“The one who fell for Bright?”
Emmy closed the book and looked at the cover again. “Yeah. The one who fell for Bright.” She looked up at May again. “What does this mean?”
“I don’t know, hon. At the very least, we can say you definitely did experience something. It wasn’t a dream.The book is some kind of magic. I guess Lucy would know more. Do you want to go ask her?”
“I… yeah. Maybe. But…” Emmy squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up. If I get my hopes up, and I still can’t get to him… May, I don’t think I can go through that heartbreak all over again.”
She felt her sister touch her shoulder, opened her eyes again.
“One step at a time,” May said soothingly. “Do you have work today?”
“I…” Emmy let out a half laugh. “I don’t remember. It’s been weeks for me. I’m a little screwed up.”
Clutching the book to her chest, she grabbed her phone to check her schedule. She did have work that afternoon, and would get off well after Lucy closed up shop for the day. She told May as much.
“Do you want to call in today? You’re definitely entitled.”
Emmy shook her head. “Better to have the distraction than sit around here noticing how empty my apartment is.” She studied her schedule. “I have an evening shift tomorrow, so I’ll go in the morning. I don’t know what Lucy will say, but you’re right that I should talk to her.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Emmy pulled May into a quick hug. “I want you to get ready for your wedding. Be excited. Sext with Victor. Whatever it is you do.”
May laughed. “Okay. Will you call me after you talk to her? I want to know what she says.”
“That I can do.”
May had to get to work herself, so she reluctantly left Emmy a few minutes later. Emmy stared at the book, wasalmost tempted to read it. Was Will in it at all? If he was, what would that mean? But she couldn’t risk getting sucked into the book again. What if it tried to make her fall for Jared this time around? Best to leave it be. For now.
She focused entirely on her work. It was good to have something familiar as a distraction. In her downtime—and she had plenty on a Wednesday afternoon—she doodled ideas for Hikari. It was a relief to know that she still felt wholly committed to the idea of starting her own business. It was still a kind of wonder to her that her family had known all along. The one thing she took away from May’s rant was that her family never doubted her, not for a second. They had talked about when she was going to make her career official and how they might be able to help her with it.
Two thoughts floated through her brain in quick succession.
God, she was lucky.
Fuck, her notes were in the romance novel.
She remembered most of them, fortunately. What did it say about her that she was a little excited about rewriting them with more organization this time around? She decided not to analyze it too much.
It was clear from the projections she’d jotted down on a pad of hotel stationery that she couldn’t think about putting in her two weeks right away. In fact, she might do better keeping the day job—so to speak—for as long as possible. It would give her an income to work with while she was getting Hikari up and running.
It would have the added benefit of keeping her mind as occupied as possible during all her waking hours.
No room to think about romance.
The apartment was dark and quiet when she returned to it that night. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she had become to having someone living with her, having a companion. Not wanting to think about that, she checked on her various plants, watered a couple. It felt like years had passed since she’d woken up alone in bed that morning. She was physically and emotionally exhausted enough to crawl into bed and fall immediately to sleep.
Twenty-Nine
Emmy let out a frustrated breath as she searched for a spare binder. She had to have one. Shelovedbinders. Just as she loved the colorful tabs and dividers she could use to separate them into different sections. Yet a thorough search of her desk, her nightstand, and even some of her kitchen drawers turned up no binders, no tabs. It had been such a perfect plan. She’d spend the morning getting started on rewriting her notes, finalizing her business plan, organizing and color-coding everything. Then she’d go see Lucy. Then she’d go to work. Somewhere in there, she imagined she would take some time to burst into tears. But the main game plan was simple: Distract, distract, distract.
And now she couldn’t find a damn binder.
The kicker was, she knew if she went to buy more, she would immediately find a million of them in the freezer or something.
Oh, well. She’d use everything eventually.
Emmy was like a kid in a candy store when she was surrounded by office supplies. It took a lot of self-disciplineto ignore all the highlighters, the rainbow-colored binder clips, and the dry erase boards. She pretended she had blinders on as she took her small bundle of supplies to the front of the store.
