I scramble to respond.
BENJI:
Of course I do. Can I come by tomorrow?
PAIGE:
I’d like that.
I drop my head into my hands, relieved. There’s still a chance.
Don’t like me? Join the club, man. Therapy helped a lot—don’t get me wrong. I can look in the mirror now and see the good, but if you’d met me before I left all that baggage behind? Yeah, I don’t blame you for having a problem with that guy. He was dealing with a lot, but that’s no excuse.
I spent too many years believing I could work shit out on my own, and instead, all I did was make things harder, for myself and the people I cared about.
I used to think that therapy would be like taking a match to my whole personality, like there’d be nothing left if I actually dealt with it all.
It’s more like … finally clearing out the basement I’ve been shoving everything into. Airing it out. Throw out what’s rotted and useless. Repair what’s worth keeping.
Shit sure ain’t easy, but you know what? I feel more like myself than I did before. Funny, huh? Like the foundation is more secure now. I can build on it, set a future on it, and trust that it’ll hold firm.
I don’t have to be scared of the future; in fact, I’m chasing that fucker now.
It’s all hands on deck. Paige is my future, and I won’t lose her again.
Chapter Fifteen
PAIGE
“Holy shit, dude, I think I’m a genius. Smell this.” Skye skips over to the register and shoves a beaker under my nose before I can blink. “Okay, so I woke up with this song in my head, right? You know the one. It goesdu-du-du-dum-dum.”
I don’t know it. It doesn’t stop her.
“Anyway, it kept going on and on, and I was like,What is this song?Right? And I kind of remember it being from that show I watched last week, the one with the guy from that thing we liked?”
Amazingly, this I do know.
“And, like, he’s so tall—like he was stretched as a baby. Who knows? But then I’m thinking,Huh, I wonder if the air is different for tall people, like how it is on mountains—you know, where there’s more oxygen and stuff.And what would that smell like?”
For the record, the oil mix smells incredible.Potent because it’s concentrated right now, but I can already tell it’s going to linger in the best way. Calm and soft, like lying on fresh sheets after a hot shower.
She leaves the beaker in my hands to pull herself up onto the counter. “So, yeah, I just started fucking around, and I think I’m actually a genius. It’s okay; you can say it.”
I nod a greeting to the customer walking in. He slips off his hat and fans himself as he walks around.
“I hope that huge brain of yours remembered to write down how you made it so we can actually sell it.”
“My dear,” she croons, “geniuses don’t have time to take notes. That’s why they have assistants.”
If she thinks thisassistantis going to do her work for her, she’s been smelling too much of her own concoctions.
I hand the beaker back to her. “Well, then you can assist yourself with the recipe while I take care of business.”
“I’m completely unappreciated.”
“Uh-huh.”
Over her shoulder, the guy stifles a laugh.
