Page 91 of Definitely Not a Thing

She shrugged. “He was your choice, so I went with it. And he was a nice young man – nothingwrongwith him. Just… not for you.”

Yeah.

Definitely not for me.

“This other young man though – Calvin. I like him.”

I smiled. “Yeah… I like him too.”

Mama stayed all day.

By the time she was climbing back into her rental, I had a pantry full of homemade pickles that would last a month tops once my friends found out I had them. Mama was headed to Sugar Valley for a retreat – her pop-in with me was a pit stop after flying into Blackwood.

I was really,reallyglad she’d come.

But it feltso,so quiet after she’d left.

I followed up with Shia and my team, and actually ended up blending two of the options they offered for making things right with both the customersandthe contractors that depended on Proxy. I took a jar of pickles up to Hunter’s door, and left them there.

Closure, one last peace offering, closing the loop on me telling him my mother was giving him… whatever it was, I wasn’tquitesure.

But it felt like the thing to do.

And kinda felt like the way to fully close that door.

As if my mother had spoken it up, I also had a message from Chase, about the brownstone.

My deposit had been returned, and he was wondering if I wanted him to start looking for something else.

Which…did I?

As much as I’d wanted that – wanted something fresh and new andmine… now I wondered if I’d just needed to break up with Hunter the whole time.

My desire for a brownstone had started back when we were together, as if a fresh space that wasourswould fix the cracks in our relationship.

He’d hated the idea.

So when wedidbreakup, I’d gone after it full throttle.

At this point, with months of time behind me… would I even still be happy with it?

The apartment I was in now – Ilovedit.

I’d decorated, curated the space, and it was all veryme.It was the perfect size to have all my stuff and it still felt airy, instead of empty. And it wasn’t so big that it felt like a major task to keep clean.

It suited me.

And having Calvin next door is a perk, too.

I grinned to myself.

Was it nice having him right next door, but inhisspace instead of mine?

Uh, yeah.

But I wasn’t sure how big of a perk itreallywas, when he was about to be gone anyway, flying and practicing and playing and whatever the hell else professional basketball players did.

Life was about to change for him, as he transitioned back to his team.