“Where are you anyway?” I ask, not recognizing the wood paneled wall behind him.
“You know that place we kept meaning to try in Raglan? I’m there. Not to just tell you everything you’re missing out on, but they have coffee that is most definitely worth flying back out here for…”
As tempting as the idea is right this moment, I know I’m not going to run again. This is my home and I’ll be damned if I let Rob Carson ruin that. He’s already taken too much of my life from me.
The first year I spent traveling I was in a bad place. I was partying too hard, drinking too much, and sleeping with almost any guy I could find. I think I wanted to prove to myself that it wasmybody. ThatIgot to choose who could touch me. No one else. But I was circling the drain and if Scott hadn’t ended up in the same hostel as me, if he hadn’t brought me the best coffee I’d ever tasted that morning, I might have kept on spiraling. I owe him a lot for pulling me out of the darkness, giving me something to focus on. Scott and coffee became my refuge.
“I’ll be fine. It’s not like he can just attack me out in the open.” One of the benefits to small town life? People are always around. “You could come visit me here though,” I say.
Scott smiles. “Yeah, maybe I will. Seriously though Lola, I don’t think you should be alone right now. Why don’t you message Skyler?”
Skyler is perhaps the one person crazy enough to believe in me and my coffee shop idea. As soon as I had a verbal agreement with Gregor I’d put out a post advertising for a barista come second pair of hands until the coffee shop is up and running. We met for an interview three weeks ago and immediately hit it off. She grew up in the city but moved to Pine Rock to be with her girlfriend, Lena, though I get the sense things aren’t going great between them.
If I’m honest, I don’t want to be alone right now either, but I also don’t want to be the boss who messages her employees at nine in the evening. “What if she thinks I’m needy?”
Scott smirks. “Maybe she’s needy too.”
I laugh. “Okay, I’ll message her.” We say our goodbyes and I push myself up from the floor and dust off my hands.
I’ve changed a lot in the past six years, and my parents are wrong. I can do this. I got my life together. I climbed Mount Everest and walked the Great Wall of China. I’m opening my own coffee shop. I will not spend my first night in my new home scared of Carson and wishing Roman was still here. I get up my chat with Skyler and send her a message.
Lola: Any chance you’re also alone and moping on a Saturday night?
Skyler: My girlfriend’s three thousand miles away. So that would be a yes.
Lola: Wanna have a sneak preview of the coffee shop?
Skyler: That’s a rhetorical question right, because of course I do. Does this mean you’ve moved in?
Lola: Kind of?
Skyler: I’m bringing champagne.
I look around the dusty space and pull open a few cupboards. All empty.
Lola: You might want to bring some glasses too.
I keep searching my new space, leaning into this whole celebrating idea. I have more luck with the cupboard under the sink. It’s filled with rolls of duct tape and old tools, but I grin when I spot a frying pan wedged at the back.
Lola: And apples, cinnamon, sugar, corn flour, and sunflower oil too.
Skyler: …
Skyler: Is this you adding personal shopper to my job description?
Lola: Do you have a slotted metal spoon?
Skyler: Remind me why I took this job…
I laugh. I’d been worried when I’d only received two applications for the job. Turns out most people aren’t happy toapply for a post that doesn’t technically exist yet. I needn’t have stressed though. I’d offered Skyler the role after five minutes. My dad would call that impulsive. I call it trusting my gut.
I know I made the right decision when Skyler appears fifteen minutes later with everything I asked for.
She cocks her hip against the door frame, a grocery bag in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. “Is it too soon to ask for a promotion?”
I grin and shake my head. “Ask me again when I’ve got some income.”
Skyler comes inside and places the bag on the bed, the beaded bracelets on her wrist clicking together as she moves.
