Page 11 of February

“I don’t like this, Mom. I don’t agree with it. We have other options.”

“Maybe, but this is the best one,” her mother replied.

“And I don’t get a say in this?”

“No, honey.”

“Sellmethe company,” Bridgette stated and stood. “I can’t pay what they’d pay you, but I have some savings.”

“Bridge, you’d drain everything you had for nothing. If you did that, you’d have nothing to pay the employees and nothing to pay the printers and–”

“I’ll think of something else, then. Maybe you and Dad can sell it to me for cheap. Like, I pay you something up front, and I pay the rest as we start turning a profit again.”

“You’d have no money left, Bridgette. We aren’t going to put you in a position where you don’t have a job and your savings are gone.”

“So, that’s a no?”

Her mom nodded.

“Fine,” Bridgette replied. “Then, that’s that. I guess we should just all give up.”

“That’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to save as much as we can.”

“I need to go,” Bridgette told her.

“Honey, let’s keep talking.”

“There’s no point, anyway,” Bridgette replied.

She pulled open the door and left the office. When her mom didn’t follow, Bridgette grabbed her bag and walked out to her car. She climbed inside and pulled out her phone, planning to call Melinda to see if her friend wanted to go for a drink, but she saw a text from her ex-girlfriend instead. Bridgette’s eyebrow lifted. She knew it was a bad idea, but she responded anyway before hitting the road. Thirty minutes later, she knocked on Toya’s door and was met with caramel skin and dark-brown eyes looking back at her.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hey,” Toya said back as she pulled the door open farther.

“So, how does this work?”

“I don’t think there are any rules,” Toya replied as she closed the door behind her.

“I had a shitty day at work, Toya.”

“So did I.”

“So, you texted with this idea because you had a bad day?”

“I texted you to see if you really meant what you said on the phone, that this could just be fun with no strings and no talk of us moving in together.”

“This, meaning sex?” Bridgette asked.

“Well, it’s not sexyet.”

“You want it to be?”

“Yes,” Toya replied. “There were parts of our relationship that stressed me out, but there were other parts that were always really, really good.”

“And you’d like only those parts?”

“I’d like your parts on my parts,” Toya told her as she wrapped her arms around Bridgette’s neck. She shook her head and laughed. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

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