Bali?They had moved to Bali? Or were they just vacationingthere? Ani scoured the rest of the photos, and it seemed that immediately after the wedding they had absconded to Bali. So maybe they hadn’t moved but they were on a very, very long vacation/hideout in Indonesia. She couldn’t serve them in Bali, much less get there. She didn’t have a casual thousand dollars to spend on a twenty-hour flight to have a public tiff.
Well. That was the end of that trail. Her stomach twisted, a tight, helpless rage coiling in her chest.
She wouldn’t be seeing that money anytime soon. Probably ever. A hard-earned lesson, sure. But hard-earned lessons didn’t pay her assistant. Didn’t keep her business afloat. Didn’t undo the hours she’d poured into their wedding.
She hated that there was going to be no justice here. No confrontation. No legal recourse. No cathartic, dramatic reckoning where she got to stand in front of them and demand what she was owed.
Just this. Just staring at their smug, sun-kissed faces through a phone screen, while everything she’d built dangled in uncertainty, its fate resting in the hands of her ex-girlfriend. Who she hoped like hell loved what she saw on-site today.
Ani slunk back into the kitchen to find Sanan polishing off the last of the manti, straight from the Tupperware.
“Okay, let’s head to the winery.”
“You got it,” Sanan said.
Time to seeRaffi.
Ani stepped out onto the winery’s parking lot, once again nervous as hell. This time, as she and Sanan approached the walkway that had the rock moat, Ani noticed it was gone.
“They got rid of that plywood eyesore,” Sanan said.
“Yes…” Ani said, thinking that she hadn’t been on-site in way too long.
They rounded back toward the garden, and Ani held her breath, waiting for the moment she would see Raffi. Her heart pumped hard, and her vision fuzzed around the edges in anticipation.
Then she spotted him, standing in his paradise like a lost prince, casually suited as always, staring at the open valley.
He turned when he heard Ani and Sanan making their way into the yard, and Ani’s mouth burst into a huge smile. She hadn’t meant it—the action was entirely involuntary—but the sight of him made her body sing. His hands, his lips, so strong and soft at the same time. The scent of him, cultivated and fresh. Why had she rejected him again? Something about her fragile heart? Oh God, she saw why she had kept her distance. She was an absolute goner around him.
They approached Raffi, and Chris emerged from the other side of the garden, too.
“Hi, Raffi,” Ani said, catching his eyes, then looking down. “Chris, hi.” She smiled politely.
She wanted to hug Raffi but didn’t think she’d be able to let him go. He looked at her for a long moment, a trace of a smile playing at his lips. As she held his gaze, it felt like he was weighing something, turning it over in his mind, and every second he stared, Ani grew warmer and warmer. She finally broke away and released a breath.
She glanced around, realizing she hadn’t scrutinized the work at all yet. “This is incredible. So much progress in so little time. Never seen anything like it.”
Raffi clapped Chris on the back. “Told you he was the best.”
Chris waved it off. “Yeah, yeah. I had the time so why not be on track to finish ahead of schedule?”
“I like that,” Sanan blurted out awkwardly. She blushed red.
Ani said quickly, “It’s true. You’ve made all of our jobs easier.”
Chris smiled. “I’m going to have to leave if you all keep complimenting me.”
Then heel clicks sounded from the side of the garden and Kami appeared, Grace-less but with Galia, her younger sister. That was a nice surprise.
“Hi, Galia,” Ani said with a wave.
“My first time here. Wow. This is totally amazing!” she replied, staring around her.
Kami stepped into the garden wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a long gauzy taupe dress that split down the middle to reveal knee-high boots. She was pretty and her outfit was hot, Ani remarked to herself, and yet she felt no longing. Not even a twinge. Not being sucked in by Kami, it felt like a superpower. Like she’d been deprogrammed from some years-long hypnotic spell and could finally see clearly. And what a beautiful, liberating, long-overdue sight it was: Kami was just a person.
“Hiiii, everyone,” Kami beamed. “Can’t wait to see the—”
Then she gasped when she caught sight of the dome. “It’s so perfect.” Then her face fell. “But…”
