Page 54 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

“Thank you,” I mumbled after a while. Could have been seconds. Could have been hours. Victor loosened his grasp without further prompting and I blinked up at his concerned gaze, the green of his eyes as dark as pine. “I need to wrap things up with Silas.”

“Here,” he smoothed his thumbs along my cheeks, and carefully swiped a curve under my eyes, “better.”

“I just-” I exhaled shakily, my words not quite back yet.

“You’ve got this.” It sounded more like a fact than encouragement when Victor said it. Indisputable truth.I got this.

“Alright.” I nodded and fell a step back. Every cell in my body shivered, yearning to go back to his warmth.

Victor opened his mouth as if to say something, but he eventually just nodded at my office door.

I got this.I got this.

“Do you have everything you need?” I asked Silas when I walked back into the room, not even giving him the chance tovoice his sympathies. If he could put on a facade for work, so could I.

“Yes. I’ll get my equipment and get out of your hair.”

“Can you email me the next steps, just so I have them in writing? And how long do you think you’ll need to edit?”

“I’ll have the campaign videos over to you in a few days. The rough cut of the other material is going to take a little longer.”

“I’m going to need exact time frames, Silas.” Otherwise I would enter an unending waiting mode during which nothing would get done.

“Sure,” Silas nodded, “you’ll have the campaign videos by Friday. My video in about two weeks.”

“Perfect.”

“I’m leaving this, in case you think of anything you want to add to the video.” He placed a small handheld camera on my desk. “Even if it’s just a voice-over.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” I narrowed my eyes at the small device.

“Unrelated to whether or not you decide to go forward with the series, it was a pleasure to get to know you. You’re a very impressive person.”

“Thank you. I wish I didn’t have to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“We live in a messed-up world that is so hard to improve that it’s impressive when a rich white woman tries to do it on a fairly minuscule scale.”

“That would be a good soundbite. You should record that.” He winked and pointed at the small camera again.

That was so not happening.

I couldn’t wait to get him and all his cameras and lights out of the house.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Thirty.

Three. Zero.

My chest tightened at the sight of my age spelled out like that. I’d made it to thirty. I’d heard so many stupid jokes about turning thirty, mostly on TV. None of these idiots grasped how precious this number was. There had been an incredibly hard time in my life when I hadn’t been sure I’d even make it to twenty. Thirty was even better. Heck, I couldn’t wait for forty.

The pink candles started blurring and I quickly blinked against the tears gathering in my eyes.

“Thank you,” I said and smiled at Del, who had shown up with the flower-shaped cake.

“Of course.” She tapped Beck’s hand wrapped around her middle, and he let her go on command, only for her to curl herarms around me. “Happy Birthday! I’m so lucky to have you in my life.”