Page 70 of Sparks Fly

Hollis appeared beside them with two wineglasses. “We were starting to think you were going to hide upstairs.”

“I said I’d come.”

“You also say you’ll stop working at a reasonable hour,” Hollis replied.

“And yet you keep believing me.”

She handed me a glass of red. “No girlfriend tonight?”

“She’s not my girlfriend…yet.” I shrugged. “And no she’s working late.”

“Hopefully next time.” Soren smiled. “Go socialize. We will interrogate you later.”

I took the wine and made my way through the room, stopping to greet people I knew from coming to these things over the years. A couple from the neighborhood asked about a metal sign for their garden. One of the regulars showed me pictures of the bookshelf she had finally finished building. Near the romance section, three women were loudly arguing about whether a fictional breakup had been emotionally necessary or just bad communication.

“It was lazy writing,” one of them insisted.

“It was realistic,” another shot back.

“It was avoidable,” I said as I passed.

All three turned toward me.

“Thank you,” the first woman said, pointing at me like I had settled the matter.

I laughed and kept moving.

It was easy here. No one watched the way I dressed or cared about the colors in my hair. No one needed me to soften my edges or explain why I had grease beneath my nails even after scrubbing them twice.

I found an empty chair near the back and people watched.

I found myself wishing Addison was here with me.

I could picture her beside me with a glass of wine, quietly taking everything in before relaxing into it. Hollis would feed her too much. Soren would ask what she was reading. And she would chat with everyone. By the end of the night, someone would have pulled her into an argument over a romance novel she had never heard of.

She would fit here without having to change herself.

The thought settled heavier than I expected.

“You’re doing the face,” Hollis said, dropping into the chair beside me.

“What face?”

“The one where you’re in a room full of people but thinking about one person.”

I took a drink of wine. “That specific, huh?”

“Painfully.”

I glanced around the bookstore. “I was thinking Addison might like this.”

“She probably would.”

I just nodded.

Hollis studied me for a moment. “Ask her to come next time, you can’t know if you don’t invite her.”

“I know.”