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“It isn’t about your sister.”
“I know, Dad told me.”
“But she’s with us. Always.”
My voice was croaky when I replied, “I know.”
“Thank you for giving him a second chance.”
“Thank you for your part in giving him back to me.”
Her arms tightened.
We kept hugging.
Eventually, the sales associate cleared her throat.
We let each other go, and Deb adjusted the bracelets at her wrist. I twitched my head to get it together.
And with a sweet smile on her face, the sales lady said, “We have an L.”
At the same time, Deb and I replied, “Perfect.”
* * *
The reasonwhy Luna wanted to be at Oasis Square so bad had a lot to do with the fact it was awesome.
It also had to do with the fact I was there.
And last, a lot to do with the fact her apartment was, no other way to put it…shit.
It was a one-bedroom, bigger than mine, but the carpet was stained (Oasis didn’t have carpet, we had fake wood, but it was a whole lot better than this and easier to keep clean). Her balcony was tiny and had a view to a parking lot. And her kitchen was set up all wonky so it was hard to cook in it because she had zero counter space.
At least my old landlord had done a complex-wide upgrade of our kitchens and bathrooms about three years ago.
It was a massive undertaking, and a pain in the ass to live through, and it only happened because everyone was so sick of stuff breaking down or springing a leak (serious, I think it was all original from when the place was built) and then having to wait far too long to get it fixed.
Thus, Martha and I sent him a letter signed by everybody (but Mick). She wanted to threaten a rent strike. I toned it down to informing him, if things didn’t change, we were complaining to housing code enforcement.
We were a little surprised he took it that far. I couldn’t say my stove was a Wolf, but it also wasn’t crap. Maybe even then he was considering selling, and a new landlord would know that would be an issue they’d have to tackle, so he got that investment back in the sale.
Though, that said, after he did all of it, he landed a rent increase on us.
I digress.
Regardless that Luna’s place wasn’t that great, she transformed it for her parties.
It took us years to figure out she had to do this on her own with no assistance from me, and then when they showed up in our lives, Jessie and Harlow.
This was because her “vision” was so locked in her head, she was always elbowing us out of the way to fix the things she thought we did wrong (we did not do them wrong, she was just a freak perfectionist about that kind of thing).
But she also loved doing it.
She could be a party planner for a living, if she was able to do it with no staff, considering she’dsobe a micromanager.
For this event, she’d moved the furniture, and in a corner, created a midnight-blue, silver and white balloon festooned backdrop, with the words in script on itKiss the Moon!as her selfie station.
The rest of the space was made magical with fairy lights, more balloons, including silver ones that spelled outTerrible 29hanging from the ceiling. And evening out what the balloon extravaganza would add to the landfill, she had fabulous paper plates, napkins and eco-friendly cutlery.
