Page 37 of My Begrudging Scent Matches

“Constantly,” Lily admits. “I have a couple of freelance clients I help out, and I know I could get more, but I’m scared to make the jump, you know?”

“Mhm.” Alice takes a long gulp of water.

Lily is one of the most talented designers on staff; a dream to collaborate with, a sharp designer, great at taking feedback, and more thorough than any of the other designers on the team. There’s a reason Lily's request box is always full. “What would you think about starting a boutique agency with me?”

After a moment of shocked silence, a grin spreads across Lily’s face. “Tell me more.”

Things move quickly when you’ve finally found a direction. Alice put in her two weeks notice just ten days after first talking with Lily about starting their own agency. Logan about shit a brick when she told him, his entire face flushed a pale white. He begged, was angry, tried to guilt her, and then finally landed on an unhappy acceptance.

She will officially accept clients come the new year, and will have the last few weeks of December to set up the rest of their paperwork and accounts. All the money she’d been stowing away for the last two years was enough to get them started and for her to live on without income for the next few months, at least.

She and Lily put together a website and some simple ads and already they had four people on their waitlist for January. They would be small accounts, but accounts nonetheless, and the thought was electrifying.

Caleb and Grant are still giving her space, but when Logan announces to the whole department that Alice will be leaving them before the new year, they both look up in alarm, Caleb even stands up from his desk.

Alice pulls her shoulders back as she stands next to Logan, unable to keep the slight smile from tugging at her lips.

“And of course we will all miss her very much, so whoever convinces her to stay gets lunch on me for a week. A month,” Logan says, attempting to sound like he’s joking. Everyone goes back to their own work, though Alice takes a moment to look at both Caleb and Grant before inclining her head towards the stairwell.

She goes first, up the sets of stairs to the roof access, her shoes click against the concrete steps. It’s only when she gets outside that she realizes she forgot her coat.

The sun is out for once. It heats her cheeks as she closes her eyes, she dips her head back. It’s not long before the door presses open revealing Caleb and Grant both out of breath.

“You quit?” Caleb’s eyes are still wide as he speaks, almost yelling. “Is this because of us? We could have talked about it!”

Grant shrugs off his coat and places it around Alice’s shoulders, and Caleb, still huffing and puffing and generally in a fit about this, untangles the red scarf and knots it around her neck. The scent of their clothes would be comforting enough to put her right to sleep under different circumstances.

Satisfied with her level of warmth, they stand back and wait for an explanation.

“I’m starting my own agency. With Lily.” Their stunned expressions mirror how she’s felt about all of this since deciding to take the plunge.

“That’s amazing,” Grant breathes, but Alice isn’t finished.

“I didn’t believe that you would choose me because I didn’t think that I would choose me,” Alice admits. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my life, only what I didn’t want to do, or was too afraid to do. What I didn’t want to be.”

“And what is it that you want to do?” Caleb asks.

Alice looks out over the city. The sun sets early this time of year and is already creeping its way down the horizon casting a yellow glow over the skyline.

“I want to see what I can do on my own out there. See if I can make something great.”

“You will,” Grant says.

“I will, I think,” Alice agrees. “I hope.”

Despite the late nights spent planning and working after work, and the perpetual lack of sleep without Caleb and Grant, the tired smile that’s been living on her face for the last couple of days remains. “But I don’t want to be alone.”

Caleb and Grant both freeze, neither of them allowing themselves to believe she’s saying what they’re desperate for her to say. A cold wind blows between them, lifting the ends of her hair around her face.

She stands up straighter and looks at them both. The men who have been nothing but good to her, who want nothing more than to love her.

“I need to warn you that I’m a horrible cook,” she says. “I leave the bathroom messy most mornings because I snooze my alarm way past when I know I should.”

Grant’s eyebrows inch towards each other.

“I’m a people pleaser who has a hard time saying no, and to add to that neurotic cocktail, I'm a workaholic.”

“You put way too many exclamation points in your emails,” Caleb adds.

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