Page 14 of The Fate Of Us

“Of course I do.” I plead while batting my eyes at her. She considers it for a second ortwo, the plate hanging from her hands, before she eventually slides it across the marble bar. “You treat me so well.” I hum, lining up and sinking the sweet filling into my mouth. I wipe away what crumbs I can before I ask, “How’s business?”

Flo rounds the counter before claiming the stool next to me, sitting down with a happysigh. “So much better than I could have imagined. It’s getting to the point now where I’m selling out of everything before mid-afternoon. I think it’s because of the area. We get so many commuters in the morning, all the tourists by noon, and any and all foot traffic the rest of the day.”

“It’s not the location. It’s you and your magic recipes.” I take another bite of thepastry, my tongue swiping the custard that didn’t make it in my mouth. “Face it, Flo, you’re an icon now. Like Lady Liberty, if she were British, and… not green.”

She swings her head around and dashes me with a smile. “You sure do have a waywith words, you know; you should be a writer.”

Oh, irony, you cruel, cruel mistress, I’ll get you back for this.

Unapologetically, I spent most of my free time with this girl, telling her about what Ido in the other hours of the day that don’t involve us cackling like pretty hyaenas in my apartment or staying after hours at her bakery to clean made sense. And it’s Flo, for crying out loud. It’s not as if she’ll laugh in my face when I confess that I want to be a writer, rather than an actress. I could almost guarantee she would pester me to read every single word I’d written and smile while she did.

Screw it, I need to tell her.

I set the pastry back down on the plate, swatting away the crumbs that had fallen ontomy jeans. “Ha, yeah. Um, funny you should mention that—"

“Aurora!! I need help!”

The cry from Cora halts my confession, stealing both mine and Flo’s attention andplacing it on the commotion coming from the office.

Not a second later, Rory, or Aurora, I suppose, comes bursting out of the kitchen, her head nodding to whereCora's cry came from, her eyes trained on us. “You know, one of these days she'll count up the floats right on the first try.” After a shake of her head, she jogs towards the office. “Was it the quarters again?”

“THEY LOOK LIKE TEN P’s. WHY THE HELL ARE THEY WORTHTWENTY-FIVE?!”

Once Rory was in the office, I turned my head to Flo, a mask of sympathy and delightcovering her face as she said, “She’s got a point. It took me ages to get used to these things.” My mouth curled into a smile, the parting of my lips triggering the memory of what I was about to confess—

“So, how are we feeling about today, seeing… you know who?” she asks, cupping theceramic mug in her hands and batting her lashes at me.

My eyes roll. “You can say his name, you know? It’s not like I’ll burst into flames ifyou mention him. He’s your friend too, and your boyfriend’s best friend. He and I are fine. Hunky-dory, as you say.” She narrows her eyes at me, morphing from innocent to judgey. “We’re professionals.”

“Who is?” she asks, taking a sip of coffee.

“What?”

“Who is professional?”

“I just told you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

I huffed a laugh, but there was nothing humorous about it. “You know who I mean,Flo.”

Tilting her apple-like cheeks to the ceiling, that disappointed-looking smile that isn’treally a smile touches her lips, before those green globes connect with my fiery ones.“You can’t even say his name, Addy. That’s not professional; it’s worrying.” I dragmy eyes to the marble, the swirls of white and grey distracting me from what Iprobably need to hear. “Especially since you won’t tell me what even happened between you two to end up this way.”

Her cup chimes as she rests it against the marble, forcing my eyes back to her. “I’mjust saying, it’s a long shoot, longer than Defenders was. I don’t know what went on between you, but maybe, I don’t know… Maybe it’s time you both resolved whatever it was. Being angsty with each other will only heal that hurt part of you temporarily. It’s like putting a band-aid on a broken leg, hoping that somehow the hurt will just disappear with no real effort to treat it.”

I felt her lift her hand and rest it on the crown of my head, smoothing out the frizz thathad likely happened thanks to the wind.

“Sooner or later, you’ll both have to face up to what caused your feud in the firstplace, but the longer you leave it Add’s, the more damage you’ll have to fix.”

The thing I loved most about Florence, besides her baking skills, was that she lovedthe people who loved her with such gentle intensity that I wondered how I’d survived twenty-five years on this planet without her by my side. If you showed her you cared, she’d care back with triple the force. Compliment her; she’ll send you a thank you card and flowers with same-day delivery. She was such a beautiful soul, and the thing about souls like hers was that lying just wasn’t something they considered a good way to spend their time.

Which is why every word that just left her balmed lips, was nothing but the truth.

As much as it felt like a punch in the gut to admit, she was right. That comfortablesilence we existed in was bound to get old soon. But the thing was, even if I wanted to resolve things with Nate, even if I approached him first and told him I wanted us to go back to the way we used to be. I knew for a fact that he wasn’t interested in anything of the sort.

Or at least that’s what I’d tried to tell myself after watching him scribble his signatureonto that contract all those weeks ago. Now I wasn’t so sure.

“I know,” I muttered, my words hitting the marble since my head had dipped back toface it, before finding the strength to reach her eyes again. “Thank you… for that.”

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