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“Your grandpa sounds great,” I say immediately. “I’d like to meet him.” She bites her lip around a pleased smile, so I keep going. “More than anything, I want you to become my normal. We can be coolly uncool together.”
“Are you sure?” Her brows crease. “I thought this was going to be a onetime th—”
“I’ll make you countertop pasta whenever you want.”
She narrows her eyes in thought. “What about on-demand sandwiches?”
“Baby, I’ll make you a toasted PB&J whenever you want.”
Risotto. Sandwiches. Pasta. I’ll offer up my nicked and scarred fingers to make her anything that’ll bring her joy for as long as she’ll let me. But just as I’m about to make her that promise, we’re here. The last pharmacy.
Grace heaves a breath and reaches for the seat belt.
“I swear to God, if this pharmacist’s secretly Santa, here to teach us a Hallmark movie lesson about the reason for the season…”
I burst out laughing, in part because her spirits are high enough to joke and in part because there’s still a light on in this pharmacy. It’s the smallest one yet, just a door and one small window in the middle of a strip mall.
But my hopes die when we get to the entrance and see theClosedsign.
“No,” Grace breathes, frowning down at the signage. “It closed at eight.”
Three minutes ago. We missed it by three goddamn minutes.
“Fuck.” This time I don’t hesitate to drape my arm over her shoulder, and she lets me pull her close. “Okay. Let’s call a few places in Chicago to make sure they actually have it before we get on the—”
“Oh! Hello!”
Grace darts forward and knocks on the glass, frantically waving at the person who’s just appeared out of the dimness from the back of the store. “Hi! Please, can you help us?”
The middle-aged woman shakes her head, her locs falling forward with the motion. “Sorry, we’re closed,” she says loudly, enunciating so we can also read her lips.
“Please.” Grace rests her hand on the glass of the door. “Please, it won’t take long. I need emergency contraception, and no place else in town has it.”
The woman hesitates, then strides to the door and unlocks it with a snap. “I’ve heard there’s a shortage in the area.” She steps back. “Come on in.”
Neither of us can hide our relief as we stumble inside, our thank-yous an overlapping babble as a smile widens across the woman’s face.
“You’re lucky you caught me. I was about to head home and chill some champagne.”
“Can I buy you a second bottle?” I ask. “You saved us.”
She just waves us off as she moves behind the counter to a shelf in the back. “Not necessary. Happy to help. Brand preference?”
When Gracie steps forward, the two women confer briefly, and the pharmacist—Imani, according to her name tag—runs through instructions and suggestions as Grace listens intently, nodding along. When the time comes to pay, I push my credit card into Imani’s hand before Grace can even reach for hers.
“You don’t have t—”
“I want to.” I kiss her to shut down any follow-up objections, and she lets me. After another round of gratitude to our guardian angel, we’re back in my car, and Gracie’s ripped open the box and dry-swallowed the pill before I’ve even got my door closed.
“Okay.” She sighs and closes her eyes, letting her head fall against the seat back. “Now I’m okay.” Then she turns to look at me. “Thanks. For putting up with all this.”
I grab her hand and press it to my lips. “Are you kidding? Thanks for letting me come along.” Then we just smile at each other. Big, goofy, relieved smiles that make me so grateful that a pipe burst and left me free on New Year’s Eve to bump into my beautiful neighbor on a not-smoking backyard meetup.
“Where to now? We can still make it to Navy Pier for midnight fireworks.”
“Your place,” she says decisively. “I don’t know if you remember, but you promised to make me, like,so much food.”
I laugh and grab the collars of her coat, pulling her toward me for a kiss.
