Martha waited, but when he couldn’t come up with anything to followlong, long ago, she glanced over at him. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”
“In my defense, I’m better at selling other people’s stories than creating my own.”
“Fair.” She lowered her gaze, and it seemed as if she was taking a turn at studying their clasped hands. She rotated her wrist, placing his on top. With her other hand, she fingered the stack of thin leather bracelets that circled his wrist. “What about these? Is there a story here?”
His chin jerked back in surprise. “My bracelets?”
“Yeah. I noticed them that first day in your office when they were trying to peek out from the cuff of your suit jacket. They seem like a very unique fashion choice to wear with business attire. Which makes me think there might be a story behind them.”
He thought a moment. He’d been wearing the strips of leather for so long that he had to stop to consider when he’d first started. A memory came to mind, sweet as the first bite of a ripe summer peach, and with it, he smiled.
“Once upon a time, long, long ago...”
The grin she threw him was cheeky. “Oh, we’re attempting this again?”
He playfully squeezed his fingers together in retribution for her teasing. “As I was saying. Once upon a time, long, long ago,there was a little girl who lived in a little cottage. She wore her curly hair in braided pigtails and she liked to skip around and make up stories that featured a pink plastic pony and a troll with crazy purple hair and a gem for a belly button.”
Martha blinked, her eyes widening. “Wait. Are you talking about Sunsparkle and Norfin?”
One shoulder hitched. “I don’t know. Were those their names?”
“Oh my gosh, I haven’t thought of those toys in decades.” She let out a small laugh.
“That troll was creepy. I’m surprised it doesn’t haunt your nightmares.”
“He was not.” She checked him with her shoulder. “He was cute.”
Julien fake shuddered. “If you say so. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted ...” He cleared his throat dramatically. “There was this adorable little girl.” He looked down at her with his brows raised, daring her to interrupt again.
She rolled her eyes at his description of her, but her cheeks pinkened as well.
Julien grinned. “She made up enchanting stories about a magic horse and a creepy troll. One day, she was lost in her own make-believe world when she skipped right into a real-life troll. A very grumpy one, at that.”
One of her pale pink nails tapped at her lips as she tried to remember what incident Julien could be referring to.
He bent down, as if whispering a secret into her ear. “Spoiler alert, I was the troll.”
Her face scrunched up even more. “I don’t remember you being grumpy as a kid.”
“I was probably around eighteen at the time, so not technically a kid anymore. I guess that would’ve made you about ten? I’d been in a foul mood that day because Dad had just told meI wasn’t allowed to go with my friends on this big trip we’d planned for the summer after graduation. He expected me to do an official internship at the publishing house instead. Anyway, I was upset, and I think I said something about how he didn’t want me to have any friends and his wish was going to come true because all of mine were going to have fun without me and forget about me.”
“Wait. I think I remember this.”
“You pulled a friendship bracelet out of your pocket that you’d made by weaving different colored threads together and gave it to me.”
“I told you I’d be your BFF.” She twirled one of the bracelets around on his wrist. “That’s when you started wearing bracelets?”
He nodded. “Dad hated the thing. He’s not big on men’s jewelry anyway, but he definitely didn’t think a brightly colored friendship bracelet belonged in the conference room. I was mad at him, so the fact he hated it made me want to wear it even more. But I found I really liked the look of them too. I’ve been wearing bracelets ever since.”
She studied his wrist, then raised her gaze and met his eyes. She seemed to be considering his story, but he couldn’t tell what she thought of it. Did it hit her in any sort of way like it did him?
It was weird. He’d never really given much thought to how their history might have shaped either of them as time went on. He’d been practically carrying around a piece of her for most of his life, and he’d never even realized it. Had he had any similar sort of impact on her from his albeit minimal influence in her formative years?
Slowly, her fingers flexed, and she disentangled her hand from his. The smile she gave him was small and guarded. “Thanks. You sufficiently distracted me from my spiraling doomsdaying. I think I’m good now.”
Julien glanced down at his now-empty hand. There were perfect pink circles on the back where her fingers had been. Now that her touch was no longer there, blood was rushing back, bringing with it a tingling sensation.
He lifted his gaze back up to Martha. He wasn’t wrong, was he? Shehadlet go of his hand rather all of a sudden? Had he said something wrong? “You sure?”
