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“Last week, I talked to my attorney, and we made some changes.” She grinned, her wide smile showing off a set of still-healthy teeth. “I’m giving you the store, Anya.”
I gaped at her. This was probably the last thing I expected to hear from her when I walked in, my mind so focused on how I was going to explain the store’s newfound success, and how I was going to couch it to her so she’d understand I couldn’t guarantee the sales moment would stick around. I hadn’t seen something like this coming at all.
“Are you serious?” I managed.
“As a heart attack,” she replied. “And it’s all done.”
“What about the rare books? Your children won’t... won’t contest that?”
“No, dear. They won’t. We had a long discussion about it a few days ago. They understand the sacrifices you have made to run the store. They know how happy you’ve made me, and how hard you’ve worked to keep the business going. You love the store as much as I do; that’s obvious.”
She patted my hand, and I swallowed a lump in my throat. I was on the verge of tears. It had been so long since I allowed myself to cry, so long since I let myself be vulnerable. After what happened in Chicago, I’d spent more time walling myself up, shutting myself away from people who wanted to get close to me.
But they still managed to do so.
“Wow. Well, thank you,” I said. “I would be so honored to keep The Green Frog running as long as I can.”
I stood and rounded the table so I could embrace Gwen, pulling her close to me so we could deeply hug for the first time since I started working for her. In the past, there had been plenty of times when I felt close to her, and a handful of moments when I felt like we’d gone to a deeper, more heartfelt level, but this was different from all of those.
This was real. This was true. And it was a future I could depend on.
I was still thinking about it later, when I left Gwen’s place to head home. Somehow, a lot of things in my life were going right. Moving back to New Burlington had been a great idea, and it showed me that life was full of twists and turns that could be scary but also fulfilling.
Too bad my love life isn’t also that way.
Stopping at a red light in the center of town, I glanced at the clock on my car dashboard. Six forty-five. The opening night for Robert’s store would be in full swing by now, and I imagined most of the movers and shakers in town were there, congratulating him and remarking on the renovation.
No matter.
I didn’t want to be part of it. Sure, I’d gotten the invitation he dropped off a few days earlier, slipped underneath the front door of The Green Frog, a handwritten note attached to it that practically begged me to attend. But I wasn’t giving in. Nothing said I had to go.
Especially not after the way he treated me, regarding his Miami “business trip.”
No, that part of my life was in the past too. The light changed from red to green, and I turned onto Friendship Avenue, taking the longer way home that wound through the outskirts of town instead of past the main business district.
Robert had his future, and I had mine. That was all I needed to know.
