Feeling overwhelmed? Stop whatever you’re doing. Take a deep breath. Release it. And look at the clock. When is the last time you ate? Sometimes a piece of cake can change your entire perspective.
She posted a picture of her taking a bite of cake, along with the caption, and posted. She knew the comments would be a mix of people agreeing with her and sharing their own hangry stories, and raking her over the coals for suggesting that people eat sugar as a method for solving a problem. She’d learned over the years she couldn’t please everyone. And some people would take anything she said to an extreme—like her eating a piece of cake meant she was sending the message that all people, no matter their unique dietary needs, should also eat cake.
She tried to ignore the negativity and had given her family strict instructions to ignore it too.
Grandma waited for her to post and put her phone away before she handed Eliana a baggie of almonds and a cheese stick. Eliana laughed as she took the snacks, feeling like she was in elementary school again. “Thank you, Grandma.”
“Can you do me a favor?”
“Oh, so all this food was just buttering me up to get a favor?” Eliana teased.
“Of course not.” Grandma Winnie placed a very offended hand on her chest. “One of my greatest pleasures in life is to feed my loved ones.”
It was true. One of the ways Grandma Winnie showed her love was by making sure they’d all eaten more than enough.
“But,” she continued, a teasing spark in her eye. “Your mom and Cameron are up at The Palms Clinic doing speech therapy. Cam left his spiky ball here last time he visited. Can you run it over to him? If you leave now, you’ll catch them just as they’re leaving.”
Grandma held out Cameron’s silicone ball with floppy spikes. He had at least three at Julia’s apartment, so it didn’t seem necessary to make sure he got this one, too, but Grandma dropped it in Eliana’s lap.
“His session ends in ten minutes. If you hurry, you can get there in time to see him. I mean them.”
Eliana stood, and Grandma pushed gently on her lower back as she directed her toward the door. Maybe Grandma wanted alone time or needed space. Eliana knew exactly how that felt.
“Okay, I’m going.” She laughed and turned to hug Grandma Winnie. She breathed in her grandma’s familiar gardenia-scented perfume. It was one of the most comforting scents in Eliana’s life. In Boston, if someone walked by wearing it, she was immediately transported to her after school snacks in Grandma’s kitchen, telling her about her friend-drama of the week. “See you tomorrow?”
“Yes. Now go.”
She pushed Eliana over the threshold and shut the door behind her.
Eliana inhaled the salty ocean air and slipped off her shoes to walk through the sand toward The Palms. There was a sidewalk, but she loved the feel of sand pressing into the arches of her feet while the sun shone down on her face. Though some distant clouds loomed, it was a gorgeous day in southern Florida. The kind that made her want to lie out on a towel and forget every responsibility.
But that wasn’t going to happen until she found a way to record and edit two videos. One of them could be short, but the other needed to be at least twenty-minutes long.
She put her sandals back on and went into The Palms clinic. Her mom had explained that since some of the therapists rented space in the clinic, they were allowed to schedule private patients in addition to their Palms resident patients.
She sat in the waiting room of the rehabilitation arm of the clinic for only a couple of minutes before Cameron walked down the hall toward her. Her mom was a few steps behind, chatting with Asher. The speech therapist who didn’t look like a speech therapist.
He hadn’t noticed her yet, and she took a moment to study him. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been all sexy scowls and furrowed brows, but with her mom and Cameron his face was less surly.
He didn’t look like the kind of person who spent his entire day in a clinic. His skin had the sun-touched tone of a man who spent hours outside. The black scrubs he wore hugged his biceps, and she could see the barest tip of a tattoo peeking from beneath his sleeve. Just enough to spark her curiosity.
Eliana never thought she’d get a tattoo—it’s such a huge commitment—but on the year anniversary of her divorce, she found herself searching online for tattoo artists, and two weeks later, she had the outline of Louisa May Alcott resting above her hip bone.
She’d never posted about it on her social media, and though it wasn’t a secret, she wasn’t sure if her family even knew about it. It was something she’d done just for her; a way to have Lou with her everywhere she went.
“Elly!” Mom gave her a hug while Cameron did some sort of high-five handshake with Asher. Her heart softened. She was still bugged with Asher for towing her car, but having a good relationship with Cameron went a long way with Eliana. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you were working this afternoon.”
“I was trying to, but Grandma said Cam forgot his ball at their place and you’d be missing it.”
Mom took the spiky ball with a raised eyebrow. “He has at least three of these at home. Pretty sure he’s not missing this one—”
Cameron yanked it from her hands and held it to his cheek like he was giving it a hug after a long reunion.
“Or, maybe not,” Mom said wryly. “Thank you, hon.”
“Anytime.” Eliana gave Cam a quick kiss on the side of his head, but he was so involved in squishing the spiky ball he didn’t acknowledge her.
She felt someone’s gaze on her, and looked to see Asher watching her carefully.
