Page 5 of December Wishes
Although that brought a small smile to Ariana’s face, Mikaiya couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to Skylar in the fall-out. As much as she hated to admit it, Skylar was probably looking at a hasty move back to Portland as soon as she put in her full year in Paradise Valley.One year ago, I would have been right behind her, like she was right behind me when we moved here.Not now. Mik was back home, both in step and in heart.
She couldn’t imagine leaving again. Not when she held the hand of the one person who meant more than any memory she could make in another place.
Chapter 4
SKYLAR
A queasy feeling settled into Skylar’s stomach as she sat along the wall of Heaven’s Café.I really hope I’m not getting sick.She encountered so many people during the day that it was a miracle she hadn’t fallen ill yet that season. How many customers came into the pizza parlor with snot on their hands and scratches in their voice? Then they handed her cash and cards covered in germs. Nobody in Paradise Valley offered a free flu shot. You had to go out of town for that, which blew Skylar’s mind – she was so used to popping into the local Walgreens or CVS everywhere else, but nothing like that existed in tiny towns like this one.So I haven’t gotten it yet… and neither have most of the adults in this town.Skylar drummed her fingers on the table, waiting for Mik to come back from the register with a hand-drawn number shoved into a wire stand.
“You okay?” Mikaiya asked.
Skylar finally succumbed to taking off her coat. She piled it next to her on the bench she shared with every table along the wall, and hoped that nobody wanted to puttheirstuff in that spot sometime in the next hour. The only reason she agreed to having lunch with Mik that Sunday was if her friend promised they didn’t have to interact with anyone else.
“I’m fine. Promise.”
Mikaiya got up again when the barista on duty called out her latte. She hung out at the counter long enough to pick up Skylar’s coffee as well. A bit of foam spilled onto the table when Mik sat back down and slowly pushed Skylar’s coffee in her direction.
“You haven’t really been yourself lately, you know?”
Really? They were doing this in public? When Mik had the whole weekend? She was lucky that Skylar didn’t have to be at Paradise Pizza for another two hours. Because answering that question could take… a while.
“I know,” Skylar said. “Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? All I care about is that you’re doing okay. Is it your job? It can’t be easy, and I know you’re not getting paid great.”
Oh, but it’s minimum wage in a state with high minimum wage! I’m practically jumping for joy!Skylar couldn’t think that without a tinge of sarcasm in her brain. That’s how bad it was.
“Guess I’m in a rut. Kinda like how I was in a rut back in Portland.”
Mik’s face fell. Surely, she had known the answer! Wasn’t like they hadn’t been friends for several years, since their PSU days when Mik was a naïve country girl and Skylar was That Californian who lit up a room. They became friends because of their shared interest in the English department – and from attending a few of the same parties that were popular in their corner of campus. How strange was it that, since college, Skylar had become more reserved and Mik was the social butterfly? If she could be called that, anyway. Mikaiya was sort of forced into socializing both at her old marketing job and in her hometown, where everyone knew her, whether she liked it or not.
“I’m sorry things didn’t go the way you planned when you moved here,” Mik said, before sipping her latte. The maple leaf the barista had drawn with the foam spiraled beneath Mikaiya’s lips. “This place is… weird. Even for a small town, it’s weird.”
“You hear that a town is built on lesbian drama, and you think it will be the twist on rural life you’ve been craving since you watched your share of Hallmark holiday movies.” That’s how Skylar knew she was in a real rut. She had no desire to watchA Knight to Remember.Should have been right up her alley! “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Mik, it’s not a problem with the people, really… more like… the small number of them.”
Mikaiya snorted into her latte. “Yeah. Tell me about it. What do you think the best part about getting the hell out of here was?”
Skylar cocked an eyebrow at the friend she had learnedsomuch about over the past year. “Here I thought it was getting away from your ex-girlfriend.”
Mik had that look on her face that implied she should have seen that coming.
“Anyway, I guess I don’t really have to tell you that I’m thinking about moving back to…” Skylar stopped. She had almost saidPortland,but that wasn’t quite right. She hadn’t been happy there, either.I thought my problem was that I needed to get out of the city. Head to the countryside where life is slower and simpler. Fresh air. Fresh food.Turned out most of the food was more processed than the city’s, and the air was full of so much pollen that Skylar had gone from pills to shots that past spring. “Maybe I might go back home. To California. Although the thought of paying rent to live in ground zero of climate change isn’t really appealing, either.”
“Maybe you need a bigger change than moving to the country gave you,” Mik said with a grin. “Maybe it’s time to look into teaching abroad or, I dunno, heading east?”
“Like New York?”
“I hear North Carolina is trendy these days.” Mikaiya shrugged. “Would definitely be better dating prospects than anywhere in the Northwest for you.”
“Much better than Paradise Valley, right?”
Although Skylar had said that as drolly as possible, Mik still winced. “Youdidsay you wanted to take a break from dating, anyway.”
“It’s not a lack of dates that’s killing me.” It was true that she hadn’t been on one since moving to Paradise Valley. Who was she going to date? The only single men were over thirty-five and could hardly carry a conversation. Not all of them looked that different from the single guys in Portland, either. Skylar had come to learn about the “Oregonian” aesthetic that made up a bulk of people’s fashion choices, whether they were men or women.I’ve never lived somewhere more egalitarian with style.Everyone had body hair, and everyone covered it up with socks in their sandals and hoodies on their torsos. “I feel like I’m treading water. I don’t know what I expected to happen when I moved here with you. Honestly, that’s probably the problem. I had no plan beyond getting any job I could. Well, let me tell ya, Mik, working at a pizza place for nine months kills your soul a bit.”
“I remember how hard you looked for a job, too.”
“Don’t remind me.” Skylar had been in every business and applied to every listing she saw online, assuming it wasn’t hard, manual labor. It still took her several weeks to get a call back anywhere that was more promising than“Why don’t you come in and have a chat with the manager?”The bank and the supermarket were her biggest leads until it turned out they didn’t have the cash for a new employee. After a year in Paradise Valley, Skylar realized that almost nobody left their jobs, no matter how old they were or how much experience they had. (Which wasn’t much to begin with.)
