Page 121 of Storm in a Teacup
Her eyes lift to the ceiling. “When it comes to the people I spend my time with, yes. Not with wine.”
Isla says, “My kind of girl.” There’s a knock on the door. “I’ll get that.”
She opensthe door to David and Callum. David does come bearing multiple bottles of wine. I give David a hug—and it’s the most natural thing I can do. Finally.
“I never got a thank you,” he says.
“Thank you for rejecting me,” I respond.
“Not what I meant.”
“Thank you for being so bloody fit?”
“Still no.”
“Oh. Thank you for shoving me when I needed it.”
“There we go.”
I move on to Callum and say, “Sorry about the whole confessing my undying love to your boyfriend thing. I should have apologized before.”
Callum snorts and says, “Not to sound like a complete prat, but you never had a chance, so it’s fine.”
I laugh loudly as I rear back, hand over my heart. “Och—straight for the nuts.”
David gets to work at pouring wine for everyone, jokingly complaining about how he does this at work, so he shouldn’t have to do it at parties. After we get our glasses, I guide Linny to the couch, leaning into her as we sit down.
“Lin, I feel so light. I feel so much lighter than I have in months.”
“You look it,” she says. “In your eyes, in your face as a whole. You seem so happy.”
“Of course I’m happy. The café is doing well, I got over the thing with you know who, and I found my soulmate.”
“Soulmate?” she questions.
“Oscar Wilde.”
Her face falls flat with a glare, which I deserve.
I bite back my grin. “I’m only teasing. I mean you, sugar.”
“You believe in soulmates?” she asks.
“Yeah. Don’t you?”
She considers this question, and I give her time because the term “soulmate” is powerful. It encompasses a tie so strong to one another that will never break.
“Yeah,” she says. “I think I finally do.”
EPILOGUE
One Year Later
Linny
I hold a coffee in each hand, severely regretting not grabbing a drink tray to carry them, but I have an unwarranted prejudice against drink trays because of this one time I went to fetch coffee for Carolyn and me at a café about a ten-minute walk away (this was obviously before Ben’s café moved in next door). I put the two drinks in the drink tray and carried them all the way back to the store, to the back, and as I was about to set the drinks on the desk, one of them tipped out and spilled all over the floor. I never forget a betrayal like that.
After walking down the hill of a very populous and colorful street, I take a right and find Ben exactly where I expect him to be: on our bench.
