Page 94 of Friends That Heal Us
What’s the harm in a no?
She says it so simply.
Meanwhile, I’m older, more experienced, supposedly wiser, and I can’t even let myself be that way. It stings a little. I gave her advice, and now here I am getting schooled by someone so much younger.
She pulls out a chair, stares at her phone, and sits down while laughing. “Ever since we hung out just the two of us, we’ve been inseparable.”
I lean my hip against the counter, smiling at the happiness that’s written all over her face. All because she took a chance.
“I’m happy for you, Liv. You look really happy.”
She looks over at me. “I have you to thank.”
“No, this was all you.”
She looks back down at her phone and giggles. A soft thud sounds as she sets her phone down. “So how are you and that one guy…Ezra?”
I’m caught off guard by her question. Not at the question itself but the way it made my stomach drop while I sit here thinking about what to say. If someone had asked me how we were doing a couple of months ago, I would’ve happily answered.
“Umm. We’re kind of on a break…” I pause. “I think.”
Her brows draw together. “What do you mean?”
I don’t know how honest I should be with my employee. She’ll probably never understand unless I tell her everything from the start, but I can’t get that honest with her. If I tell her everything, that might even scare her away.
I shrug my shoulders. “We were trying to see if things would work between us, and I need more time to think about it.”
She continues to draw her brows together as she stares at me in confusion.
“It’s complicated,” I say.
“Really?”
I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“It didn’t seem too complicated when I saw you two together. He seems to really love you. Or like you. I’m not sure if I know what love is yet.”
A small smile raises my cheeks. I feel like I haven’t smiled in days, ever since Ez left.
“Once you get older and things get more serious, decisions get harder.”
“Then why can’t you two just have fun?” Her phone pings, and she looks at it with a huge smile on her face. She taps on her phone and then sets it back down. “Like Jacob and I. We’re just having fun.”
I wish I could live like her. I once was. And she’s right; it was fun deciding day by day what you wanted to do. Not taking anything too seriously. Just going with the flow. It gets harder when you get older, but why can’t I just have fun?
“The way I saw you two interact, you should just go for it. Have fun.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
VIOLET
The Pilates studio’smusic softly hums through the speakers as I watch Ashley turn on the fake candles she has spread out all over the room. She created a candlelight stretch class since the days are shorter now. She turns off all the lights and only has the candles on as she puts everyone through a variety of stretches.
She catches my wave and smiles. “Hey, I’m surprised to see you in an evening class.”
“I had to come try out this stretch class. It looks very relaxing,” I say, avoiding the real reason I came because I didn’t want to go home where the only sound I hear is complete silence and that silence sounds more deadly right now than anything else I’ve heard. It’s the exact deadly sound that happened when I was all alone in the house until Ezra came to live with me. Even when I was home alone because he was out or at work, it was never as strong as it is right now. He’s always made everything better for me.
“I’m glad you came. I’ve been meaning to stop by your bakery and catch up, but I’ve been so busy.”
