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“Well, I’ll talk to you later. Thanks,” I said, pulling back just as he did the same. Had I lost my mind? Did I really think Leo would be into someone like me?
And as I clunked to the elevator, tired from a day on the beach, I thought about how I didn’t want him to be interested anyway. Love led to all sorts of disasters, and I didn’t need any more of those anytime soon.
Chapter Thirteen
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I said to Serena, splotches of light blue paint in my hair and hers. I itched my nose with the inside of my elbow, the paint roller in my hand, as I stared around the tiny little building that was metamorphosing into my vision.
Tillie’s Brews. The sign was coming next week, and the soft opening was only three weeks away. It blew my mind that I’d done it; I’d made it happen after a couple years of blood, sweat, working several jobs, and uncertainty.
I’d always thought owning a coffee shop would be such a fun thing. In high school, I often found myself at Chloe’s Coffee, a tiny little corner shop down from the condo. I loved not just the coffee but the sense of community there. The regulars sitting in booths, chatting about life. The tourists popping in with wonder in their eyes. The smell of coffee beans lingering in the air. So, when Serena invited me to head to the city with her when I was eighteen and had decided I wasn’t going to college, the lights went off. It was my chance.
I’d met Serena in Model U.N. when I was a freshman and she was a senior. Despite our age gap, we were both super nerdy, loved school, and were both on the law school path at the time—except I wasn’t really, of course. Not in my heart. We’d stayed friends as she went to the local community college for law, studying super hard. When I was graduating from high school, she’d finished her degree and earned a scholarship to a prominent law school in the city.
Looking back, moving to the city to start a coffee shop was one of the riskiest, craziest things I’d ever done. I didn’t have money or any clue what the difference between a sole proprietorship or an LLC was, but I was determined to figure it out. It was a crazy whim for someone who had been a careful, follow-the-rules kind of girl. Looking back, that was why it appealed to me so much.
Now, two years after landing in New York, I was standing in what was going to be my own business. Serena, a lawyer, had helped me with all the paperwork, business loan applications, and scary stuff. I knew more would come up. I knew there was a lot on the line, like paying back an enormous business loan and sorting out ordering systems. But standing there looking at what would soon be hopefully bustling with customers and community, my heart warmed.
Serena smiled, her long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You did it, Kid. I’m proud of you. Your parents must be proud, too.”
I smiled a small grin. “I haven’t told them yet.”
“What do you mean you haven’t told them? They think you’re still working at the bookstore?” she asked in shock.
I shrugged. “I want to wait until it’s established and then have them up.”
Serena raised an eyebrow. “You want to make sure it’s doing well enough before you tell your dad.”
I sighed. Serena knew me too well.
“You don’t have to impress him, Tillie. It’s your life now.”
“I know that,” I said. But I also knew I did. From the time I was a little girl trying to make the fingerpainting exactly right to the chemistry tests I wanted a perfect score on, I was always trying to get his attention in the only way I knew how: achievements. It was Dad’s love language. I’d already let him down by not going to law school and moving to New York without a plan. It was the first time I set aside what he wanted me to do and followed my heart.
I was starting to see the fruit of my labors. I hoped he eventually would, too.
The door opened, the bells jingling on the front door. I was getting ready to tell whoever wandered in that we weren’t open. But when I turned, I saw him standing there.
