If I hadn’t gotten caught out in a storm three years ago and docked in California as a result, I wouldn’t be here.
Movemight as well be my middle name. I’ve never stayed in one place for more than five years, and I certainly don’t see myself exceeding that time limit here with the Venom Vultures.
Sure, it’s nice to be on the ground for once instead of the ocean, but home isn’t an external place. It’s a feeling.
And I’m still on the hunt for that.
9
CARMEN
Grocery shoppingjust got a thousand times more fun.
I throw organic produce into the shopping cart instead of regular. I can be picky with my choice of peanut butter and opt for the healthier, more expensive version, instead of the cheap stuff that has a shit load of preservatives in it.
When I make it to the baby aisle, there’s no need to shudder at the extortionate price of diapers. I can select whichever brand I want and throw it in my cart without having to second-guess if I can afford it or not.
I’m pushing the cart along the health and beauty aisle when I run into a co-worker I normally work the late shift with.
Guilty as charged—I resigned last week and only gave my manager two days notice. What are they gonna do? File a complaint? Fire me? Write me a terrible reference?
Thanks to Carter Trescott and his motorcycle club, I now get to live life on easy mode. I now get to be one of those moms who drops their child off at school wearing a matching activewear set.In one hand is their child, in the other is their overpriced iced matcha latte—fuel for their morning pilates class.
“What happened to you? Did you win the lottery or something?” Michael asks.
“It was the jackpot,” I say. “It’s crazy, isn’t it, how one decision can change everything?”
“You can say that again,” Michael says, scanning his eyes up and down my outfit.
I went shopping yesterday after dropping Otis off at preschool. After setting up a trust fund for him, I decided to treat myself to a shopping spree—something I didn’t know the true definition of until yesterday.
I didn’t go too crazy, but it felt nice to be able to afford mine and Sadie’s dream brown leather boots.
“Are those Isabel Marant?”
I lift my heel off the floor and give my foot a little twirl. “They certainly are.”
“You lucky bitch.”
I look at Michel’s astounded face and realize that maybe it’s just luck.
But is it just luck that I reunited with a past fling (the best one out of them all) and enjoyed it more than I should’ve? I don’t know if there’s a term to describe that.
Until I turn around, ready to push the shopping cart along the aisle, and bump into Carter Trescott.
I take that back. There is a term to describe all of this.
The term is: coincidence.
I gape at him. “What are you doing here?”
He looks me up and down like I’ve just asked him the most stupid question on earth. Or is he checking out my outfit as well?
“I’m here for the same reason most people come to a grocery store—to shop,” he says.
“At this store? I haven’t seen you here before.”
Carter’s face says it all—he’s shocked. Maybe more so than me. That means he hasn’t been stalking me.
