Page 51 of Pining for You

“For me?” I ask, and she nods.

“It’s blue agate. Opens up the throat chakra,” she explains, putting two fingers at the base of her neck. “Ya know, to communicate better. Like for an apology. That wasn’t my authentic self back there. It’s just this holiday stress, you know. Really fucks with my aura.”

“Totally,” I agree. “My throat chakra is, like, a mess this time of year. It’s all the, uh, peppermint.”

“Peppermint! You’re so right.” She nods enthusiastically. “Yeah. I don’t think it works with my dosha at all.”

“Hundred percent,” I say.

“ ’Kay, well, as long as we’re good. Don’t want to have any karmic bullshit lingering out there, ya know?”

“For sure,” I say.

“Well, happy belated solstice!”

As she walks away, I look down at the stone. I can’t say I understood much of what she said, but I did feel her apology, and maybe it’s the stone, or slowing down to speak with her, but the exchange helped me find my breath again.

I stuff it in my jacket pocket and inhale, ready to resume my search. But before I breathe out, I hear a familiar voice.

“Ebenezer Alison Bosley!”

My name is not Ebenezer. It’s Bernice, a vestige of Naomi’s Southern heritage that I never, ever share with anyone. But once, when Cash was trying to guess it and googled names that use Bennie for short, Ebenezer came up and naturally everyone found this hilariously appropriate. The full name invocation usually indicates they’re pissed at me, but right now, I’ve never been so happy to hear it.

A body crashes into me and wraps me in a bear hug. Undeniably Cash. “I thought we’d lost you forever!” he says, though it’s tough to hear him, suffocated as I am.

“Cash… can’t… breathe…”

“Oh! Sorry.”

He spins me around, then releases me, and when I step back, there they all are—Izaac and Audra, too. I am so freaking relieved and happy, I want to jump on top of them and wrap myself around their heads like a cartoon cat.

“We’ve been looking for you for twenty minutes!” Diya says.

“And texting,” Cash adds, holding up his phone. “But…”

“Yeah, total dead zone,” I say, and they both nod.

Guilt twists in my stomach. How had I ever considered they wouldn’t have looked for me?

“Where did you even go?” Cash asks. “One minute you were at the candles with me and the next—poof, vanished!”

“Oh,” I say, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Let me tell you. It’s been a journey.”

“One that will make a great story, I’m sure,” Izaac says. “But for now, we’ve gotta move.”

“It’s snowing,” Audra adds, confirming my fears.

I look at Diya. “But how—”

“What’re you looking at me for?” she says. “I don’t actually control this stuff.”

“But it’s so much earlier than they said,” Cash adds, now clutching the boots he was wearing earlier.

“Well, it looks like at least one mission was accomplished,” I say, looking down at his feet, which are stuffed into some atrocious work boots.

Cash grimaces, but politely says, “Audra’s roommate, Billy, was very generous and does have similarly sized feet, as predicted.”

“Well, they do look functional,” I say brightly, even though I’m certain Cash would prefer the pain of blisters to bad footwear—especially this close to Broadway.