Page 93 of Hang the Moon
Annie nodded. “A love letter. It’s...” She scanned the words, some of the swooping letters tricky to decipher. Her heart warmed. “It’s really sweet actually. It’s from a man to his wife. He talks about missing her and how they’ve been married”—she squinted to make out the number—“forty-five years. He seems... smitten.”
Elle smiled. “You should buy it.”
Maybe she would. Only, she didn’t think she’d keep it. As much as she loved it, it felt like something Brendon would treasure. She glanced at the postcard and smiled. Oh yeah, he’d love it, even if she had to translate it for him.
“Hey, Elle?” she asked after they’d turned the corner.
“Mm-hmm?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“That is a question.” Elle winked. “But sure.”
“Your job is...”
“Weird?” Elle grinned knowingly.
Annie laughed. “I was going to sayunique, but sure. That.”
If Elle was bothered, she certainly didn’t seem it. She gave a nonchalant shrug and leaned against a shelf, first checking to make sure it was sturdy enough to hold her weight. “It is a little offbeat. I’m under no delusions about it.”
“But it makes you really happy,” Annie said. “What you do. Being an astrologer.”
“It does. I wouldn’t trade it for the chance to do anything.” She pursed her lips. “Maybe go to space.”
“But it wasn’t what you originally planned on being, right?”
Elle shook her head. “No. I dropped out of my PhD program in astronomy.”
Annie’s pulse quickened at the idea of veering so far off one’s path. Especially a path so heavily invested in. “Did you just... wake up one morning and decide to pull the trigger?”
“Kind of?” Elle wrinkled her nose, then laughed. “I’d been laying the groundwork to make the leap for a while and I’d been thinking about it, disenchanted with what I was doing for longer. It wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment,I’m dropping outkind of crisis. I’d thought about it, but Ididwake up one morning completely fed up with the idea of getting out of bed and teaching a bunch of undergrads about astronomy knowing most of them were only there because Rocks for Jocks had already filled up. I decided enough was enough. I wanted to feel... excited again. I wanted to love what I do.” She shrugged and smiled impishly. “So I did it.”
“Didn’t it... scare you shitless?” Annie asked, laughing lightly. “Talk about a leap of faith.”
Elle nodded. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge I was extremely privileged to be in the position to shift course like I did. I had my family to fall back on—not that they liked my decision or even supported it, but they’d never have let me suffer because of it. And I had Margot, which made it easier since I wasn’t alone in shifting to Oh My Stars full-time. But yeah, of course it scared me. But I was more afraid of waking up one day and wondering how my life had become something so far fromwhat I’d originally wanted for myself. I never wanted to wake up and wonder whether I’d be happier if I’d followed my heart. If I had taken that risk. Life’s too short for should-haves.”
“Carpe diem,” Annie said with a wry smile.
Elle smiled brightly. “Exactly! I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
“Likewise.”
Elle jerked her head in the direction of a wall of vintage hats; simply looking at them made Annie’s skin crawl.
“Life’s too short to waste on what-ifs and regrets. Life should be lived to the fullest. Quit school. Take a weird job. Pursue your passion. Ask the girl out.” She looked at Annie askance. “Or guy.”
Her lips curved upward. “Orgirl.”
Elle’s smile brightened and she held out a hand. “Bi five.”
Annie laughed and gave Elle a high five. It had been a long time since she’d had friends, close friends, whom she felt she could be herself around. Friends around whom she could let her hair down, be dorky without feeling judged for it. Friends who weren’t afraid to be unabashedly themselves and preferred funky antiquing outings to drinking bottomless mimosas at brunch. Not that Annie had anything against bottomless mimosasorbrunch, but she liked to mix it up.
With an eager gasp, Elle plucked a cloche hat with a giant blue butterfly affixed to it off the wall and shoved it on her head. Annie struggled not to full-body cringe, but she held her tongue. Clothes were one thing, shoes even, buthats? Hard pass.
“So.” Elle modeled her selection in the vertical mirror. “Is this about not liking your job or is it about liking Brendon?”
Annie stared, becausewow, she hadn’t expected Elle to come out and justsayit.
