Page 25 of Accidentally Falling
ELLA: I’m so excited I get to be an aunt again!
ARDEN: Okay well I think this was enough socializing for the day. I’m going to go lie down or something
NESSA: She means have sex with Jude
BEA: Oh my God what is wrong with you?
NESSA: What? I said SEX this time
ELLISON: I fucking love you girls
ELLISON: And you too Cal
CAL: Fucking right
LANA: Amen to that.
13
ARDEN
The Kettle and Kiln is busy but not too busy that I can’t concentrate. My reasons for that have nothing to do with the cozy little coffee shop and everything to do with the brooding bar owner that had invaded my kitchen the other night.
Looking around at the white walls and hanging plants, I think fondly of the first time I came here, when I’d recently arrived in Blackstone Falls. I’d done an article on all the businesses in town and had chosen to start here. I’d interviewed the owners, Nicolette and Karina, the two women as passionate about their coffee as they are each other.
And pottery.
With a sign that readsyou make’em we bake’em, it’s a full stop shop. Nicolette offers pottery classes in the back, and it’d been so fun to highlight such a unique facet of their business. For research purposes, I made a mug that’s proudly displayed on my counter.
The memory brings a smile to my face and that has my mind wandering to another piece I wrote highlighting a bar full of cliché décor and its grumpy owner. And because I’m okay with any excuse not to do myactualwork, I type out a text to Jude.
ARDEN: You never told me
JUDE: Never told you what?
ARDEN: Did you find a dog at Vetted Paws?
JUDE: Can you believe I was a little preoccupied, Tennessee?
ARDEN: Maybe
JUDE: But yes. His name is Dez—some kind of lab—silver I think
JUDE: He has blue eyes and I don’t know, I saw him and didn’t need to see any others
ARDEN: Aww he’s your soul dog!
JUDE: My what?
ARDEN: Your four-legged soulmate
JUDE: I am not even going to respond to that…
ARDEN: It’s adorable
JUDE: Nothing about me is adorable
ARDEN: Disagree
