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Chapter 14
Genevieve
Gen walked through the doors of Everything Ella, her best friend’s shop on Main Street. It was aptly named– Ella was an artist and tended to create whatever her muse led her to work on at any given time. So, you couldn’t really say it was a clothes store, or a home goods store, or a souvenir shop, or any of those things. Rather, it was all of those things. It was Ella’s soul in art form, put on display on the shop shelves, and Gen always felt at home when she walked in.
“Yes, I’ll do it. You talked me into it.”
Ella’s voice snapped Gen back to the present. “What?”
“Yes, I’ll get a vendor booth at the picnic. That’s what you came here to ask, right? I figured you’re going to start doing the rounds of local businesses soon.”
“Oh, yes. Right. Of course I am! And why not start with my best friend. The easiest ‘yes’ in town.”
“Yeah, we’re gonna revisit that nickname before it becomes permanent.”
Gen laughed. Coming here had been the right thing to do. “Fair enough.”
Genevieve crossed the shop to sit on the stool Ella kept next to the counter, mainly for Gen’s use. Ella’s head snapped up when she got a closer look at Genevieve, and the longer she looked at Gen’s face, her eyes darkened and narrowed.
“All right,” she said, anger simmering under her voice, “What did he do to you?”
Warmth spread through Gen’s heart at the fierce mama bear energy in Ella’s voice. “Nothing. He didn’t do anything. Don’t worry about it, Ell.”
Of course, that wasn’t strictly true. Gavin had done something– he’d been a real ass, in fact. But she couldn’t explain the situation to Ella without revealing that Gavin had some sort of medical condition, and that just seemed over the line. That information was simply not hers to share.
Ella’s face scrunched further. It was clear to Gen that Ella wasn’t buying what she was selling, not for one stinking minute. Still, she figured the best course of action was just to wait her out, sitting on the stool with an innocent look on her face, until Ella had no choice but to let it go. After all, what was she going to do? Waterboard her?
Finally, Ella gave a resigned sigh and nodded. “Fine. I’ll choose to believe you. Or rather, I’ll choose to move on and not press the issue.”
“I’m good either way.” A stab of pain dug into Gen’s chest as she recognized the words, an exact echo of what she’d said to Gavin in their little bout of is-that-a-phone-in-your-pocket banter, not even two hours before.
God, what if she lost him? Not just to a “breakup” (if what they were even rose to the level of warranting the term), but really and truly lost him? Would every day of her life become nothing but a string of stabbing pains as small events reminded her of Gavin in one way or another– a long road of grief stretching out ahead of her, crushing, with no end in sight?
Wow, girl, you really know how to focus on the bright side!
She had a sudden understanding of how different she was from the girl that usually inhabited her body. That girl shrugged things off. That girl believed that things would work out fine in the end, no matter what happened in between, because…well, didn’t they always? That girl took insults with a grain of salt and compliments straight to heart.
That girl, in short, was a hell of a lot more fun to be around than the girl currently taking up space inside her head, and she intended to get her “normal self” back in place ASAP.
“Hey,” she said, forcing sudden brightness into her tone, “What do you think about calling up Abby and having a girls’ night at my place tonight?”
“Sure, that sounds like fun. Let me call Donovan and see what’s going on with him. Hey! Stop rolling your eyes. I’m not, like, asking him for permission. It’s just a courtesy.”
Gen held her hands up in front of her. “Hey, I didn’t say anything!”
Ella rolled her eyes right back. “Your face said it all.”
As Ella pulled out her phone and swiped Donovan’s contact info, Gen reflected that Ella was getting much quicker with the snappy comebacks and sassy eyerolls than she used to be and couldn’t help but press her hand to her heart and smile a little. That was Donovan’s influence, making Ella more confident, lighthearted and all-around happy. It wasn’t like she was a whole new person, but rather an enhanced version of her true self, one where all of her good points were magnified and pulled to the forefront.
Hmmmm…I wonder what qualities Gavin might bring out in me, given the chance? I wonder what he might’ve already brought out that I haven’t seen because I’m too close to the situation.
She closed her eyes tight against the thought. It didn’t pay to wallow in those kinds of thoughts. Better to think about the girls’ night they were about to enjoy, and how much fun that was going to be. She needed some estrogen in her life right about then, not to mention laughter, and both of those things were pretty much a guarantee with Ella and Abby involved.
Ella pressed her thumb against the screen to disconnect the call and turned around to face Gen, giving her a thumbs up gesture. “Okay. All clear on the home front. Now we just need to see if Abby’s free.”
“Sounds good. I’ll text her.”
“Hey, want to hear something weird, though?”
