Chapter 28

"Doyou just feel like vomiting all the time?" Vik asked. "I feel like vomiting and it's not even my store."

Mae smiled, rubbing her tired eyes as she turned away from the computer screen.

"No. But I think that's because I know you'll be here."

"Yeah," Vik replied, voice going softer. "But only for one day."

"Are you seriously feeling bad about offering up only one day of free labor? I can't thank you enough, again, for that one day."

"I know, but…you sure you'll be okay? Sure you shouldn't hire someone else?"

"What if I end up having four customers a day and I'll have made Karizma leave her housekeeping job for nothing?"

"Uh, I have a feeling there are more people in Greyfin Bay looking for part-time work than one teenager."

"I'll look for help if I need help. It'll be okay, Vik. I promise."

Vik was quiet a moment; Mae could envision them chewing their lip. "Okay," they said. "Either way, I can't wait to see you. So fucking soon! God, is this what birthing a child feels like? It feels like your baby. Like I'm a proud uncle or something."

"I can make that your official title, if you want. Designer and Proud Enby Uncle, Bay Books."

"Perfect. Yes. Please."

"I am literally going to add it to the website right now."

"I'd be mad if you didn't."

"Anyway, actual pregnant people gestate for even longer than nine months and I've been here for three. Don't think it counts."

"Still long enough that Republican legislators would try to throw you in jail if you called it off."

"This metaphor is becoming very bleak."

"I know. Fuck, we live in bleak times. Thank Medusa you're opening a bookstore that's going to be full of joy and light."

Mae laughed.

"It's almost December on the coast. I'm already forgetting what light feels like."

"Exactly! That's why the world needs your store!"

"Ugh. Get here faster."

"Would if I could."

"I know."

"Maybe you should, I don't know, hire another employee to hold my space until I'm there. And to then continue holding my space after opening day. Just a wild idea. Throwing it out there."

"My my, look at the time. What do you know; I believe I have to go."

"Okay, bitch. I'll see you in two days. It's going to be incredible, you know."

"It'll be okay."

"Incredible."

"I love you, Vik."

"Love you, too."

Mae stared out the front window after she'd placed her phone back on the counter.

She'd been doing that a lot, lately.

She knew she should be panicking about opening day being in three days, but the truth was, she'd had everything as ready as it was likely going to be a week ago. Any of the preparations, all of the spreadsheets she was crafting now merely verged on neurotic, moving things here or there, daydreaming about every possible thing she could keep track of in colored columns and rows. She ran home constantly to spend more time with the dogs, eventually drifting back to the store because she felt like she should. Because the store smelled less like Dell McCleary.

Mostly, these last few days, she spent her time staring.

She'd officially moved the pride flags last weekend. She found places for them elsewhere: behind the front door, on the wall by the end of the counter. She had never intended for them to obscure the view of the space forever. She wanted people to look, now, in the days leading up to opening. Wanted them to peer in and wonder. To see all she and Dell had done.

She'd stuck some stickers on the glass in their stead, in the corner closest to the door, next to a Black Lives Matter sticker, a small Palestinian flag. But she was still adjusting to it, the increased light, the view of the ocean behind Ginger's. It was a good spot for staring.

She knew Vik was right. It wasn't smart, for a number of reasons, for a store to only have one employee. Even Olive had several people on her staff, even if they weren't all full-time. Mae was grateful beyond measure that Vik would be there on opening day to help Mae through any rushes or hiccups.

But she had wanted to own something.

She had tried to be selfish.

Maybe it had worked too well.

Because now she didn't want to let it go.

It was possible nothing had ever been as much hers in her entire life as this little store, even if it had yet to open its doors to a single official customer. It was filled with all of her favorite books, with art and colors she loved, with pieces of this community, with things Dell and Vik had made for her.

Maybe she had only truly envisioned one other person behind the counter with her.

And that person had been so sure, at least for a time, that Mae would be the one to leave.

And while Mae knew he hadn't left because he wanted to, that there was nothing about this situation she had the right to feel upset about, it was still hard, sometimes, to swallow.

That she was still here.

And Dell was so very far away.

* * *

On the night before opening day, Mae stood in the center of the floor. Between the New Releases table and the table of local merchandise and gifts.

Vik and Jackson had gone to Dell's house to check on the dogs and wait on their pizza order. But Mae had wanted a little more time alone. A last hour when Bae Books was just hers.

She closed her eyes and remembered when the room was nothing but a bare floor and dust. When she'd danced, right here, all alone with Jesus's final playlist.

She remembered when she added the rug underneath her feet. When she and Dell had slept on it.

Her body had gotten stronger, these last three months. She spent a lot of time hunched over her keyboard, squinting at the computer screen, and maybe she'd never once used one of Dell's heavy duty tools, but she'd still become handy with a drill and a hammer. She'd done her fair share of heavy lifting.

Seriously. Boxes of books were fucking heavy.

She'd had her moments of doubt and soreness, but her body felt strong, just then.

She breathed in the last three months. Told herself to look at it all as it was, right now, one last time.

When she fluttered her lashes open again, a mote of dust danced in front of her eyes, highlighted by the rays of sun heading toward the horizon outside the window.

And like that, it all became clear.

She had wanted to own something. Something hers and hers alone.

But Dell had been there from the start. Telling her she couldn't.

And as she stood in this little shop, just one little space in this wide green Earth, she realized that even if Dell was gone—even if he maybe never came back—because she was starting to accept that he might not come back—he would still be in the bones of the place. She took a few steps to run a hand over the shelf closest to her. Crouched down to examine, again, the detail of the curving waves. Every time she touched them, it felt like touching the curve of his mouth, the rise of his cheek. The valleys at the corners of his eyes.

The more she looked, the more the others showed themselves, too: Vik's designs in every sticker and business card, in the sign above the front door. In the work of the Gutierrez boys, of Eli Zalasky and every other contractor who put in their time and skill. Mae couldn't walk across the rug without thinking of Olive and Cara.

Jesus was in every mote of dust that spun through the air.

Maybe this place wasn't hers and hers alone at all. Even if she was Bay Books's only ever employee.

Maybe nothing we ever tried—nothing good, anyway—was truly selfish, in the end.

* * *

On opening day of Bay Books, Mae woke slowly in Dell's bed, half-conscious and uneasy.

After the third snoozing of her phone's alarm, she made herself get out of bed.

She didn't want to.

She felt off, unlike herself, uncomfortable in her own skin. The opposite of how she wanted to feel on opening day. Vaguely, she recalled that she'd had some type of epiphany last night at the store, some great moment of peace, but whatever, that was still old naive Mae who hadn't actually opened a dumb small business yet.

Someone threw a brick through her window.

Mae brushed her teeth.

She'd had a steady job in Portland, a steady job where she helped people. She had her own apartment and good friends and a sense of safety.

She believed she could run a small business because, what? She liked stocking the shelves at Blockbuster when she was twenty years old?

She spit into the sink.

Oh god.

Mae let out the dogs, threw her hair in a bun. Checked that Vik and Jackson's car was still in the drive. They'd slept in the ADU, had actually insisted on it, even if that bed was definitely not big enough for both of them. Mae couldn't face them right now. She sent a quick text, a going to the store early, join me whenever, seriously no rush, and kicked her Kia into gear.

And the whole ride down to Main Street, she pictured hordes of angry middle-aged women walking into her store, picking up young adult novels with sex scenes and gay people, and screaming at her. Staring at the trans flag by the front counter and whispering to each other.

She parked in the alley, walked in through the back door. Put on the kettle for tea. Walking into the main room, she turned on the lights, booted up the computer. Retrieved the prepared cash till from the safe in the office, transferred it to the counter.

Mae knew she should be double-checking everything. Signage, displays, the security system, her scanners and POS system.

Mostly, she drank her tea and did a lot of staring. Vik had brought her a fresh bouquet of flowers: cosmos and coneflowers and yarrow. They sat next to the pileapeperomioides. The clock ticked away.

Fifteen minutes before open, a sense of overwhelming doom overtook her. Vik still hadn't arrived, which was fine, good; it was preferred to freak out alone.

The doom didn't have anything to do with Dell not being here, with missing him, even if she kept checking her phone for a reassuring text from him—he'd been sending photos, lately, of the house where he grew up, of the town that looked rather gray and cold but still charming; she would kill for a picture from Michigan at this moment—but it was simply that this was all a very bad idea.

When time betrayed her, forcing her to move from her chair and flip the hand-painted sign she'd commissioned from Gemma to Open, Mae worried she might throw up.

Thirty seconds later, she'd barely returned to the counter when the door flew open with a jingle.

"Hi!" A middle-aged woman waved at her, dark blonde curls bouncing as she shook her body in a bit of a laugh. Three other women followed. "Sorry to be those weird people creeping at the end of the block waiting for the second you open!"

"We're just so excited," another one gushed. "We're in a book club, but we've never been able to buy books in our very own town."

"Oh, it's so good," a third gasped, staring around at the store. She hit the first woman in the side with the back of her hand. "I told you it'd be so good!"

"I know!"

"Well." Mae managed a wobbly smile. "Thank you for being Bay Books's very first official customers."

At that, all four women hooted, shaking their fists in the air. The sudden sound made Mae jump back a little.

"That was our goal!" The first one laughed. "Okay, ladies, before anyone else comes in!"

And they huddled in front of Mae's beautiful New Releases table, on her beautiful rug, between Dell's beautiful shelves, and took a selfie.

Mae blinked rapidly.

"I'm sorry," she said a moment later, finally getting a hold of herself and walking around the counter. "Can I get your names? I think I just fell in love with all of you."

And that was how Mae first met Robin, Carmen, Elizabeth, and Monroe.

"Sorry I'm late!" Vik called a few seconds later, rushing in from the office. "I cannot believe we slept in. I'm so sorry; that ADU is just—well, hello friends! Welcome to Bay Books!"

"Oh," Mae laughed. "I forgot to say that."

"That's all right, love." Vik kissed her on the cheek. "That's what I'm here for. Jackson's heading down to the IGA to buy all the pastries Liv has."

"Oh my god," Mae said. "Snacks. I was going to have snacks."

"That's what I just said, silly. Jackson's on top of it. What do you folks like to read?"

"Mae Kellerman!" Olive blustered through the door. "I was supposed to open my own shop ten minutes ago, but I just had to stop in first to see how you're doing. Oh, it looks wonderful." Olive squeezed Mae's arm, just above her elbow, so tight it almost hurt. "Robin! Doesn't this place look great? I am a little mad you stole this table from me at the flea." She frowned, running her fingers along its curved edge, shooting Mae a look in the New Jersey-honest way that Mae knew meant she was still a little mad. As she had been mad, at the flea, about every piece Mae found before her.

Mae felt her smile wobble again.

"Thank you for letting me steal it from you," she said. "Thank you for everything."

"Oh, no you don't!" Olive threw up a hand, blocking her face from Mae's view, waving at her cheeks with her other hand. "Not this early in the morning, Mae Kellerman. Oh! You have Francesca!" Still waving at her cheeks, Olive stepped toward the first shelf on the far wall. The first shelf Dell had installed. Local interest. Olive picked up the book of poetry from the writer who lived in Coos Bay. "Me and Robin saw her speak at the library in Newport last year! Oh, she's just fabulous."

"Excuse me, Small Businessperson of the Year!" Vik called from the counter. "I believe you have your first official sale, and the computer's gone sleepy."

Wiping her palms against her eyes, Mae shuffled herself behind the counter, tapping her POS system awake.

"Robin, right?" she confirmed. "What did we find today?"

Robin bought a thriller and a sticker and one of Kennedy Remington's candles and didn't stop talking the entire time Mae rung her up. Mae was definitely in love with her.

The book club ladies were just leaving when Gemma walked in. They held the hand of another person whom, with delight, Mae couldn't discern the gender of whatsoever.

"Wanted to show them my work," Gemma said.

"Of course." Mae stepped into the corner, lifted her arm toward Gemma's mural like Vanna White. "Vik, this is Gemma, my muralist."

"Oh, rad!" Vik pumped Gemma's hand up and down. "It's so great to meet you."

The door opened once more with a whoosh, and the waitress from The Bay Diner who had been nice to Mae once walked in. Followed by George and Aryanna, from her small business class in Newport.

"Oh—my gosh," Mae stuttered. "You guys didn't have to come all the way up here."

"You kidding?" George stuffed his hands in his pockets, the wrinkled brown skin of his face deepening as he smiled, eyes roaming the room. "You're an inspiration to us."

But then Mae noticed Gemma and their partner hovering by the front counter, and she didn't have time to chat.

"Let me know if you need anything," she said before hustling back to the till.

"This is cool," Gemma's partner said as Mae rang up their first item. They glanced again at the mural behind Mae, shot Gemma another grin. Glanced toward the trans flag at the end of the counter, and shot one at Mae. "This is really, really cool."

They were buying a stack of queer romance novels.

"Thanks," Mae said, her heart fluttering inside her chest.

She remembered, within that very first hour, what had been the best part, in the end, of every one of her previous jobs. Even if she often forgot.

Talking with strangers.

An act that had also been the hardest part of every job.

But sometimes, it was the most surprising form of art.

Liv's words had never truly left her, but she felt them in every heartbeat of today.

You have to talk to people, Mae.

Say hi, sometimes.

The next person to say hi back was a short white woman with feathery hair Mae hadn't even seen walk in. Mae greeted her with a smile and started ringing up her stack of picture books.

"My baby's gonna have a baby!" The woman declared with the zeal of a grandparent-to-be. "I can't wait to read these to my grandbaby."

"Congratulations," Mae said. "Picture books are just the most beautiful things."

"Aren't they, though? I'm so glad you're still up and running here, even with that horrible incident with the window. I am so sorry about that, by the way."

Mae's smile faltered.

"Oh," she said. "Thanks."

The woman leaned in as she handed over her credit card.

"Say. Did they ever find who did that?"

For the first hour of Bay Books's opening, Mae hadn't thought once about that brick.

And she didn't want to now.

It wasn't the same thing as what had happened to Dell, wasn't near the same thing, but she understood his feelings about his attacker even more deeply now.

She didn't want to know who did it.

She just wanted to forget it had ever happened.

"No. I'm just focusing on the here and now." Mae forced a smile as she placed the woman's picture books in a paper bag, stamped with Vik's logo.

"That sounds like a good course of action. Thanks again!"

Mae focused on calming her pulse as she waved goodbye.

And not two seconds later, Jodi and Felix walked in.

She would not cry in front of her parents again. Why had that woman's comment affected her so much anyway? She was okay. Jodi and Felix were here.

"Oh, Mae." Jodi stopped short, a hand over her mouth. Felix didn't stop for a second, heading immediately to the history section.

"Mom! Dad." Mae stepped out from behind the counter; Vik seamlessly took her place. She hugged her parents in turn. "How was the ride? Thanks for coming."

"We were careful. Drove the speed limit the whole way. Had a whole angry line of cars behind us. Oh, Mae, this is somehow exactly as I pictured it. It's so you. It's beautiful."

Mae would not cry in front of her parents again.

"Would you look at that." Felix's arm wrapped around Mae's shoulder. "It appears as if you bought every single one of my suggestions."

"Of course I did, Dad. I own a bookstore now. I need your nerd knowledge more than ever."

"You're going to get me choked up, here." He squeezed her shoulder, like he actually might get choked up. Except then he said, "And how have sales been going?"

"Dad. We've barely been open an hour."

"All right, all right."

"I'm going to look around, but we were thinking of making a day of it," Jodi said. "We'd love to see where you're staying up here, after you close up. Maybe celebrate with some dinner."

"Mom," Mae said. "I don't close for eight more hours."

"Mae," Jodi said. "We're retired. We have eight hours. Anyway, we won't be in your hair the whole time, and we won't stay long?—"

"You'll leave before it gets dark? You really shouldn't be driving in the dark."

Jodi rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mae, we'll leave before it gets dark."

Mae's shoulders relaxed under her father's arm. "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great."

"Can I check out the office? And the upstairs?" Felix asked, looking behind their shoulders, already analyzing every nook and cranny behind his glasses.

"Nothing's up there right now, but sure. Go wild, Mom and Dad."

"Mae Bae," Vik said two hours later, after Jodi and Felix had left, after another series of customers had rolled through. "Go take a break, okay? It's lunchtime."

"But—"

"Mae Kellerman." Vik used their serious-shit voice. "Go sit down."

So Mae grabbed a pastry, and she sat down. It was quieter in the office, but she could still hear Vik and Jackson out front, the din of the playlist she'd carefully curated for opening day, the murmur of customers.

Customers.

A wave of surrealness washed over her.

She brought out her phone, and bit her lip on a smile.

She swiveled in her chair to look out the back door as she opened the voicemail, to gaze at the raised beds and the place where she still hoped to see him, somehow, each morning she drove in.

"Mae."

It was followed by a short sigh of frustration, but as with every time Dell McCleary had ever said Mae's name, Mae shivered.

"Dammit, the time change keeps getting me, somehow. I must have just missed when you opened the doors, but…Mae, I wish I could be there." A pause. Mae imagined Dell's throat moving under his beard as he swallowed, a calloused hand running over his face. "But no matter how the day goes, you got this, okay? It's gonna be…it's gonna be fantastic, Mae. I'm so fucking proud of you."

Mae had been trying to keep her cool, let his voice breeze over her. But she almost gasped when he punched out the curse. He felt so present in that curse, so earnest and intense, like he was suddenly there again, next to her.

Except then he finished with, "I can't wait to hear how it goes. Talk to you soon," and when the line went silent in her ear, she tried, as she always tried, to not hear all the missing words he never said.

I'll be back to see it soon.

Can't wait to see you again.

* * *

"Hi," Mae said to a freckled woman with shiny red hair, when she returned to the floor. She forced a smile. "Welcome to Bay Books."

Say hi, sometimes.

"Oh my gosh, are you Mae?" The woman smiled in return, wide and toothy, holding out a hand. "Quinn. I've been following you online."

"Yeah? Do you live in Greyfin Bay?"

"I do, but I work remotely for an insurance company, so I rarely ever leave my house." She laughed, a bit self-deprecating. "But I've had your opening day on my calendar for weeks.Seriously, I need more reasons to make myself leave the house. Oh no, you have journals."

Quinn was beautiful, in that way people who were kind at heart always were.

"Of course I have journals. We all need pretty things to buy and then never use."

Quinn grinned. "Exactly."

A pair of goth teens stopped in next, who were first thrilled Mae had a graphic novel section at all and in the next breath, declared it "pretty mid." They gave her a list of titles she should buy for next time.

As the afternoon progressed, the locals who dropped in mixed more and more with weekend tourists, until at last, finally, Liv walked in.

She gusted out a breath, lifting up her baseball cap to rub at her forehead.

"Sorry I couldn't get here earlier, hon," she said. "One of my distributors?—"

Mae cut her off with a hug.

Liv tapped her lightly on the back before pulling away.

"I'll allow it. This time. Anyway, how have things been going?"

"Good. Really good. Hey, actually, if you see Taylor Nguyen around, can you let her know I bought a bunch of Pokémon books for Lanh? I haven't seen them in a while." Seeing the goth girls had made Mae think of it. She wasn't sure, actually, if she'd seen either Taylor or Lanh since that first day in the IGA.

Liv's face fell.

"Mae." She shook her head, squeezed the brim of her baseball hat in her hands. "Taylor and Lanh are gone."

Mae's stomach dropped.

"Gone?"

"I mean—" Liv gestured emphatically, "they just moved. Sorry. They're okay. They're just not in Greyfin Bay anymore." She sighed. "Lanh's mom, Melody, is sick. That's why Taylor, Lanh's auntie, was always taking care of him. Melody needed better medical care, and Lanh needed more support, too, at school." Liv crossed her arms, looked out the window. "I mean, his setup here wasn't so bad; schools are still federally mandated to provide special education services, even in places like Greyfin Bay. But it'll get harder when he has to head to middle school, and Melody or Taylor would've had to travel farther to get him there, to attend all his meetings."

"Wait. Where do kids go to middle school? And high school?" Mae knew of the tiny elementary school in Greyfin Bay, further up on Klamath. But now that she thought on it, she had no idea where any other school was.

"There's a middle-high school county complex up north of Lincoln City," Liv said. "Or folks can petition for their kids to attend down in Newport."

Mae bit her lip, joining Liv in her stare out to Main Street. Distantly, Mae remembered that she herself had a bit of a drive to get to her high school, back in North Carolina. But it had felt normal at the time, because it was all she knew. Because Mae was able bodied and neurotypical.

She had forgotten, over her adulthood of living in cities with ample services. That it wasn't just matcha lattes that required extra effort, when you lived in a small town.

"Damn," Mae eventually said. "That's hard."

Liv sighed again.

"Yeah. I mean, it happens. Sometimes, folks have to leave. It's just…it hurts, you know. The more divided we become. When you lose another family that wasn't part of the majority. When you lose good people."

"Yeah." Mae's stomach sank even further.

"Anyway." Liv stuck her baseball cap back on her head and chucked Mae on the shoulder. "Sorry to be a bummer on your special day. There'll be more kids who want to buy your Pokémon books, believe me." Liv looked around the space with a smirk. "One day you'll be thinking this town's hit rock bottom, and then the next, some babe with pink hair will move in and open up a queer bookstore."

"Liv Gallagher." Mae beamed. "Did you just call me a babe?"

"Eh, don't let it go to your head. Listen, I gotta get back to the store. Just wanted to stop and say congratulations. So, congratulations, Mae. This really is a hell of a thing. Hope it stays around for a while."

"Yeah. Me too."

With another, softer chuck on Mae's arm, Liv was gone. Mae smiled at her retreating form until she was out of sight. And then the smile faded, as she thought about Lanh and Lanh's family.

She didn't have much time to dwell.

Because a few minutes later, the door burst open with Bay Books's loudest customers of the entire day.

"Honey!" Theo shouted. "We're home!"

And before Mae could even comprehend what was happening, Ben was wrapping her in a hug.

"Bay Books?" Theo continued. "More like Gay Books, am I right?"

"He's been practicing both of those lines for the last two days," Ozzy said.

"But—" Mae looked back at Vik and Jackson, who were smiling behind the counter, to Theo and Ozzy and Ben and Alexei. "But I didn't know—you didn't have to drive all this way!"

"And miss the opening of Bae Books? Bitch, please." Theo kissed her on the cheek. "And anyway, you know I love an excuse to start the weekend early."

"Yeah," Ben said. "Did you think only Vik and Jackson got to partake in the fun?"

"Well." Mae placed her hands on her hips. Let them drop. "Well. Thank you and I love you."

"Aw, it's even more special when you sound angry about it," Ozzy said. And then he kissed her cheek, too. "Congratulations, Mae."

"Let's go buy some books!" Ben clapped his hands, and the group dispersed to look around. To browse with friends.

Except for Alexei. Who hung back by the window with Mae.

"Thank you," he said. He gave a long glance out the glass before looking back at her. "For giving us a reason to come back here. It feels like getting to visit them, you know?"

Mae nodded, throat thick.

"Yeah," she said. "I know."

"Lex! Mae!" Ben called. "You did connect with Emerson!"

Alexei and Mae exchanged a smile before turning to meet Ben at the table of local merchandise, including some salsa, jam, and other preserves from Short King Farms. Ben held a jar of pickles, mouth open in glee.

"Of course I did," Mae said.

"The pickles. Have you tried them? The pickles are so good, Mae."

"We already have a jar of Emerson's pickles at home," Alexei said.

"But we haven't purchased a jar of Emerson's pickles from Mae," Ben said. And Alexei shrugged, smiling at him helplessly.

"Where should we go to celebrate?" Theo asked after he'd made his purchases.

Mae almost opened her mouth to point out that there weren't necessarily a lot of places in Greyfin Bay to celebrate that were open past seven. That she felt comfortable enough in to be celebratory.

She'd contemplated maybe going to the brewery by Lincoln City with Vik to celebrate, the one Liv had told her had a gay bartender. But she found, in her exhaustion, that she only wanted to be with the dogs.

"Jodi and Felix are here, too," she said. "Is just some takeout at the house okay? There's a Thai place that's pretty good."

"Sexy mountain man's house?" Ozzy asked, and Mae almost corrected him. She no longer thought of Dell as a mountain man, as a man at all. She only thought of him as Dell.

But not all things were hers to reveal.

"Yeah," she said. "At Dell's."

When her friends finally left to visit the beach, Mae pushed Vik and Jackson out the door to go with them.

When it came time to flip the sign on the door to Closed, to count her day's earnings for the first time, Bay Books was quiet.

Mae took out her phone.

Went better than I even dreamed, she texted.

And, after only a moment's hesitation, a statement equally as true: I miss you

And then she took a deep breath. And eventually, after the numbers were tallied, she locked the safe. Turned off the computers, the heat, the lights. Until she was ready to step through the back door and head home.

So it went in a small town, as in a city: some highs and some lows, until the day was done, and you tried again.

* * *

Jodi and Felix left before it was fully dark, as promised.

Vik and Jackson slept again in the ADU; Ben and Alexei took the guest room, previously only ever occupied by Liv. Theo and Ozzy had a rental cottage reserved just south of town; they left at ten. "All these bitches assured me there'd be room in this place to sleep on the floor or whatever." Theo kissed her cheek before they left. "But I'm too old for that shit."

Love.

Even in Dell's absence. Even in the forever absence of Jesus and Steve. Mae was surrounded by love.

No limits.