But not quite.
There was one person missing, and though she tried to tuck it away, to not think about it at all, Ellis’s face kept materializing in her mind, like a ghost coming into view. And she knew. Right then, she knew she had to fix things. Come clean. She could keep telling herself that you couldn’t start a relationship without honesty, but she’d already done exactly that.
She needed to fix it. She owed it to Ellis.
* * *
Mikey would love this, Ellis thought as she fingered a handcrafted artisan bracelet. Its tiny blue stones would look amazing with Michaela’s skin tone, and bracelets were always her favorite piece of jewelry. It’d been a long time since she’d gotten a new one. She smiled at the woman in the booth.
“Isn’t that the most beautiful color?” the woman asked.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this exact shade before,” she replied. “Kind of ocean meets sky meets…indigo maybe? Did you make it?”
A nod. “I did. Every piece here.”
“Well, they’re all beautiful.” She handed the bracelet over to her. “I’d like this, please.”
The woman took it and boxed it up as she said, “It’s almost the same color as your eyes.”
“It’s for my sister, but she has the same eyes as me, so that’s good.”
She paid and thanked the woman, took a card so she could go online and see what else there was available. She hadn’t planned to come to the festival, but as she was grabbing her mail that morning, she noticed a flyer tacked to the bulletin board near the mailboxes. Since she had a free day and wasn’t seeing Michaela until later, it seemed like a fun thing to do. Who didn’t love an outdoor arts festival on a sunny almost-summer day? Not to mention, she was pretty sure she could smell fried dough in the air and made a mental note to find the funnel cake truck ASAP. As she turned to continue her stroll, she caught a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye.
“What the hell?” she said quietly.
Down the fairway at a booth with some kind of jarred dip, it looked like, stood Cherry and that girl with the purple hair she’d met briefly at brunch last time. Annie? Amy? She racked her brain for details and finally remembered Cherry saying they knew each other through work. And Cherry couldn’t see Ellis today because she had work stuff, she’d said. So it seemed to track. But Cherry was laughing, and they were feeding each other chips with the different dips, laughing and taking photos of each other and then photos together. Which seemed highly un-work-like. Ellis’s stomach did a weird churning flip-flop that didn’t feel good. At all.
For a split second, she thought about marching her ass right down the fairway and saying hi and asking what was going on. But something stopped her. Was it the familiarity? The way the two of them touched each other with no hesitation? The clear intimacy? Ellis nibbled on the inside of her cheek and had to admit to herself that she and Cherry weren’t exclusive. They’d never had that discussion, and why would they this soon? It had literally been less than two months since they’d started seeing each other. Way,waytoo soon to talk exclusivity. Right?But they’d had sex. More than once. And it was more than just sex. At least for Ellis. There had been emotions. She couldn’t do sex without at least some of that. She’d assumed it had been the same for Cherry, but she realized now that that was stupid. You couldn’t just assume things about somebody you’ve known less than two months, especially things as complicated and individual as emotions and feelings. Maybe that had been a mistake.
She watched for another moment, then turned in the opposite direction and headed back toward the parking lot, skipping the second half of the festival. And worse, funnel cake-less.
Sadly, her brain didn’t stop once she was in her car and driving. Not that she’d expected it would. Her mind didn’t work that way. Once an idea or a grievance or a worry got hold, it stayed, rolling around and around for hours. Or days. Sometimes weeks.
Her car was pointed in the direction of Hearts and Hands when her phone rang, and Aunt Tracey’s number appeared on the screen.
“Hello, my favorite aunt,” she said in greeting, the phone on speaker.
“I’m your only aunt, silly.” It was always the same response, and something about that warmed Ellis with its familiarity. “I’m just calling to check on my girls. How’s things?”
And right then, as she sat at a red light talking to her aunt, she decided she needed to get away. It was instant, like the snap of fingers, and the idea was suddenly there.
“Actually,” she said, “I was thinking of coming for a visit. Like, soon.”
“Yeah? Fantastic!” Her aunt’s enthusiasm couldn’t have been any clearer, her joyful laugh musical, and it made Ellis grin. “Come right now.”
“Well, I was actually thinking of tomorrow. Would that work? I can’t stay too long, just a day or two, but it’d be really nice to see you and Uncle Jamie.”
“Sweetie, you don’t have to ask. You never have to ask. You just show up. Okay?”
She felt lighter after the conversation. No, things weren’t better. She was still bothered by what she’d seen, and she needed to talk to Cherry about it, but she needed a little time. She had to slow thingsdown. She wanted to talk to Aunt Tracey face-to-face, see if she was overreacting or being possessive, and aside from Michaela, nobody knew her like Aunt Tracey.
Michaela.
This would be the first time she left her for more than a day. Would she notice?
The logical voice in her head shouted at her.Of course, she won’t notice. She doesn’t notice anything.But her heart worried.
And suddenly, there were so many arrangements to make. She needed to take time off from work. Just Monday and Tuesday, she decided. She’d return on Tuesday night and drive straight to Hearts and Hands to see Michaela. And she’d go there tonight and spend time with her before she left. She needed Mrs. Carver to feed Nugget.
