Page 85 of Fire Island
She’s mine.
Like I said,nonnegotiable.
Twenty-Three
EVIE
Iris hands me a blue top she spent ten painstaking minutes to hunt down. “I knew it was here. I saw it last time and thought it looked like you.”
I take it from her outstretched hand as she turns back to the secondhand shop rack, searching for who knows what. The small shop has so much stuff, I have no idea how they find anything. Not one thing here is the same as the other, and it’s almost like a treasure hunt.
I love it.
I trawl through the jeans and shorts, trying to find something else to add to my collection. I love wearing shorts in summer, tank tops and pretty blouses I find online. Now, nothing will beat this new thrill I have discovered of rummaging through racks to find a gem.
I’ve never really been a shoes-and-bag girl. More money for books that way. Even without the big bookstores and one-day shipping from the big one-click merchants, I have managed to start a small collection of fantasy and romance books in the shack.
My mail has been redirected to Iris’s café for the foreseeable future. Something I felt bad asking to do, but she was overjoyedI’m staying. And so am I. I’ve written a good chunk of my new project and spent more time outside touching grass and getting sunlight than I have in the last six years.
I feel . . . Alive.
Before Fire Island, life was a mirage of various tones of grey.
Now, I see in Technicolor.
Urgh, that is so corny, Evie.
I chuckle at myself, flipping items along the rack.
“Something funny?” Iris stops beside me, one sweet brow raised.
“Just my corny mind.”
“I doubt it. I think your beautiful mind is what makes you a great writer.”
I scoff at that. No, it doesn’t. It makes me eccentric at best, antisocial at worst.
“And your big heart,” she adds, handing me another top. “This one, it’ll bring out your eyes.”
Such deep conversation for a shopping trip. I realize every piece Iris piles into my arms is for me, apparently. She doesn’t have anything for herself besides an emerald scarf she found on the way in.
“You’re not getting something?” I ask.
“Oh, I raided this place last month for myself. I thought I would take you to all the best spots, you know. Make a girls’ day of it. Show you what this little town has to offer. This is the last stop, I’m afraid.”
We’ve covered the little bookstore, the pharmacy that doubles as a gift shop and has amazing stuff, and had morning tea at a teahouse at the other end of town. Is Iris trying to convince me to stay?
Like I have any choice at this point. In fact, I doubt I’ll renew my apartment lease in the city when it comes due in a few months. At least, I hope I won’t have to.
I know we’ve talked about it, but I guess that’s another conversation I should have with Cal. Because giving up my apartment would mean I have no other place to go, if...
Apart from going home to my parents, I guess.
Good lord, no way.
“I think we’ve covered every rack,” Iris says as she walks toward me. Her arms carry a few more clothing items.
“Find something good?”
