AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterTwenty-Two
For once, Nora hadn’t been overwhelmed with the holiday time. In fact, she had been relieved to sit back and let Christmas take hold of everyone, all around her. It provided the perfect excuse to stay in pajamas, sew, and binge all the shows all day. In the evenings, she got in cuddle time with her Year Course crew, had perfected a version of Drink Your Feelings that Angelo would be proud of, and got to spend quality time with Talia over mounds of sesame noodles from Ollie’s and a chick flick. It was sorely needed soul-restoration for the two of them to play catch-up and commiserate on being single in the city.
As she lit candles five, six and seven however, she couldn’t avoid thinking of Beck. And his latest string of text messages.
I waited under the seventh candle for you.
Did you know the 7th inning stretch supposedly originated when President Taft attended a baseball game? He got up to stretch and everyone thought he was leaving so they stood out of respect, and it became a tradition.
Baseball games usually start around 7 minutes after 7pm, so the networks can get an extra commercial or two in while they have everyone’s attention.
Rennie Stennett of the Pirates is the only batter in modern history to ever go for a perfect 7-for-7 hits in a game. Sadly it was against the Cubs!
Most baseball series, including the World Series, are played best-of-7. Usually they don’t need all 7 games. But it sure is exciting when they do.
Happy 7th night, Nora.
She honestly didn’t know what to think. He’d upended her career, and still had time to share baseball stats with her?
One thing she did know – the hiatus from work made her realize she had been veering toward major burnout. Her ADHD hyper-focusing combined with the constant chaos Hedstrom had subjected her to had been a perfect storm, and not good for her at all.
Beck’s suggestion about not really knowing what’s best for someone, or even yourself at times, kept re-surfacing. Something her mind turned over and excavated as she finished sewing. New Jocko had his eyes now, and a tail.
Britesmith wasn’t a ham sandwich on sesame seed bread. It wasn’t life or death.
But it also was more than an cheap itchy sweater you could just toss aside.
Sometimes you just have to approach it together and figure it out…the hard way.
It hurt that he had gone ahead and made decisions without her. But at the end of the day, it was his family’s company.
And as for the two of them? She still didn’t know if she believed in soulmates, or even the concept ofbashert. They’d agreed to one night, and maybe he had had other intentions. But she was able to see the good in what they briefly had.
She carefully backstitched Jocko a mouth, slightly upturned.
It could pass for a smile.
ChapterTwenty-Three
“Nora! Yay! You came!”
Parker, fresh off the catwalk, positively glowed. It was his first year participating in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’Now We Don Our Gay Apparelcharity fashion show, although he and Nolan always volunteered for the annual event. It took place the Friday afternoon after Christmas every year and she made sure to approve their time off requests since they worked so hard on it, but had never attended herself due to work.
No problem with that now.
“And you brought me paparazzi.” He smacked red lacquered nails to his chest, trulyverklempt. “Way better than flowers! Hi!”
“My good friend, Sylvie. Sylvie, this is Parker.”
“Mister Heat Miser to you, young lady.” He patted his spiky red wig, striking a pose for her.
“I got some great action shots of you up there. Nora will send them to you, promise.” She squeezed Nora’s shoulder. “I want to shoot the next designer, he’s a Back Bay Boston boy. See you out at Talia and Jay’s parents’ house tonight? Later, hot stuff.”
Parker caught the kiss she blew, then wiped his face of any trace of merriment. “I ate nearly an entire Yule log on your behalf, you know. They almost didn’t let me on the runway.”
“Oh please.” She glanced around the venue. Usually, whichever theater had a show closing by New Year’s offered up a matinee slot. This year it happened to be one of their regular contracts. Although, to her dismay, she didn’t recognize a single staffer.
“I guess that’s the way it’s gonna be now, huh?” She nodded toward concessions.
