“Oh mygod.” Ziya’s shoulders relaxed as she pulled her back into a hug. “I’m still working on it,” she mumbled into Amie’s shoulder.
“It’s just that, you know, you’ve had four whole days since I asked, and it seems like you’re really struggling—”
“I was supposed to forget everything about you infour days?”
“I would’ve preferred two, but I was trying to be reasonable.”
“I give up. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s probably not going to happen.”
“Darn.”
They pulled apart, Ziya’s hands still resting on the sleeves of David’s jacket.
“Hey,” Amie said. “Tell me what you think I should do now.”
Ziya gave her a curious look. “I think … you should talk to the police. And then let me take you home.”
Amie hesitated, an automatic “okay” resting on her lips. She hadn’t been expectingthat.
“No,” she said instead, holding strong. “David can take me home. I want to shower and go to sleep.”
“Oh.” Ziya stepped back, looking chagrined. “Of course, yeah.”
“But can I see you tomorrow?” Amie asked tentatively. “I’ve been thinking about everything you said, and—”
“Yes,” Ziya cut her off, eyes sparkling. “Tomorrow sounds great.”
Tomorrow did sound great.
Epilogue
Day 188 A.L.
It turned out that putting all of one’s effort into framing other people for their crime left a person with very little remaining time to cover their own tracks if the cops eventually decided to look in their direction.
Raina had previously informed the police that she had been at home at the time of Savannah’s murder. She’d even secured an eyewitness to confirm her arrival home, with whom the police had not even bothered to speak until they were encouraged to do so by Amie’s accusation. Raina had not, however, accounted for the eyewitness who saw her exiting her apartment soon after via the fire escape. Her story quickly fell apart after that.
Madeline dropped her assault charges on Andrew, with an agreement that he would attend grief counseling. Shelf Starter was closed for the rest of the month. (Reportedly, Grayson arrived at the store the next day, looked through the window, shrugged, and left.) On October 1, Madeline began renovations to incorporate the bookstore into Eons Café.
About six months after the fall festival, Amie and Ziya flew to Iceland.
“I’m gonna want to do a bunch of stuff you’ve already done,” Amie warned. “Is that okay?”
“I can handle some repeats,” Ziya assured her. “Watching you experience it all for the first time will be worth it.”
“It’ll be worth it because you’ll enjoy it,” Amie corrected her.
“That, too,” Ziya conceded, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. “Especially if we see the northern lights.”
By the night before their departure, Ziya’s confidence was clearly wavering as they looked at the weather forecast for the week ahead.
“We could get a partial refund,” she offered as they looked sadly at the line of cartoon clouds. “Try again next month.”
Amie shut the laptop. “No,” she said firmly. “We’re doing this. Northern lights or no, this is going to be a good trip.”
The sky was overcast for almost the entirety of their time in Iceland. A brief, hopeful Monday of sun had gone cloudy once more by the time evening arrived. But that didn’t deter the two from enjoying themselves.
They were preparing to go out on their final night when David called.
