The door swings shut behind him, the sound ringing through the silence, and the absence of him feels like a void. Like something vast and endless, stretching out before me.
My shadows curl inward, no longer sure about who they belong to.
As if they understand that in losing him, they’ve lost pieces of themselves, too.
31
Levi
Everything feels broken.
My heart, my trust…every careful plan. If I stop moving, even for a second, I’ll shatter. So, I cling desperately to the only thing I have left: fixing it.
The funding is gone. The city, hell, maybe even the Fates themselves, have yanked the rug out from under me. A cruel part of me wonders if that means it was never meant for me. If all along, the universe had other plans.
But I refuse, flat-out refuse. I won’t let them decide my story or let this be the end of everything I’ve fought for.
So, we improvise.
Plan of attack: audit budgets, replacement grants, sponsorships, petition the council, bring the press if we have to. We don’t wait for permission; we build momentum. We go over every single detail of the project, every budget line, every potential grant opportunity. Dominic calls in favors. Elijah works his connections. We brainstorm, strategize, and we fight for a new solution.
And Naomi?
She’s the lifeline, holding everything together when I can’t.
“We’ll figure it out,” she says, simply, leaving no room for doubt.
It should be illegal, really, the way she moves through the shop with ruthless competence that makes me wonder how I ever functioned without her.
“There’s a call with the city planner at ten,” she says, flipping through a notebook with precise speed, “then we’re meeting with the community center leadership at noon, and we need to finalize the updated volunteer list by the end of the day.” She pauses, looking up at me expectantly. “Did you email the sponsorship leads Dominic compiled?”
I blink at her helplessly, gripping my coffee mug so tightly it might shatter in my hands.
“You explicitly promised me you’d stay focused today,” she says, raising an eyebrow as she nudges my phone toward me. “So, this is me politely holding you accountable.”
“I know, I know. Yes, I handled the sponsorship leads last night, so you take the planner,” I say. “I’ll draft the volunteer blast and call the two reporters Dominic pulled.”
The shop is alive with motion. Customers filtering in, Dominic and Elijah finding ways to be helpful, the entire space feeling warm and safe.
And then, because the universe hates me—
Elijah glances around, frowning. “Speaking of people who’ve been annoyingly absent, where exactly is Hayden?”
The question slices clean. Not today.
Dominic eyes me over the register. “Yeah, he hasn’t been here all week, now that I think of it.”
I inhale sharply. “Irrigation system!” I blurt, my voice pitched too high. “Absolute priority today.”
Elijah squints. “So, we’re definitely ignoring the massive, brooding elephant not currently in the room?”
“Mm-hm,” I say swiftly.
Dominic and Elijah exchange a look, but they don’t push it.
Theyknowme. They know my deflections, my distractions, my ability to bury every single emotion beneath a to-do list so long it stretches into oblivion.
So they let it go. And I love them for it.
