Page 72 of C*cky Best Friend

Chapter Thirty-Three

Samantha

Eleven months later

Zoe, Lexi, and I are standing out front of our church, eating doughnuts like we do almost every Sunday. The sun is shining, blocked sometimes by fluffy clouds. This is my favorite thing about church, the social hour afterward where everyone is in a good mood while we stand out here and catch up on each other’s lives. I think it should be designed to bring good people together. Not sure if it always does, but it’s my draw.

“Samantha, I have an idea.” Lexi wipes jelly from the corner of her lip while Zoe and I wait with interest. From the shine in her eyes, it’s a good one. “Why don’t you quit that restaurant, and I quit Om This, and together we start up a dance school for kids.”

Zoe gasps.

I blink at Lex, stunned by how amazing that sounds. “Can we do that? Is that possible?”

Excited I like the idea, she launches in, “I’ve been doing the books for Paige. I’m really good at it after all this time, and I was just thinking, what if I applied this business knowledge to running one of my own? I could be my own boss. But then I thought, what kind of business would I run? And nothing came. No answer. I’ve been sitting with this idea for a long time and then suddenly I saw it. You and me, little kids, dance, and nobody telling us what to do. It’s like going back in time only now we’re in charge!”

I scream, “This is the best idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life!”

Zoe starts laughing as Lexi grins with hope, “You really like it? You wouldn’t mind going into business with me?”

“Why would I mind?!”

Looking insecure for maybe the first time ever, Lexi shrugs, “You said I have big feelings, remember?”

“Caden said that.”

“Yes, and you said that I just don’t know where to put them sometimes. I know what you meant. The ups and downs I have are kind of extreme.”

“I need a napkin.” I motion for them to follow me to where the lady sells these doughnuts. Wiping cinnamon sugar off of my fingers I insist to Lexi, “The second you said we could go into business together, all I thought was a big yes. A huge yes.”

Lexi whispers on a huge grin, “It would be so fun. I know it’s a lot of work to start something from scratch, but they always say that if you love what you do, it’s not work!”

“But you dropped out of dance,” Zoe reminds her.

“I got out of dance because I didn’t see a career in it. And I didn’t like how competitive it was. Just like Sam.” Locking eyes with me, she says, “That’s why she didn’t go to Broadway. But I saw that coming way beforehand. And I just didn’t love it enough, for myself. But I had so much fun dancing when I was a kid! And all this time we’ve been spending with our cousins’s kids, it just makes me so happy. I love kids. It would be us running the show. Our show. Our studio. Oh my God, a studio, just like how Dad has his! We’re still going into music, just in a different way.”

I laugh at how excited she is. “And a different kind of studio.”

“They still share the same world.” Jogging a thumb to our cousin, she says, “If Zoe can successfully have her own florist business, then we can do this.”

Our cousin doesn’t take offense at this, but instead exclaims, “This is the best idea ever!”

My phone rings and I dig it out of my bag to see Logan’s name shining. Without hesitation I answer, “You’re a day early.”

Zoe and Lexi turn around, saying how it’s an excellent time to celebrate with a bear claw.

Logan’s voice is strange. “I’m calling early because I can’t talk tomorrow. But I had to keep my promise to you.”

“Are you guys traveling again? You just got to Paris two months ago, right?”

“We’re still here. Tomorrow I have plans to take a day trip to Dinan, France.”

“Where is that?”

“On the coast by Saint-Malo.”

I have no idea what that means, so I smile and start to say, “Oh, that sounds like fun,” but only get out, “Oh that sounds—” when he interrupts me.

“With my girlfriend.”

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