“Well? What’s gotten you so excited?” Tiffany prompts me again.
“Oh, just – this. The bookstore is thriving, everyone is happy. I have you.”
“Sappy girl,” Tiffany teases, kissing me again.
Ana breaks us apart and demands attention too. I laugh as I catch Tiffany’s eye, and we both swoop down to peck Ana on both cheeks. She giggles madly.
“You ready to go or do you need more time here?” Tiffany asks me.
This might be a big night for the after-hours club but I’m leaving it in Lucille’s capable hands. Tiffany is taking me and Ana for dinner at the new Italian place nearby that I’ve been dying to try for weeks.
“Nah, I’m ready. Just let me get my coat and say goodbye to the girls.” I leave Tiffany and Ana to make their way back to the front of the store and head to the office to grab my coat and purse.
I straighten a couple of displays on the way, and stop briefly to compliment one of our regulars on their latest book deal. I check my reflection in the mirror in the office, and carefully wipe away a smudge of lipstick from when Tiffany kissed me. I haven’t looked this happy in months.
When I reach the front of the shop again, I find Ana surrounding by the girls. Tiffany winks at me as she spots me, and I realize that Ana is once again telling the story of how she got me and Tiffany together… with some extra embellishments of course.
“And then I decided that because Mommy and Mama Rachel are both useless I’d have to steal myself to get their attention! So I did and then Mommy was crying because Mama Rachel couldn’t get out of the bathroom and then she did and then the police were there because there was some man there and he was yelling. But it was okay because Mommy got Mama Rachel out of the bathroom and was really soppy and then we got noodles.”
“Who told you we’re both useless?” I ask her defensively as the girls all laugh.
“Lucille,” Ana, Cody and Jess reply in unison.
Lucille shrugs sheepishly. “Well you are useless. If you’d have just called me instead of moping about for weeks I could’ve told you that.”
“Yeah, I was going to call you on your honeymoon and drag you away from your beautiful wife. Sure.”
“The beautiful wife thanks you for your restraint,” Sara chimes in, and we laugh again.
“See? I averted the first argument of your married life. You should be thanking me, not calling me useless!”
“Ahh well, the first argument of our married life happened at the airport when Sara told me off for giving the boys too much cake and promising Lucas a pony so really you only prevented our second argument.”
I snort as Sara swats Lucille around the head, but quickly rearrange my features into a more sympathetic expression when she turns to mock glare at me too.
“When are we getting the pasta though? It’s now, right?” Ana has grown bored of us adults teasin
g each other, and my stomach rumbling tells me that it agrees with her priorities.
“It is now, but you have to get your coat on.” Tiffany rolls her eyes at me before helping Ana shove her arms into her coat.
I hug all of my girls in turn, squeezing Lucille extra tightly. “You’re the best,” I whisper to her.
“Not as good as you. You’re doing a really good job Rachel, I’m so proud of you.” She whispers back, returning my squeeze.
Despite Ana’s insistence that pasta needs to happen sooner rather than later, she insists we wait while she hugs all the staff members too. Then, she runs ahead of us to the door, before running back and grabbing our hands.
As she leads us out of the bookstore and down the street, I look over and meet Tiffany’s eyes. She smiles at me, and my heart flips in my chest.
I’ve never felt so happy and safe.