“Not only did I listen, I got two.”
She looks pleased. “I’m not used to anyone following my advice.”
“Well, apparently their gold color is lucky, and their movements create good energy,” I say, repeating back to her what she told me after I fell into the lake.
“I love when my research is put to good use.”
“You want to name them?”
Her face brightens. “Really? I’ve never had a pet.” She looks out at the Hudson River, the choppy waves reflecting the glow of orange above the horizon. “What about Goldie and Kurt?”
“It’s perfect. I take it you made it to the amnesia portion of your movie marathon.”
“I watchedOverboardthis past summer,” she confirms as Toffee jumps up onto a bench and sniffs the air. “Isn’t Toffee supposed to be Mrs. Walker’s cat?”
“Officially, he is. Toffee stays with me when Mrs. Walker’s out of town. She’s helped me out a lot over the years, so when she travels, I return the favor.”
“Well, your apartment’s really nice.”
“Come on, I’ll give you the full tour,” I say. “You can even look in the closets and my medicine cabinet.”
“I’m for sure doing that,” she says with humor in her voice.
Back at my apartment, Hazel removes her shoes at the door and takes her time looking around while I wipe Toffee’s paws.
“I feel okay spending the next few hours here,” she says.
I make a show of wiping my brow. “What’s happening in the next few hours?”
She pulls another bag of gummy numbers out of her purse. “For you.”
I laugh at this ongoing joke. “I hope you’re getting a good employee discount.”
“Dangerously good. Gloria, my pseudo-coworker, somehow got ordering privileges. She’s obsessed with trying to find candy Emma has never heard of. It’s like, her whole personality right now.” Hazel laughs a little like she’s remembering something funny. “So she got these matcha KitKats, which of course Emma had heard of. Anyway, I brought some for you to try.”
She drops a handful of individually wrapped KitKats on the counter.
“Sounds like you’re enjoying it,” I notice.
Hazel looks surprised by my comment. “Oh. Yeah. I guess I am. The customers have been pleasant, too,” she says. “No matter what kind of day you’re having, you can’t go into a candy store and be mad, you know?”
I snap half a green KitKat between my teeth. “It’s a law.”
She removes a cookbook from her bag. “Ready for Phase Two?” she asks, holding up two fingers. “I call itLucky Foods.”
“Hey, I know them!” I turn the cookbook around to face me. On it, Chrysanthemum Hua Williams and her aunties smile from behind a kitchen counter. “I stayed at their inn once.”
Hazel glances over at me. “Really? Looks like they heal heartbreak.”
I nod but don’t want to bring down Hazel with the details. That years after the accident, I wasn’t physically broken, but I still felt it. That my mom had heard from a friend of a friend’s cousin about this small inn on Whidbey Island and had to practically beg me to go. That by the end of my week there, I was changed for the better.
“Yeah, I was going through a rough few years. Feels like a lifetime ago.” I turn the cookbook over, skimming the words on the back. “I didn’t realize this had come out already.”
“It was on the New in Cookbooks table,” Hazel says as she unloads the bags of groceries she brought. She stops me when I try to help. “Their food’s supposed to be very healing.”
“It’s also delicious.” I organize what she unpacks so I have something to do. “I was so thankful for their help that I made them a bunch of heart-shaped chairs,” I recall with a laugh.
That place meant a lot to me. Knowing that other people were going through something similar, having the safe space to be able to voice the heartache. I’ve forgotten what that’s like. I’ve forgotten how to do that.
