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available minute with her, but it turned out that the timing was just bad. She

went into a really busy week with two picks scheduled, four meetings with

potential vendors, a meeting with the store’s accountant after work hours

because the guy was so busy during the day that was the only time he could

pencil her in. On top of everything, she was crazy busy during the day and

didn’t have a second to relax, so she was exhausted by the time five came

around.

Shane called her on Wednesday with an urgent plea to have dinner with

him and his mom again. She knew she had to be honest with him and tell

him that she couldn’t, but they did have to talk. He knew what that meant,

but she insisted that they meet face to face.

Kiera had planned on taking Romi to a special dinner on Friday night,

but just as she tried to finalize the plans and surprise Romi with it, her mom

had called to remind her about the family dinner they were having. They

didn’t often do family dinners, so backing out wasn’t really an option.

Which left the weekend. By Saturday morning, Kiera nearly had a

breakdown thinking that Romi would think she was purposely ignoring her

or that she’d changed her mind, but when she’d sent off what felt like a

thousand frantic texts, Romi just responded that she was fine and

everything was fine between them. Kiera had no idea how Romi could put

up with half the things she did.

Romi wasn’t just great with her. She was great with everyone. Her

coworkers. The vendors. The slightly creepy dude they’d met while picking

his barn together. She was like this ray of freaking sunshine that brightened

everything up. Kiera would never take that for granted and she didn’t want

to make it appear like she didn’t massively appreciate Romi’s kindness,

generosity, and patience. She’d planned on asking her to dinner at a nice

restaurant, but that seemed so token. They were still waiting for their first

real date. Kind of. Unless their first date had been the weekend before. If it

was, then it was a crazy amazing first date that she’d never forget.