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“Yeah?” she said, biting her lip. “What kind of speculation?”

“People think we like each other,” he whispered.

Maye gasped. “They what??”

“I know!” he said enthusiastically.

“What do you think we should do about that?” she asked. “I mean, what can we do?”

“Well, we did talk about this, right?” he said. “We agreed that it was something we weren’t going to address until after the holidays.”

“That’s right, we did talk about that,” she said. “Over sangria, in a dark, romantic corner booth in a hotel bar…” she smirked.

“You stop that,” he said, trying to contain his smile. “But then we talked again. After your second time this year being in the spotlight at a Christmas convention.”

“Now you stop it,” she swatted his arm.

“So should we make our special announcement.” He looked at Maye. “Would you like to tell the people?”

“I would love to,” she said as she looked toward Tracy holding the phone. “I am so happy to say that Chris and I are officially dating!”

Chris hugged her from the side and placed his hand over hers. “Can confirm,” he said sternly.

“And you know what?” Maye said as she looked back at Chris. “I love you.”

His Mediterranean-blue eyes grew wide, and he leaned back, momentarily flustered. “I love you, too!” he finally blurted out.

She leaned in and he met her for a kiss, perfectly centered in front of the tree while the lights flashed and faded behind them.

“We’re in love!” he pumped his fist. “Woo! We did it!”

“We did do it,” Maye confirmed.

“Exclusie!” Tracy shouted.

Merry Christmas!

- 41 -

Epilogue

Three Months Later

Maye and Tracy waited in line outside of Fitzy’s. It was the end of March, so the snow was finally starting to melt and make more space on the sidewalk.

The months since the holidays had been busy for Maye. She continued to see her regular clients but stopped taking new ones. Her schedule had even less flexibility since she had been traveling to Canada once a month to visit film sets.

After Maye’s thoughtful character feedback helped add depth to the movie in Halifax, Ashley Williams asked Maye to pilot an expansion to her already successful initiative that provided women directors with on-the-job mentorship opportunities. Maye immediately said yes and spent the last week of January in Vancouver working as a character consultant to help actors develop their characters more deeply. The initial visit went so well, Ashley invited her in February and March, too.

At first, Maye was worried about the travel and being away from home, but it wasn’t like the traveling she had done while growing up. It was much more enjoyable. Plus, she started seeing a therapist again, one who kept encouraging her to say yes to new things. She’s a local woman named Evelyn, who had come out of retirement to practice again.

In between filming, Chris spent as much time as he could back in Greenville. He helped introduce the community theater staff to some filmmakers and producers he knew so the town could organize their own film festival. Occasionally, he joined Maye for a kickboxing class, but he stopped sparring with her after she gave him a black eye.

“So when will Chris be here?” Tracy asked as they inched close to the entrance.

“Soon, I hope” Maye said, checking her phone. “He said he had a surprise.”

Maye had returned to Maine a couple weeks ago, but Chris had to stay in Vancouver longer to finish shooting. They both turned around when they heard the footsteps approaching.