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“Priya’s opening three new spas over the next few years,” Sunny explains. “She’s visiting to check out this neighborhood as a possible location.”
“And I’m looking for someone reliable with the same brand vibe to lease a small retail space in my spa. I have zero interest in all of this skincare crap—no offense, Gemma—but I need someone who obsesses over all of the details, and judging by this place, I think you’d be a good fit.”
I hear her words.
They process.
I get the gist of what she’s saying to me, yet I feel like I still need to clarify.
“You want me to help set up your retail space?”
She crosses her arms, pinning me with her frank brown eyes. “I want Wilde Beauty. This—” She waves her hand in an erratic circle. “I wantthisin my spas. Potentially. No official offer on the table yet, obviously. We still need to talk business. Are you free to come visit the Toronto office tomorrow?”
I nod because I am free, or at least I could close for the afternoon and be free. “I think I can make tomorrow happen,” I tell her, still not entirely sure what I’m signing up to do.
“Excellent.” She nods once curtly. “Now, you’ll have to excuse us. I have a class in thirty minutes and I cannot stand being late.” With that, she thrusts out her hand, we repeat the firm handshake business from earlier, and she turns on her heel, the door chiming behind her before I can fully absorb what has happened.
Sunny squeezes my arm. It pulls me from my stupor and reminds me that she and Kierst are still here, likely gauging my reaction.
“I know she’s intense,” Sunny says, “but she’s probably the smartest person I’ve ever known. Take everything she said today as a compliment. I’ve accompanied her to a few of thesemeetings over the last year. Usually, she walks in, visibly gags, and immediately walks out. If you have any desire to franchise this place or expand, she’s the one to do it with. You can trust me on that.”
I manage a nod. Expand Wilde Beauty? I’m not entirely sure if the double-knotted state of my stomach is because I’m exhilarated or terrified.
Sometime during my mild panic attack, Sunny also leaves, although her exit is far less dramatic. She abandons me to a customer-free store with only my sister around to verify that the last ten minutes have actually happened.
“Holy shit, Gems.” Kierst whacks me kind of hard in the chest. “I feel like we’re in a movie. Like, when does something like that actually happen in real life? What are you going to do?”
This is a huge deal. Something I would have only admitted to wanting in my wildest dreams.
“I think I need to talk to Dax.” I reach for my phone on the counter in front of me, but Kiersten moves like a ninja, slapping her hand on top of it first.
“No, Gemma. You need to go home tonight, pour yourself a glass of wine, possibly take a hot bath, and think about whatyouwant.”
I don’t like her tone or the snippy emphasis onyou.“Do you have a problem with him? Or are you still pissed off at me?”
“Neither. I barely know the guy, and I forgave you when I finished your latte. What I want is for you to figure out your own opinion first.”
“Why?”
She opens her mouth to speak but pauses. It hangs there open with no sound coming out until she takes a deep breath that makes her nose hiss. “Because you’re absolutely terrible at making life decisions, Gemma.”
Okay. “I’m glad you held back to spare my feelings.”
She shrugs, not arguing with me. “Deny it all you want, but every time you’re faced with something big in your life, you start making lists of things that can go sideways instead of trusting in your own abilities to make things happen. Then you choose the boring safe route.”
“I do not.”
I don’t.
I make plenty of risky decisions. Every single day. This morning I decided to bring back skinny jeans, all on my own. Besides, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to overanalyze major, life-changing decisions. That’s normal adult behavior.
Kierst’s soft, open mom look is gone. Her arms are folded across her chest. She’s not trying to hide the fact that she’s annoyed.
“Humor me for a second. I’ve been thinking about you and this other timeline you are supposedly from, and I have a few theories kicking around in my head. I just want to see if one of them is right.”
“Fine.”
“You said you work for Eaton’s Drug Mart? As a buyer, right?”
