April
Sometimes, I still can’t believe I said yes.
To the job.
To the move.
To starting completely over.
After I flew back home, I had exactly two weeks to pack up the pieces of my old life. It all fit in ten boxes and two suitcases. I gave away more than I kept. I cried when I left my favorite coffee shop, then I got on a plane back to LA—heart pounding, hands shaking—with no real plan except to chase everything I’d ever wanted.
Verve put me up in a hotel for the first month, and I spent my nights hunting for apartments online, and my weekends visiting every single one of them. Some smelled like garlic. Some were so small I couldn’t turn around without hitting a wall, but then I found it—this sun-drenched, one-bedroom corner unit in Echo Park, with creaky floors, a little balcony, and light that pours in like honey. I signed the lease that same day.
Now I wake up every morning in a place that’s all mine.
I walk to the café on the corner, where the barista already knows my name, and work for a company I used to idolize from a distance, and somehow, I belong here. In this city, in this life I built with both hands.
Today’s no different. Except it is. Because today? I’m on assignment—my biggest one yet. Verve sent me to photograph th.
“Women Who Move the World”
feature in New York City, a special edition dedicated to the most inspiring female athletes of the decade. It’s the kind of shoot I used to dream about. Now it’s my reality.
My camera hangs around my neck, press credentials swinging lightly against my chest, and the energy in the arena feels electric. I’ve already scoped out the best angles, marked lighting shifts, and texted my sisters.
JUNE
How’s the trip, boss lady? Tell Abby Wambach I said hi
MAY
So jealous of your hotel room view. I have news, btw.
ME
Wait WHAT news??? Spill.
MAY
I accepted a job in Oregon. I leave next week.
JUNE
EXCUSE ME WHAT???
YOU BOTH ARE JUST OUT HERE ABANDONING ME
I can’t stop smiling.
ME
You’re chasing your dreams. I couldn’t be prouder, and June, you’ll find your next chapter too.
Sliding my phone into my pocket, I make my way down the corridor. I know the space like the back of my hand already. I’m supposed to meet the editorial crew in the main staging area in five, but when I round the corner, I stop.
Max.
He’s standing just ahead, dressed in a tailored navy suit, hair a little longer than it was six months ago, focused on a conversation with one of the writers. He’s nodding, thoughtful, listening intently as they go over the feature intro.
God, he’s beautiful, and he’s here. With me. For me.
His eyes lift, and our gazes meet, and I feel the same butterflies I felt the first time I saw him, the first time he held my hand…the first time he kissed me. So when he smiles at me, I’m smiling back before I even think.
He excuses himself politely and crosses the space between is quickly.
“Hi,”
he murmurs.
“Hi,”
I whisper, and then he wraps his arms around me and kisses me. The kind of kiss that deserves an audience, or maybe just a moment. The kind that says, I’ve missed you. I’m still yours, and as I melt into him—into this moment, into this life I’ve somehow built from a single missed flight—I think,
All of this because he offered me a ride.
Because I said yes.
Because love doesn’t always come when you’re ready. It comes when you’re open, and thank God, I was.