Page 144 of Booked on You
“Hello?” Dale’s voice is gruff and annoyed because it’s early on a Saturday.
“Hi, it’s Scarlett Collins in 3C. I’m sorry to call so early, but I need to talk to you about my lease.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve decided I’m not renewing.” The words come out, and I feel nothing but relief when I say them. “Do I need to sign anything?”
There’s a pause. “Oh, yeah. Just come down to the office on Monday and sign the paperwork saying you’re moving out. Where ya heading?”
“I’m actually moving to Charleston.”
“Wow, I love that town. It’s nice.” He clears his throat. “All right. Just remember, you have to have everything out by the final day of the month. You’ll leave your keys in the drop box at the office, but don’t forget to sign that contract for me.”
“I will. I’ll come down on Monday. Thank you.”
I hang up and stare at my phone, almost shocked that I actually did it.
Tears stream down my face, but I’m smiling because this is the right choice. I know it is.
After I make myself a shitty cup of coffee that tastes like water compared to Ezra’s, I open my laptop and research moving companies.
I have six days to pack up my entire life and get it shipped to Charleston. I will have enough time to sort through years of accumulation and decide what will go with me and what will be donated.
I’m actually ready to close this chapter before starting the next one.
A smile touches my lips when I think about returning to Charleston.
I’m choosing Ezra. I’m choosing us. And it feels so damn good.
CHAPTER 32
EZRA
Ifinish the last page of Scarlett’s manuscript and set my phone down on the kitchen counter.
It’s hard for me to describe the overwhelming emotions that flood through me. I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry.
The entire book is our story.
She changed some of the details, but our truths are written in every scene. Somehow, she sees me in my rawest form and writes my essence in ways I can’t describe. The fear, the connection, the way her characters fall in love without meaning to is so damn real it hurts. Knowing our story and reading her most intimate thoughts makes me wonder how much is in her other books. I feel as if I’ve pulled back the curtain and seen all her secrets.
Jordan’s internal monologue about being terrified of letting someone in again was almost too much. I recognized every single thought as my own, but also as Scarlett’s. I read Helena’s confessions about thinking she’s not enough or the inability of someone to love her for who she is. So many times I wanted to reach through my phone and tell her she’s everything.
Her Foreveris beautiful.
But now I feel numb because I know how she feels. Or at least how she felt when she wrote it.
The book ends with them choosing each other, with her choosing him, with a future that’s exactly what I want with her. But that was fiction, and this is real life. And she’s been gone for a week. Our conversations have been short and sweet.
For some reason, I keep circling back to the title and how the hero becomes the heroine’s forever. About the promise in those two words.
Will I be Scarlett’s forever? Or was I just the inspiration for a story?
I refuse to believe that last thought.
I pick up my phone and check for new messages even though I know there’s nothing new. The screen shows my wallpaper, a photo of the ocean at Millie’s beach house that I took the morning Scarlett finished writing this story about us.
I reread the text she sent me this morning.
