Chapter 24

Stab me in the eye with a ballpoint pen.

I thought it couldn't possibly be that bad.

It was worse.

I was shoved into a room with a dozen snotty men who looked like they were cloned in a lab. They were even ruder than I imagined, and they definitely whispered the word "hoodlum" to one another at least once. They asked me a bunch of questions that didn't pertain to the job and judged me when I answered incorrectly. It was an absolute nightmare.

And unfortunately, I still got the job.

So I guess that's the end of it. I don't have a choice anymore. The job is my fate. I have to take it, and I have to move away from my family.

I'm going to become a snotty insurance clone. How fun.

I leave the office feeling lower than ever. I've gotten everything I wanted, and now, I wish that I could give it all back. This stupid trip has ruined my life. All I've gotten is a lot of heartache and a lot of misery. I wish I could go back and never get on that plane to begin with.

I guess the one positive aspect of all of this is the travel points I'm owed for all the delays. Maybe I can take a trip to Hawaii one day, that is if I don't become a corporate robot. I don't think corporate robots take many tropical trips.

I leave the lobby with my phone held to my ear.

"Yeah, could I get a large pepperoni and then a side of cheese bread? Oh, and a large soda. Wait, no...a large diet soda. Yeah...That'll be all. How much? Jesus, alright. I?—"

I freeze mid-step. Mid-sentence. I must be hallucinating. Lucy?

There's no way she's here right now, breathless and frazzled.

Lucy?!

And beautiful.

"Lucy!" I abruptly end the call.

Her long brown curls are down and framing her face, painting her in a light of purity. The sage green dress she's wearing flows down and pools at her knees. She's looking at me, and I finally feel seen again.

I'm not this lucky. I have never been this lucky. There's absolutely no chance Lucy came back for me. I wanted it. I wanted it so, so badly. But when have I ever gotten what I want?

"I'm so sorry I left," she tells me, running up and throwing her arms around me in one quick motion. I feel her hands brushing against the sensitive skin of my neck as her fingers weave into my hair, the very same way they did before.

It's her. It's really Lucy.

"I didn't really want to," she says quickly. "It's just that I thought for sure that I was doing the right thing, and now I'm not even sure what the right thing is, but I know that I don't want to go back to being strangers. Even if we're just acquaintances who only like each other's posts every three months on social media, that's fine. I just want you in my life. I don't?—"

"You're cute when you ramble." I pull away from her with a beaming grin and tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, shut up." She moves forward and presses her lips to mine, not hungrily nor lustfully, but sweetly. There's no fight for dominance or even any semblance of demanded control. Her lips linger just long enough on mine to make my heart do a backflip. When she pulls away, I can still taste the tropical coconut of her lip balm lingering on my skin. I think that even if I smelled it every day for the rest of my life, I'd never get sick of that scent.

"So," she begins breathlessly, her cheeks dangerously close to being pink, "I have a wedding to go to. Wanna be my date?"

I can't help but burst out laughing. I take her face in my hands and run my thumbs along the warm silk of her cheeks, shaking my head at her silly smile.

"I thought you'd never ask."

She rests her hands over mine and gently takes hold of them. We begin to walk in tandem down the sidewalk, just a couple of overdressed idiots consumed by schoolchildren crushes.

"So, how'd the interview go?" Lucy asks me as we walk.

"Terrible. I got the job."

Lucy hums in a way that seems partly sympathetic and partly amused. I let it slide, though. It's her God-given right to make fun of me anytime she pleases. "Well, congratulations and apologies. What are you gonna do about it?"

I shrug easily. "I don't know, and I don't care. A wise woman once told me to do what my heart tells me. I just gotta figure out what in the hell my heart is saying because I don't think it's speaking English."

Lucy giggles and playfully shoves my arm. "Idiot."

I smile and shove right back. "Nerd."