Page 14 of You've Got Male

“He literally said ‘checkmate.’”

“Weren’t you the one who served him papers?” Julie asked.

Julie’s hair was pink with blue streaks today. Her tattoos were from shoulder to wrist and her piercings were too many to count. She was an up-and-coming photographer, who worked part-time as an assistant manager at Grinder to supplement her income until her career took off. She was also Evie’s ride or die.

The two had met when their kids were in diapers at Fam Jam, an organization for new parents. They immediately bonded over being the only single parents in a herd of happily married mommies. Whereas Evie had been single by circumstance, Julie had gone the route of a sperm donor.

The two immediately jelled and began supporting each other through the trials and limitations that came with single parenting. Swapping babysitting hours, recipes, and forming their own carpool crew. Then Amber came around, another single mother, and joined their carpool crew—although theywere never besties like their kids, they were neighborly.

It was at one of Evie’s garden parties that Evie had introduced Amber to her neighbor, Jonah, and the rest was history. Within months the two had fallen in love and married, and shortly on their heels Julie met her soulmate and tied the knot, leaving Evie a little bit of the odd girl out. But two years ago everything changed.

“I didn’t serve him,” Evie defended over the whirl of the steamer. Julie was making a latte while Evie was placing fresh bagel balls on a tray to serve to the customers, the hot vapors sending her curls into corkscrews. “I simply handed him an invitation to the next board meeting.”

“It looked like official business to me. You had that look.”

“What look?”

“That chick energy you get whenever you’re around him. Like you want to eat him alive.”

Julie took the latte from Evie and with a toothpick made a chain of three hearts. Sheesh, being married had turned her once cynical friend into an ooey-gooey, Team Cupid, hopeless romantic.

“Or kill him slowly.”

Julie lifted a challenging brow. “Hey, if you’re into that, who am I to judge.” She looked around the shop, which was busier than usual, and shouted over the chatter of morning greetings, “Adam. Latte for Adam.”

“He actually collected every rotten pomegranate off the ground and placed them on my front porch. In a gift basket. All wrapped up with cellophane and a matching pomegranate-red bow.”

“So his love language is presents. Sexy.”

Evie picked up the next cup, read the order, and began making an extra-dry cappuccino. “He did it to rile me up.”

Julie hip-checked Evie. “Well, it worked. You sure seemed hot and bothered by the sexy single dad next door.”

“Not hot, just bothered.” In the most annoying of ways. “If you had rats in your walls you’d be lighting houses on fire in retaliation. And why are we still talking about him?”

“You’re the one who can’t seem to drop it. Talking about his fruit.”

Evie felt her shoulders slump. “They gave him six weeks to do what he should have done a year ago, which means his front yard will look like a dumping ground during my mom’s birthday party.”

Julie stopped what she was doing to meet Evie’s gaze. “Oh honey, I am so sorry. I know how hard you’ve worked on that party.”

“It was going to be a garden party. Everything I’ve planned is for a garden party. I can’t fit that many people in my house. The Beautification Board barely fits.”

“We can fix this,” Julie said with excitement. “We can line the walkway with pretty white tents and twinkle lights hanging from them. Make garlands from Gerber daisies. Then rent some of those silly white curtains to hang between your fence and his, like Kristen Bell did at her wedding.”

“I don’t have the time for garlands or Kristen Bell’s budget. I barely have time to study for my placement exam.” Another thing she was doing in secret. She didn’t want to get too excited in case something came up—like life. But of course Julie had ferreted it out of her.

“So you’re going to do it?” Julie wrapped her arms around Evie from the back but Evie was too busy prepping herself for Julie’s reaction when Evie admitted she was a coward.

“I think so,” she said and panic wove its way up her chest, strangling her lungs with an insurmountable pressure.

She had one week to send in her response, which she would. She just had to decide if it would be “starting school in the fall” or “defer until next year.” She wasn’t sure how long it wasgoing to take her to turn her dad’s shop around but finishing her business degree had always been important to her. It was just one of the many dreams she’d lost sight of when she’d become a single mom.

She could almost feel the pride she’d have when she hung that diploma on the wall. It would make her the first person in her family to graduate college. Her parents had sacrificed a lot to send Evie to school. That she’d dropped out two years in had been a huge disappointment—to them all. With a degree under her belt she could help her parents’ shop and then, maybe, even open her own professional organizing company—be her own boss of her own business. One she dreamed of.

“No more thinking or you’ll think yourself right into a no.”

After going over the shop’s books, Evie was more than halfway there. Anodidn’t have to be a door shut, it could just be ato be continued. Only she’d had sixteen years ofto be continued. And wasn’t it time she did something for herself?

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