Page 11 of April Flowers

“Oh no,” Gabby said, her shoulders slumping.

“It’s not about that,” Margot hurried to say.

“But you broke up with him. On Valentine’s Day?”

“Actually, he broke up with me,” Margot said.

Gabby’s eyes widened. It was a first, at least since Gabby had started working in the flower shop. “I can’t believe he broke up with you on Valentine’s Day!” Her hand was in a fist.

“Don’t worry about it,” Margot said. “He realized we weren’t a good match. I’ve known that for a while.”

Gabby licked her lips, which was a habit Margot knew she was trying to break. “What did he say?”

“He said I was impossible to know. Not a lie.” Margot rubbed her eyes and smeared makeup across her cheeks. She couldn’t care. Biting her tongue, she willed herself to say what she’d come here to say. She willed herself to enact the change the world required of her.

For twenty years, everything in her life has been more or less the same.

Was she brave enough to change?

She wasn’t sure.

“Gabby, I have to go out of town for a little while,” Margot said.

Gabby straightened her spine. “That’s great,” she said finally, shaking her head. “When was the last time you went on vacation? Oh, you should go somewhere sunny and warm. Somewhere with a beach. Maybe you could even meet someone there.”

People who were coupled always wanted single people to meet someone. Like that was the only thing we were put on earth to do.

Margot willed herself not to roll her eyes. “It’s not a vacation. It’s a family thing. A kind of, um, problem that I have to fix.”

Just like with Pete, Margot had never mentioned her family to Gabby. Gabby looked suddenly mystified and smacked her hand over her mouth. “Oh. I’m so sorry I said that thing about going on vacation, for goodness’ sake. How awful. Are you okay?”

Margot grimaced. Was she okay? Had she even had time to think about her own okay-ness? “I’m fine. I will be, at least.”

But she wasn’t sure about that. She’d never taken more than a few days off from the flower shop since she opened it. She’d hardly left Boston since she’d moved here. She’d never craved enormous vacations. She’d never craved stepping so far out of the beautiful life she’d built.

“I need you to run the store while I’m gone,” she said. “You’ve been here long enough. You know how everything works.”

Gabby looked floored. She looked as though Margot was asking her to adopt her child. In a sense, Margot was—but only temporarily.

“I’d love to,” Gabby said, her voice a whisper. “Wow. It’s an honor.”

“I’m going to call Stephanie later this morning and see if she’ll help out,” Margot said, speaking of the woman Gabby had replaced, a woman who’d had a couple of babies and needed to step away from the shop. Now that her babies were older, in school and daycare, Margot guessed Stephanie could work fifteen to twenty hours a week, filling in for Gabby’s shifts as Gabby took over Margot’s.

“I won’t be far,” Margot went on. “I can come up to the city whenever you need me.”

She hoped that was true, at least.

“You’re going to Nantucket, then,” Gabby said, looking appropriately confused.

When Margot had first mentioned to Gabby that she’d been born in Nantucket, Gabby had rattled off countless stories of her childhood vacations there, where a friend of her father owned a beautiful gray-sided house on the sands. It hadn’t taken Gabby long to realize Margot didn’t want to talk about Nantucket. The mere mention of it brought a greenish sheen to Margot’s face.

“Tell me what to do, boss,” Gabby said now. “Let’s get you out of Boston as soon as we can.”

Margot bit her tongue to keep from weeping. When was the last time she’d let anyone take control? When was the last time she’d let anyone help her?

Twenty years ago, she thought.Do I know how to let go?

As much as she wanted to resist, she had to find a way.

---