AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was staring at me. I knew she took interest in me or else she wouldn’t have put notes in my locker, but hearing her say the words double backflips my heart.
October joins me on the stoop, legs curved elegantly to her side. While I’m accidentally flashing my Jedi panties to the street. “Are those for me?” She notices the flowers and bird seed.
“Um, yeah.” I’m hot all over as I pass October the gifts.
Her smile flushes her cheeks, and I sense October is just as overwhelmed as me. We’ve been officially together for a month, and even though today is special, we cherish every day like it’s the first and last.
“I think Figgy and Rosemary are starting to like me.”
She nods. “Bribing them with treats helps.” And then October reveals a couple gifts from behind her back. I was so drawn to October that I didn’t realize she was holding anything. “For you, sweets.”
Something swells inside me. I take hold of a bouquet of violets, my favorite flower, and… “A Grogu plushie. You remembered?”
“Of your infatuation with the ugly little thing? Yes.”
“He’s adorable, thank you.” I hug the Star Wars merch.
October laughs, then begins to stand. “Ready?” She catches my hand, already helping me to my feet. I’m in an affectionate daze.
A cobblestone pathway curves outside the door and twists towards the places we know and love most in the world.
The Drunk Pelican. Fisherman’s Wharf. Lake Erie.
Our families and the water.
I never returned to Chicago. I just wanted to stay here. To be with the people I love. So I sold my things and broke the lease agreement on my apartment. The only thing I’ve been missing is my Grogu plushie. Which October must’ve known. Her gift is perfect. My heart is bursting out of my body.
October is in some kind of loving trance with me. Only broken by another voice. “Girls, you better shut that door—you’re letting all the warm air out.”
“Give me a minute, Kenobi.” I take our flowers, bird seed, and the plushie and go inside the musty lobby. “I’m putting these back here.” I tuck the gifts behind the front desk. “I’ll get them later. And Kelly, we’ve been over this, you can’t suffocate the guests by turning on the heat to seventy-eight. No one wants to be sweating while they’re in their rooms.”
Kelly huffs from behind the desk. “They’re feeling the ghost of Ronald the Fourth.”
“Who?”
“You know,” Kelly mumbles. “Ronald.” She just pulled that out of her ass.
October slips into the small lobby, shutting the door behind her. “Ghosts create cold pockets.”
“Demons, then.”
Jesus. “You hired me to make money, not lose money. Turn off the heat.”
“Fine,” Kelly relents.
October is grinning at me. She’s proud of me. Of the woman I am. I smile back at her. When Aimee Kelly heard what happened at Edge of the World with my abusive ex and how I was searching for a job in Mistpoint Harbor, she reached out to me.
Her husband wasn’t a kind man. And she’s also rumored to have murdered him, so I guess that endeared Kelly to me in this strange, wicked way. She said she’s getting older, and she’d rather someone else do the hard work around here.
I’m the sole general manager at the Harbor Inn. With the hopes to one day own the Inn myself, as Kelly has often remarked how she has no children of her own and this place has to be taken over by someone.
She even gave me residence in a room formerly named after Mary Shelley. October spends most nights with me, and if it weren’t for Thistle, the duckling that she’s still caring for, she’d likely already move in with me.
I don’t blame Thistle. Just hotel regulations about animals. That, I can’t break. Not even for October. And while Kelly might be a little prickly, she’s been kind and lets me make the important decisions at the Inn.
Like who should bake morning chocolate croissants and nightly Italian cookies.
“See you tomorrow, Kelly,” October says. “I’ll be in the kitchen around six a.m.”
“I look forward to seeing what you come up with next, October, honey. Those beignets yesterday were decadent.”
“I still dream about them,” I chime in.
She rolls her eyes. “You dream about everything I bake.”
“I have lots of dreams, Kenobi. I can’t help that you and your pastries fill all of them.”
She tries to restrain a smile. “You’re too much.” She catches my hand.
“She means to say that I’m just right,” I call back to Kelly as October draws me towards the door. I wave goodbye.
Kelly is smiling before busying herself in a Mistpoint Harbor newspaper.
My first new hire was October Brambilla. Fisherman’s Wharf lost the best pastry chef, and I whisked her away to dazzle guests with morning and nightly sweets. To work alongside October at the Harbor Inn has been a dream come true. Guests rave about her desserts, and each time, October gets a little emotional.
