Page 40 of Do It With Me

She chuckled. “If they handed out degrees for Pinterest, I’d have a doctorate by now, but it couldn’t hurt to upload all of these and share them around social media a bit. You never know what might happen. Have you asked your billionaire for advice? He’s bound to know how to make money off of literally anything.”

“I’m sure he does, but no, I haven’t asked.” I let out a sigh and ran my fingers through my hair, desperately trying not to start obsessing about losing him again. “I’m not his charity case. It was one date and that was it. That was the deal. It didn’t come with consulting hours, investment tips, or emotional support. It was just one night and it’s over now.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

“I’m positive. It will not go from fake date to how to sell broken jewelry consulting. He’s not my spirit animal for financial advice.”

Bree chuckled, gathered the rest of her things, and took off to go do some studying. After she left, I spent the rest of the afternoon elbow deep in beads, chains, and semi-precious stones, cleaning and photographing each piece like a miniature art exhibit.

Mom and I ate dinner in a kitchen that smelled like polish and desperation. Then she helped me choose which pictures to upload. I would have to stage the pieces that were back at the store properly tomorrow, but I had taken some pictures of those in the past, mostly to send to Mercedes to show her what I’d done. For now, I used those.

I updated the online store and uploaded some of the images to social media, hash-tagging and sharing the crap out of them. Mom chuckled and mused under her breath about the good old days when a marketplace had been an actual marketplace.

By the time I collapsed into bed, my limbs felt like overcooked spaghetti and my brain was full of sparkling little chaos monsters. On the upside, I hadn’t spent the entire day obsessing about the imminent closure of my brick and mortar store or the man I was trying not to think about, so it still felt like a win.

I lay in the dark for a while, just trying to process how much my life was changing right now, but eventually, I reached for my phone to check the time.

God, it’s probably well past midnight. I froze. A notification blinked on the screen and my jaw dropped when I saw what it was.

One of my pieces had sold an hour ago. It wasn’t a huge profit or for a life-changing amount of money, but it was a sale.

A tiny victory.

I let out a long breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and smiled into the dark. I could survive all this, provided I kept moving forward. Even if it was just by taking one tiny step at a time.