Javonte and I stand near my van, the night air warm around us. For a minute, neither one of us says anything.
“That was perfect,” I say finally.
He nods. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I lean back against the van.
“I’m glad.”
Javonte’s shoulders ease when he sees my face, but he doesn’t say anything. He stays beside me while I take it in.
I turn to him and place my hand on his chest. He leans down, and I laugh. “You’re trained to do that now, huh?”
“Just trying to be accessible.”
I don’t say anything else. I slide my hand up his chest, curl my fingers around the back of his neck, and pull his mouth to mine. The kiss comes fast, full of everything we’ve both been trying to hold. His arms close around me, and I presscloser, letting myself want him without pretending the hurt disappeared just because I’m ready to forgive him.
When I pull back, I’m breathless.
“Come home with me.”
Epilogue
Lily
Six months later, Javonte knocks on the studio door with food in one hand and flowers in the other.
I stare at him through the glass before I unlock it. “You have a key.”
“I know.”
“So why are you knocking?”
He lifts the bag. “Because I’m bringing dinner to a business owner at her place of work, and I’m classy.”
I open the door wider. “You also brought flowers.”
“That’s the romantic part.”
“They better not be from a grocery store.”
He steps inside and kisses my cheek. “They’re absolutely from a grocery store.”
I laugh and take them anyway.
The studio’s quiet tonight. No music, no women laughing over paint cups, no Zea walking around with a clipboard and her cell phone. Just me, a half-finished supply order on my laptop, a stack of clean aprons on the counter, and Javonte standing in the middle of the room.
I quit HR last week. I went from elite employee to unemployed by choice, which sounds terrifying until I remember unemployed doesn’t quite describe me. I work all the time now. The difference is that the work’s mine.
Lit with Lily has classes four nights a week, private events on weekends, and a teen workshop Zea takes entirely too much credit for creating. I still do pop-ups when they make sense, but the van’s no longer my whole business with wheels.
Actually, the van is the reason I finally stopped being stubborn. It broke down halfway to a venue three months ago,with fifteen middle schoolers waiting on the other side of town and me sitting on the shoulder of the road, apologizing to parents while trying not to cry. Javonte came to get me, and he didn’t say a single word about the studio.
That was smart of him.
By the time the tow truck came, I said it myself.
“I think I’m ready to use the space.”
