Page 73 of The Break-Up Pact

“Okay,” I say. “But the thing is—Tea Tide is only sort of shutting down.”

Dylan tilts his head. “So Nancy’s only… sort of kicking you out?”

“Oh, no, I’m fully getting the boot,” I confirm. “All of this still has to get carted out of here fast.”

Dylan jumps up off the desk like he’s going to start lifting boxes right then and there, a known destination for them be damned.

“But first, uh—a question,” I say, putting up a hand to pause him. “You’ve driven the track team bus a few times back and forth from meets, right?”

“Sure, yeah. Why?”

I tilt my head at him. “How would you feel about driving a massive food truck?”

Dylan’s eyes light up. “Are you going to turn Tea Tide into a sconemobile?”

It feels surreal to say it out loud for the first time, like I’m breathing the idea of it into the world. “I’m going to try,” I say. “Just to see if we can make something work. That way I can keep the full-timers on and keep the business running while we look for another location.”

It’s not a permanent solution and far from what I envisioned for Tea Tide. But it’s an ember of it, one I’m certain I can fan into a flame, if I get the chance. One that really is all my own this time, because I’m starting it with my own hands from scratch. I’m doing what Annie did all those years ago and building this place back up, one step at a time.

“Okay,” says Dylan, pulling out his phone. “I can assemble the troops. What all do we need to do?”

Within the next hour, I have a somewhat cohesive to-do list, and the four of us plan to spread out over Benson Beach like Tea Tide Avengers. Dylan is going to stay here and help pack up more of the back. I’m going to meet up with Cassie to check out the food truck she only uses for weekend wedding events, and then a commercial kitchen not too far off where I can rent space to bake scones. Sana is going to adapt our logo into signs that can go on the truck and start making fliers announcing the new truck and how to follow its location on Tea Tide’s website—a strategy we’re putting in place so we don’t get mobbed by the last of the Revenge Ex onlookers by posting on Instagram. Mateo is going to look into the university and community schedules to see if there are optimal places we can ask for permits to park the truck during events.

By noon, my brain is practically spinning with the magnitude of everything there is to get done, but there’s an electricity in it, a pulsing demand. I’m almost startled at the intensity of it. Even when Tea Tide was stable, I always felt like I was struggling too much to really enjoy it. Now that I’m finally letting myself play with it, now that all the old rules are being thrown out the window, I feel the same kind of visceral excitement I did back when Annie and I dreamed it up as kids.

“Have you told Levi about any of this?” Dylan asks on my way out of Tea Tide. “I’m sure he’d want to help.”

“He’s got a whole move of his own right now. And I’m sure he’s putting finishing touches on his draft,” I say. “Besides, everything will be squared away by the time he gets back. I’ll tell him then.”

Dylan just lets out a quiet “Hmmm.”

And even though he technically hasn’t said anything, I know that he’s right.

I close the office door when I call. Levi picks up on the first ring, and the sound of his voice unravels something in my chest, like I can feel the familiar vibrations of it against my heart. I almost forget why I’m calling. I just want to hear his voice again.

“June?”

“Hey. Hi,” I say. “Okay, I just want to start with—everything’s fine.”

“She said, ominously,” Levi quips, but I can hear the worry in his voice just the same.

“Okay. Everything’s—well. It’s going to be. I just wanted to let you know that Tea Tide’s lease isn’t getting renewed. But it’s okay,” I say quickly, before Levi can interject. “I’ve got a whole plan. We’re going to find a new location. Everything here is under control. I just wanted to let you know, so you didn’t come back to find some coffee shop and thought I’d sold my soul to the devil or something.”

Levi’s response is so swift it knocks around the air in my chest. “I can get on the next bus.”

I close my eyes and let myself feel the comfort of his words, even if I’m not going to take him up on them. “It’s really all just logistics from here,” I tell him.

“I don’t just mean for the logistics, June,” he says quietly. “I mean for you. Do you want me to come? Because if you do, I will.”

I do want him here. Just the sound of his voice makes me ache for him, like I can reach across the miles and pull him into me right now out of sheer will.

But underneath that want, there’s a steadiness I never felt when I thought I was in love before. The trust in Levi that whether he comes back now or comes back later, he is coming back. The trust in myself that I can be a whole person without Levi and make all these decisions with a confidence all my own.

I spent most of my adult life chasing after that kind of trust, and only now that I feel the depth of it between us do I realize it isn’t something you catch. It’s something that you build.

“I want you to finish things up there,” I say firmly. “Same as I will over here. This whole thing with Tea Tide is like you rewriting your manuscript—this is my rewrite.”

There’s a quiet beat, and then Levi says, “If you change your mind, I’m on the next bus.”

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