Page 4 of February

“Go on,” Bridgette said.

“If it’s not Toya, honey, it’ll be someone else, and that someone will be perfect for you.”

“I thought Toya was perfect for me.”

“And maybe she was for a while, but not forever. You weren’t together all that long.”

“Six months.”

“And you fell pretty hard for her. Sometimes, all those hormones, when you first meet someone, get in the way of figuring out if it’s meant for now or meant for forever.”

“I get it. I just sit here, writing and stocking cards about happily-ever-afters and anniversaries and love, and it’s hard sometimes because I don’t have that, the thing that we put in all of those cards, summarizing the feelings in a few words so that someone can give it to the person they love.”

“Do you want to write some breakup cards for a while? That could be fun.”

Bridgette laughed but said, “That’s not a bad idea. I bet if I made some and put them online, we’d–”

“Honey, we’ve talked about the online thing.”

“Mom, we’re struggling. Why won’t you let me do this?”

“Your father and I like the local part of our business. We’ve always done well enough here.”

“But that’s not the case anymore. We need–”

“Morning,” Dan, the newest member of the team, who had joined them about a year ago, greeted as he walked into the office.

“We’ll finish this later,” Bridgette said.

“We’ve already finished it,” her mom told her with a wink. “Good morning, Dan. How’s your mom?”

“Oh, she’s good. The break wasn’t as bad as the doctor thought, and she’ll be out of the cast in a few weeks.”

Bridgette didn’t listen to the rest of their conversation. She got to work after declining the offer for lunch, knowing thatKyle would be there. They’d only just gotten together, meeting at the beginning of the year, and they were already, somehow, magically in love, which was amazing, but considering they’d only met because Bridgette had asked Melinda to go out with her to help Bridgette meet a woman, and that Bridgette had actually seen Kyle first, it still kind of stung that Melinda hadhappenedinto love while Bridgette continued to sit at her desk, coming up with words to describe it for their next card line that would come out in just a week to be in time for Valentine’s Day.

She worked until lunch, went to grab a sandwich from a local shop down the street, and then picked herself up with another cup of coffee around two. After that, she grabbed her list and the cards she’d need and hit the road. Since laying off the contractors they used to use to replenish their cards in the local stores, Bridgette had mainly been responsible for doing it. She didn’t mind. It got her out of the office, and she could take her mind off of things as she focused on making sure the stores all had the right quantity of the cards they’d ordered. She also liked seeing her family’s company work out in the wild, so to speak. Whenever she walked into a shop in the Quarter or on Canal Street, she’d walk over to the card rack or wall to see if they carried anything from them. If she didn’t see anything, she left her card, and if she did, she smiled. It made her proud that the small family business she’d inherit someday was delivering smiles through their work. If shedidend up working on break-up cards, though, she supposed that might change.

After hours of restocking, her drive back home was long due to the traffic coming in and out of the city, so as she sat in her car, she thought about Toya and their time together, wondering what had gone so wrong. They’d met, instantly connected, and had a lot of really amazing sex. While it was true that they’d used every toy in the drawer that Jill had seen that morning, it had been more than that, though: she’d been in love. Toya had been,too. They’d said as much to each other. And they’d made plans, damn it. They’d made plans.

“Hello? Bridgette?” Toya said when she answered.

“Yeah, it’s me. Her,” Bridgette replied.

She’d called Toya for no reason in particular and connected through the Bluetooth in her car. Now, she had no idea what to say.

“What’s going on?”

“We were making plans.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When we were together, Toya, we were making plans.”

“Oh,” Toya said. “Why did you call, Bridge? We broke up months ago.”

“I wanted to know why, so I called.”

“Why we broke up?”

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