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Kia was getting ready for a day of frying tursnicken and angsting over the fact that Sullivan had only responded to her texts with emojis.

She hadn’t told Sullivan about her profiles.

The emojis were a wall, and she didn’t know if Sullivan wanted her to scale it.

Kia had texted good night , and Sullivan had texted back .

She’d texted a picture of a minimart sign advertising GUNS, AMMO, WINE, WORMS .

Then she’d texted one stop shopping, move over Walmart .

Kia waited for some text banter to let her know that Sullivan wasn’t mad that she’d left, but all she got was a laughing emoji a few hours later.

With that cold response, she couldn’t write, They closed down my accounts.

I can’t make money. I know they want me to back down.

What if Sullivan texted back with, Now you know how it feels to lose your business .

That didn’t seem like Sullivan, but Kia didn’t know anything anymore.

Kia was checking the propane connection when her phone rang.

She jumped to answer, but it wasn’t Sullivan.

It was Nina. Nothing Nina had to say could be good, could it?

Nearby, Deja was talking with one of the fair organizers.

Kia excused herself, trying not to look panicked.

Deja’s sympathetic expression said Kia had failed.

She walked quickly through the maze of hoses and supply crates.

A few people waved at her. She heard someone say, “That’s Kia Gourmazing,” and someone else say, “She’s hard to miss. Did you see her truck?”

“Hello, Kia.” Nina was all business, not a trace of familiarity in her voice. “I’m very sorry, but I need to withdraw from your case.”

“What?”

“I’ve got Mark Bretton on the line.”

Nina said it like Kia should know who Mark Bretton was.

“He’s ready to take your case, if you want. He’s one of the best family law and contract attorneys in Portland.”

“Thank you, Nina,” a man’s voice said.

“He’s even beat me in a few cases, which does not happen often. Naturally, you’re welcome to find your own attorney, but given the time-sensitive matter, I think it’d be wise to transfer your case to Mark.”

Kia sat down on a crumbling Jersey barrier, snagging her pants on a bit of metal sticking out of the concrete.

“And do not try to do this pro se. You will lose,” Nina added.

What was pro se? And more importantly…

“Why are you dropping the case? We need you.”

“I will not be representing you . Mega Eats has made Sullivan an offer. She’s taking a day to think about it. It is likely that, as we proceed, your interests and Sullivan’s will be at odds. It may be to Sullivan’s advantage to disadvantage you and vice versa.”

Kia interrupted. “Mega Eats shut down my accounts. I’m off U-Spin.”

“These are things you can talk to Mark about. You can also ask me to withdraw from Sullivan’s representation because I know details about the case that another attorney wouldn’t. Mark can explain that to you.”

“I don’t care if our interests are different. I would never ask you to do something that hurt her.”

“But if it comes to it”—Nina seemed to be choosing her words carefully—“I will apprise her of the benefits of hurting you. I will tell Sullivan of her options, including the significant advantages of taking the Mega Eats deal. She and Opal are my best friends. They’re my family.

And law is my other love. My clients aren’t always noble like you and Sullivan.

I’m not saving the rainforests or inspiring minority business owners, but I don’t risk my clients’ interests. Goodbye, Kia.”

With that, Nina hung up.

“This is a lot to take in.” Mark spoke up quickly as if to reassure Kia he was still on the line. “I can give you a moment. Then we can talk about your social media accounts and anything else you want to share. Do you want to call me back after you’ve had a chance to collect yourself?”

“No.” Kia’s voice trembled. She needed a moment. She needed a year. “Talk to me.”

“First, tell me about your accounts getting closed.”

Kia explained, then finished, “Could it be a coincidence?”

“Sorry, no,” Mark said. “When Mega Eats thought Nina was still your attorney, they contacted her with a deal. If you stop any attempt to buy the Bois and relinquish your legacy owner status and admit to everything they say about the fraudulent marriage, they’ll make sure your business isn’t affected .

Those are the words they used, and they’re keeping it vague so we can’t prove that they got your accounts shut.

But they did. They know you’ll put two and two together. ”

“Can they do that?”

“Legally? They shouldn’t. But it would take us a while to prove that Mega Eats has anything to do with your accounts being closed. We might never be able to prove it.”

“If I relinquish legacy owner status, does that mean Sullivan does too?”

A whiff of natural gas and charred burger drifted through the air as another food truck owner got their truck up and running, oblivious to Kia’s imminent breakdown.

“Not per the charter.”

“So she could buy the Bois if I could talk my investors into investing in her?”

It was a long shot. Gretchen said one of her investors was already getting nervous, but maybe there was a way. Maybe she could ask her father, aunt, and uncle. She could do a GoFundMe, except that she didn’t have any followers to ask.

“Per their deal, you’re required to relinquish your right to buy and not to help anyone else get the land.”

“What if the investors came to her on their own?”

“That’d look like too much of a coincidence.

Even if your investors jumped over to Sullivan without your involvement, Mega Eats would punish you and Sullivan for it.

Basically, you can back down, lose the Bois, and get out from under a mountain of attorney fees, or we can go to court and risk losing the Bois and getting hit with upwards of seventy-five thousand in fees. ”

“How is that even possible?” Kia slid off the Jersey barrier and sat on the ground, her back to the concrete. She put her head in her hand.

“They claim to have hired the top partners at a very expensive firm. We’re talking people who bill eight hundred an hour. It’s an intimidation technique.”

“And Sullivan has to pay those fees too?”

“If you take the deal, you get your accounts back, and she’ll have to pay attorney fees. You’ll have to admit to all the accusations, so effectively, you’re saying you’re both guilty. They promise to only go after her.”

“What are our chances of winning the case if I don’t take their deal?”

“Slim, but the law is on our side. Judge Harper might do the right thing. Here’s the catch though.

Because Mega Eats hasn’t acknowledged that they’ve got your accounts hostage, they don’t have to release them.

If you win in court, they still won’t give them back.

You’ll have to rebuild, and there’s nothing to say they couldn’t get your accounts shut down again. ”

“The only way to keep my accounts is to say we did it,” Kia said slowly. “And sacrifice Sullivan?”

“Yes. Do you want to take their deal?”

Stating the answer was as easy as stating the boiling temperature for water, as easy as separating an egg into its white and yellow elements, as easy as breathing clean forest air.

“No.”

That night, after an exhausting day of serving tursnicken and trying to convince people fried beets were not unapproachable, Kia retired to Old Girl. Deja had been planning on sleeping on the foldout couch, but Kia got Deja a hotel room. Kia needed to be alone.

Now she set her phone on the table of Old Girl and called up the international routing number that would connect her with her father’s emergency radio. She put in her personal code. A moment later, her father’s voice answered.

“My little angelfish!” he exclaimed. “Is everything all right?”

“I ruined everything.” Kia burst into tears the way she hadn’t since she was a kid. Even then, she had had some of her aunt’s reserve in her. She’d been seven or eight the last time she’d cried to her father.

“Angel, what’s wrong?” Her father’s voice dropped an octave in concern. “Talk to me.”

“No one died.” Kia tried to swallow her sobs. “Or got cancer or abducted or killed anyone.”

“Okay. We’ve established no death or illness. What happened?”

“So much has happened.” Why hadn’t she called him on his emergency radio the day she won the American Fare Award?

Why hadn’t she filled him in on every development?

The emergency radio cost by the minute, but not hundreds of dollars.

Now she had too much to explain. “I won the American Fare Award, and then Gretchen said I should buy this land, which I wanted, and there were all these nice, liberal middle-aged white people with water bottles—”

“Slow down. What kind of water bottles?”

“Water bottles with liberal stickers on them. Wait.” A bubble of laughter broke the surface of her tears. “That’s what you care about? The water bottles?”

“I live at sea, Angelfish. Water is very important. But go on. I talked to Eleanor yesterday, and she told me a little bit about this land deal. Start from the beginning and tell me everything.”

“How do I know where the beginning is?”

“There’s always a golden glow around the beginning because no matter what happens later, everything begins with love. You just have to go far back enough to find it.”

“Love,” Kia sobbed.

“That’s right, my dear. And love does make us cry sometimes, but it’s still worth it.”

“I’m in love.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“It’s not wonderful.”

“Love is always wonderful, even when it hurts.”

“But I hurt her .”

“Start at the beginning.”

“It was the first day I walked into school and saw Alice Sullivan.”

“The one you kissed,” her father said. “We always wondered what you hadn’t told us about her.”

Kia poured out the story, from her first crush on Sullivan to the careless way they lost touch to the American Fare Award, the Bois, her canceled accounts, Mega Eats’ offer.

“Dad, Sullivan could lose everything, and it’s all my fault.”

“You took a risk on the land and on love, and it is as serendipitous as your cousin finding true love. You know we didn’t expect Lillian to fall in love like she did.

Your aunt and uncle and I always thought it’d be you who ran off with a burlesque performer.

But Lillian and Izzy found each other, and now you’ve found Sullivan. ”

“But Lillian and Izzy worked out. Lillian didn’t bankrupt Izzy.”

“You and Sullivan will work everything out. Love always works out if you believe.”

That was absolutely not true. If her father was going to lie to cheer her up, he really should find some more realistic lies.

Maybe he should spend some time with Nina.

Sullivan wasn’t going to tease her again.

Sullivan wasn’t going to give her shit about her tursnicken and then add that Kia was the best chef she’d ever met.

And asking Sullivan to go back to their sweet new way of being…

that wasn’t fair, not after the hell Kia had rained down on her.

Somewhere in the back of Kia’s mind, a reasonable voice said that all was not lost. Couples went through hard times.

People forgave each other. But that voice was drowned out by the rest of her heart and soul weeping over the real possibility that she and Sullivan were over.