Page 11 of The Grinch who Loved Me
“You live in Celebration. You have to have some kind of Christmas as part of your store.”
Aria raised her eyebrows and Raegan nodded, “Yep. We need trees. It would be awesome to have Christmas in our store all year round.”
With that, the girls went to the store and picked out five different trees of all shapes and sizes and when they got back to the store, they all laughed as they set-up the trees.
When they were decorated and the fake snow set under each of the trees, and as soon as the lights came on, everyone gasped.
“It’s perfect.”
Everyone nodded and Aria leaned against her dad, who put his arm around her and kissed her forehead.
“You are going to be amazing, bug. I just know it. I can’t wait to see your success in this business.”
Aria looked up at her dad and smiled, “Thanks dad. For everything.”
He grinned down at her, “Anything for you my little bug.”
He kissed the tip of her nose and hugged her tightly.
The next day, with a final sweep of the store, and a few more hugs and kisses, her family left.
Aria held back her tears as they drove off, but it wasn’t easy for her to say good-bye.
Raegan squeezed her shoulder and Aria looked up at her best friend, “I can’t believe we are doing this.”
Raegan winked at her, “We are going to rock it.”
Aria smiled, “I hope so.”
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Ayear later
Aria’s business took off. She had couples come in left and right to have her make them custom rings.
One of her biggest commissions came a few months after she opened. It was for a diamond ring that had a four carat pink solitaire diamond.
It was stunning and the man who commissioned it paid her more than she even was prepared for.
Raegan was so proud of her and they celebrated afterwards with their new friend Trixie. She owned the shop next door.
She made the most stunning handmade ornaments that Aria had already bought a few to put on her trees.
Trixie had loved her trees and had added a few to her store to show off her ornaments as well.
Aria loved that they met and were good friends and lately, she had seen a man come into the store next door a few times.
He was classically handsome and for some reason looked familiar, but Aria couldn’t place where she had seen him before.
She let it go, but asked Trixie about him and found out that his name was Brandon and he was really kind and sweet to her friend and Aria was beyond happy for Trixie. The woman was a saint. And she was a good friend.
She and Raegan had become pretty close with Trixie and Raegan was just as excited about the man that Trixie was dating as Aria was.
Aria was glad that Raegan had decided to keep helping her in the store and Aria appreciated it.
Every time she helped any of the customers, she had her crutches and some people didn’t take her seriously and she hated that.
It was her store, but some of the people didn’t have the respect for her and Raegan wasn’t about that.
