Page 166 of The Perfect Love

“I’ll eat to that.”

We both finish our brownies in three bites or less—can’t help it, Rae’s recipe is so damn good—and look around the empty room.

“This time last year, I was still shrouded in darkness. I’d finally gotten out of bed, but I was angry and bitter. Looking back, it’s hard to put into words how deeply I was hurting. How desperately I needed something like this.”

“Going to my first support group changed everything for me. It helped me finally say the words out loud and tell my parents.”

“I wish I would’ve found something like this during that time in my life, but the group wasn’t what I needed most. It was more support. Friendship.” My voice drops with the last word.

Unsurprisingly, Rae immediately wraps me in a hug. “I’m so glad I met you. I love my friends and my sister with all my heart, but you and I connect in a different way—and I don’t just mean shared trauma. Your passion for helping people, uplifting women, and making your little corner of the world better inspires me. You know the first thing I thought when I saw you?”

“No. What?”

“That I had a total girl crush on you. Now I’m lucky enough to call you a friend, and I’m so grateful for that.”

I bump my shoulder against hers. “Back at you.”

“So, are you excited about the women’s festival this weekend?”

I light up immediately. “I can’t wait. I love that Promise has intertwined with it in a small way.”

“Promise is a business built around supporting women. That’s exactly why they should be there.”

“I appreciate you all jumping on board and coming with me.”

“Are you kidding? It sounds like it’s going to be amazing. Possibly our most epic girls’ night ever,” Rae says with a laugh.

We’ll both be working at the booth Promise will have at the festival for the morning on Saturday, then Amanda, Mackie, Sarah, and Hyla are meeting us, and we’re going to spend therest of the day exploring and having fun. After helping Nadine and the other wonderful women I met along the way plan this, I’m ridiculously excited to see how it all comes together.

More people wander in, so we focus on our meeting hosting duties. Like always, we introduce ourselves and then hand the floor over to whoever wants to talk. A few minutes into the meeting, I notice the girl in the hoodie from a couple of months ago—Maura—walk in with another girl, and my heart warms. It sucks that she was right and her friend went through something that would bring her here, but she’s an incredible friend for showing up and now bringing her here.

After the meeting is finished, I end up in a conversation about the women’s festival, which has been getting some great buzz. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of turnout there ends up being.

When I excuse myself from that group, I turn around, hoping to find Maura and her friend, only to find them looking back at me from near the snack table.

I make my way over to them, the girl with Maura looking a little overwhelmed and uncertain. I’ve been there. And I’ve come a long way since then. It all happened so slowly that I didn’t really notice, but it’s like the steady climb up a mountain. You don’t realize just how high up you are until you’re looking back at where you came from.

“Hi. Maura, right?”

“Yeah. This is the friend I told you about. Harley, this is Chelsea.”

“Hi,” Harley says softly, though a bit of brightness appears in her eyes.

“Hi. I’m glad you came.”

“I’m thankful you encouraged Maura to ask me about all of it.” Tears well in her eyes, but she waves a hand away. “We actually went to Promise a couple of weeks ago, but you weren’t there.Thank you. I was so afraid to even say the words. Talking to Maura helped.”

“She’s the one you should be grateful to. I gave her some advice, but it takes a great friend to recognize when their friends need help.”

Harley reaches over and squeezes Maura’s hand.

“Did you want or need to talk about anything?” I ask.

Harley shakes her head. “Not right now. Just being here helped.”

“Good. I’m glad. I hope we’ll see you again in the future.”

“And it’s always fine to bring friends for support,” Rae says, coming to stand next to me.

---