Page 38 of Can We Skip to the Good Part?

EIGHTEEN

Pajamas and Pop-Ups

S he wasn’t supposed to reach out. Max had promised herself that she’d take Amanda’s advice and give Ella the space to work through her turmoil with Rachel and take the lead on whatever happened between her and Max.

The problem was that Max was not a passive person, but rather someone who preferred to take charge of her destiny, which led her to text Ella several days after the last book club meeting, the one without Ella.

I miss you. So very much.

It had been a simple text, but the words were from her heart.

There was so much more that she wanted to say, too.

That she missed the way Ella’s eyes lit up when she talked about something she liked.

Or the fire that crept into them when she spoke with conviction.

The way her presence felt like a satisfying breath after a long day.

How her fingers found Max’s when they were close, even when they weren’t supposed to touch.

She also missed all of the memories they could have been making right this very moment if circumstances had been different.

Even the book club, which had been a part of Max’s life long before laying eyes on Ella Baker, now felt incomplete without her presence.

A day went by. Two. Three. Unfortunately, Ella didn’t return the message.

Max drove home from work well after nine, having stayed late at the office on purpose.

Distraction was her best friend, keeping her from overthinking.

Maybe she’d been right about the whole love game all along.

Letting her heart even tentatively hope had been a bold move.

Love was never the gentle thing that poets promised.

“You’re being dramatic,” she said as she stood in front of the elevator to her apartment.

“Me?” her neighbor asked when the doors opened.

“Sorry, Tom. No. But you should know, love sucks.”

Tom exited the elevator, and she entered it, switching spots. “I don’t know,” he said. “Meg and I have been married for eighteen years.”

“So far,” she said with a shrug as the elevator doors closed.

“That was dark. Even for you, Max,” Tom’s voice called as the elevator began to move. It wasn’t until she got to her apartment that she saw she had a message on her phone from Stevie.

Awful news. Doug’s is on fire. Fire department there now.

What the hell?

The news smacked Max square in the face.

It wasn’t the kind of message you ever expected to receive.

Some things in life feel sacred, off-limits for anything unlucky or tragic to ever touch them.

Doug’s was one of those entities. She prayed the damage was minor while wondering what had gone wrong and what she could do to help.

As thoughts raced and swirled, one concept rose to the top of her mind.

A business as beloved as Doug’s would be more than just a loss to this city.

There was, quite simply, no place like that little bookstore, unique and chock-full of character.

The corkboard at the back of the store was responsible for the inception of Read It and Weep Book Club, which gave way to the important friendships Max now treasured.

Rumors flew on social media about what had caused the place to ignite.

Some people said that a specific group of kids had a grudge against Doug and had intentionally set fire to the place.

Others felt that Doug seemed the type to light candles, and maybe he’d left one burning after hours.

It took the fire department two days to determine that a power surge had likely caused the coffee maker to overheat and spark. The damned coffee maker of all things .

Max drove by the store later that week. The building still stood, but its heart had been hollowed out by fire.

Through the veil of soot and char, she could make out slouching shelves, their warped frames leaning on each other like fallen warriors.

The sight twisted something deep inside her.

Doug had poured himself into this place, and now it was a ruin, and Max couldn’t stop wondering how Ella was holding up.

Everything in her wanted to ask—to hear Ella’s voice, to be the person she turned to. But reaching out meant opening a door Ella might not be ready to walk through, and Max would never be the one to push her through it.

With a slow breath, she pressed the gas, driving on but not away. She didn’t have answers, but she’d find a way to help. Letting this bookstore disappear, letting Doug lose everything, letting Ella carry it alone? Unthinkable.

It was Thursday, but it didn’t feel like it.

On Thursdays, Ella generally swung into Doug’s in the mid-morning and worked there until mid-afternoon when she got hungry and returned home for a sandwich.

She’d design for most of the morning until Doug hit a lull, and then she’d work with him on his social media.

He was actually becoming quite adept at Instagram and had even started following a few independent bookstores and a couple of authors he wanted to attract to the store.

This first Thursday since the fire was Ella’s least favorite Thursday ever. She was listless, depressed, and a little pissed off about it. The overcast skies did little to improve her mood, which even coffee couldn’t help at this point.

“If you were a cartoon, there would be spiky lines flying off of you,” Rachel said, watching her from the fridge.

“That tracks.” She eyed Rachel, who wore a cream-colored skirt and a white blouse. “Why are you dressed up for the living room?”

“I have an interview.”

“That’s awesome!” She might have shouted that too loudly, based on the fact that Rachel launched herself into the air and spilled a little bit of half-and-half from the carton in her hand. “Sorry. I felt a rush of positive energy and had to act before it was gone.”

“Clearly.” Rachel still wasn’t her bubbly self in Ella’s presence, but they’d worked out a decent rhythm of civility, and maybe one day they’d get there.

“Is it a retail job? Should we pack you a lunch?” She glanced around the kitchen for supplies. “What do you need?”

“Ella. Slow down. I don’t need anything.”

She froze. “Got it. No. You’re right. I’m just jumpy today. In my head.”

“Well, you’ve been in those pajamas for a couple of days. Why don’t you get dressed? Touch some grass.”

“I should be at Doug’s right now.”

Rachel kicked a hip against the counter, bag on her shoulder. “How is he?”

“Quiet. Not that he’s a verbose person to begin with, but the two times that I’ve spoken with him since the fire, his judgmental little quips are gone. He’s lost his spark, which makes sense.”

“And what’s your plan? For Doug.”

Ella blinked. “I don’t have one.”

“Hmm. I wasn’t expecting that.” She turned to go. “Give it some thought. Maybe a goal will get you out of those plaid pants.”

Ella looked down at her baggy ensemble, understanding Rachel’s meaning.

Instead of moping in her kitchen, she should channel her emotions and mobilize.

She was fantastic at project work, and although she couldn’t take back what happened to Doug’s, she could do everything in her power to help rebuild the store bigger and better than ever.

It was the jump start she needed. Without delay, she hopped in the shower, blasted her music, and settled in in front of her laptop, making list after list of ideas.

“A pop-up shop?” Ariana asked from across the table at Gizmo’s, the coffee shop she’d recommended, which seemed to be patronized by college students much cooler than Ella. If only she’d known there was a beanie requirement, she could have swung by the store.

“Yes. Doug said that the insurance claim is in process, but won’t cover the full range of damage, so I’ve been brainstorming ways we can help him, and a pop-up store is my favorite option. Hear me out.”

“Listening.”

“Doug says he has some leftover inventory safely living in his storage unit. We set up the shop, but without prices. People pay whatever they want for the books.”

Ariana nodded, understanding the concept. “But if they know it’s to help Doug, they’re likely to add on a little.”

“Or a lot.”

“This is an excellent idea. And Doug’s on board?” Ariana, with her bright-green eyes and shiny brown hair, sat back, sipped her cappuccino, and looked cool doing it. No wonder she frequented this coffee shop. She was the type who’d fit in anywhere.

“I haven’t told him, but I will. He’ll listen to me. I doubled his sixty-person Instagram following and now he thinks I have magical unicorn powers.”

“Then we capitalize on that.” Ariana shook her finger, gathering a thought in real time. “So, if people are setting their own price, we need to curate our special invite list.”

“Exactly that.”

“We need the financially comfortable. Who do we know that’s connected? Isn’t Max on the board of some bigwig attorney association?”

“Yes, she definitely is.” Ella dropped her gaze to the beige and white swirling pattern on the table, swallowing the swarm of feelings that came with thinking about Max after refusing to let herself for so long. “You want to give her a call?” She looked up.

Ariana watched her with interest. “You know, I think you’d be better suited.”

They stared at each other. She knew too damned much. That smug expression said so.

“Ella.” The use of her name in that level-with-me tone and wide-eyed look confirmed it.

“She and I haven’t spoken in … a while.”

“Why is that? Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people look at each other the way the two of you do. So, something went wrong, and I’m going to imagine it had something to do with the Rachel factor.”

Ella rolled her lips in, considering how much to share, but then realized that it was stupid to withhold when she’d felt so isolated and desperately needed a friend. Well, here was Ariana, presenting herself on cue.

“You can just say it,” Ariana said around her mug. “You know you want to.”

Ella raised a casual shoulder. “I like Max a lot.”

Ariana shook her head and made the sound of a game show buzzer. “Nope. We all like Max. Max is great. Try again.”

“Fine. I’m wildly attracted to Max.”

She made the come here gesture. “More.”

Unable to resist, the dam broke. “Fine. I enjoy every moment I spend with her. I think about her when we’re apart.

And even when we’re debating books with the passion of a thousand suns, I’m also imagining her naked.

” Ella exhaled slowly, feeling a little better for having said it out loud without downplaying it.

Ariana broke out in a slow smile. “And there it is. Now tell me something shocking, like water is incredibly wet.”

“Stop it.” Ella grinned. She shook her head, clearing it entirely so she could come at this fresh. “So you did know?”

Ariana dropped her chin in pouty sympathy. “Oh, sweet little kitten in a box, the whole book club knows.”

“Seriously? Even sweet, innocent Morgan?” She clapped her forehead with one hand.

“Did you not notice the whispering when you snuck into the laundry room together at Stevie’s?”

The embarrassment swooped and swarmed. “I had no idea you all were aware of that. I need to move to another country by this afternoon.”

“Completely unnecessary. We were rooting for you. The two of you don’t do a good job of hiding how you feel. Max might as well have had little fireworks going off in her eyes every time you walked in the room.”

“And here I thought we were subtle.”

“As a skywriter spelling out ‘Max is my one true love’ above the city.”

“Hold on right there. We’re not in love . Let’s not leap to hyperbole.”

“Fair enough.” Ariana nodded, moving forward. “And so there’s trouble brewing?”

“Brewed. Past tense.”

“Rachel is not happy? Is this one of those girl code things? I never understood them. Everyone should want their friends to be happy as long as they treat everyone else with respect.”

“That’s the problem. I could have been more respectful. I didn’t tell her about my feelings for Max or that we were …”

“Making out in small rooms at book club?”

“Yes, Ari.” She raised her eyebrows and stared at her cup. “That.”

“I kept putting off the moment to tell Rachel everything, and then she saw us kissing.”

“Dammit. I’m so sorry all three of you had to experience that moment.”

“It was awful and not the way I wanted her to find out we were?—”

“On absolute fire for each other.”

Ella closed her eyes. “So many bold statements in this conversation, though I can’t entirely argue with that one,” she said with a sigh.

But Ariana was speaking the absolute truth, whether Ella wanted to admit it or not.

She and Max had been on fire, and not just in the bedroom.

They challenged each other and teased with the best of them.

They came with the perfect amount of camaraderie with the right blend of friction built in.

And now they were two islands separated by a virtual ocean, and it made Ella want to throw her napkin at the boy playing his guitar badly two tables over.

Double justice. “But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss her now that we’re purposefully keeping our distance. ”

Ariana frowned, clearly disliking the ending of the story. “What are you going to do about it?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Because in good conscience, I can’t.”

“This is girl code, right? That’s what’s holding you back from Max.”

“Friendship is another term. But girl code, sure.”

“I get it. I do, but,” Ariana pondered her cappuccino a moment. “At what point, Madam Romantic,” she asked, meeting Ella’s eyes, “does girl code get walloped in the name of love?”

Ella sat with the words, turning them over in her mind. “I think that’s an answer I just don’t have, which is why I need you to call Max about the pop-up and not me. Ari, I’m trying to right my wrong and make the best choice for everyone. Rachel’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Ariana’s eyes softened, and her features relaxed in understanding. “I hear you. And I will reach out to Max about leveraging some of her big fish connections.”

“Thank you. I think what we’re doing for Doug could turn into a really good thing. I just want him to be okay again. The light’s gone from his eyes.”

“And what about the light that used to be in yours? Will you be okay again?”

“Yes. I will.” Her resolve weakened. Those very eyes felt hot with the prickle of tears. “I hope so.”