Carmela nodded. “Yeah, but I cased the o ce for a long time before I took the plunge. That couch I slept on was better than the e ciency I rented with a fake ID a little later.
It didn’t even have a shower. I had to use a little plastic cup and the sink. But in that building is where I met Liz.”
“Would you tell me about it?”
Carmela smiled. Rhiannon looked like she was on the edge of her seat.
“One night a realtor was still there when I was working.
I’d never seen her name plate on the cubicle wall before. She was so elegant. So refined. I’d never seen anyone like that in my life.” Carmela’s chest swelled as she remembered the night and Liz’s over processed hair.
“She still looks like that now,” Rhiannon agreed.
“You have no idea. She was like out of a magazine. And she was so kind. Most people ignore the cleaning sta , you know. She didn’t. She looked right at me. I’d been cleaning o ces for over a year and no one had ever wondered what such a young girl was doing with a job like that. But she
asked me. It was so unexpected. I was so used to being invisible. I can’t even remember what I said.” She chuckled.
Rhiannon smiled. “Did she try and scoop you up?”
“In her own way, yes. The next night when I returned to empty wastebaskets and scrub toilets, she was there again, waiting for me this time. Befriending me was an easy task. I was just a lost kid getting by, but not thriving. After a month of nightly meetings, she convinced me to take the realtor exam as soon as I turned eighteen. She even paid for my course.” Carmela smiled. “And, as they say, the rest is history. She took me under her wing. Threw me crappy little rentals here and there. When I got my first check for eight hundred bucks for a single deal, I nearly had a stroke.” She chuckled. “Until then, I’d been getting paid four bucks an hour and working sixteen hours a day just to tread water.”
Moving the tray to the floor, Rhiannon plopped into Carmela’s lap and hugged her tight. “You’re unbelievable, and Liz is a real-life angel.”
Carmela chuckled. “She really is.”
Rhiannon flipped around and straddled her hips while running her fingers through Carmela’s hair. With a deep lingering look, Rhiannon opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again. The sentiment careened into her chest anyway, and Carmela pulled her into a suddenly desperate kiss.
“You’re so brave,” Rhiannon whispered against her lips.
“Sometimes love makes you brave, I guess,” Carmela replied with a knot in her throat.
Rhiannon broke their kiss and stared into her eyes. “Did you ever regret it? Did you ever talk to her again?”
Carmela shook her head. “Her parents moved several states away shortly after we were discovered. I found her on social media once. She’s married to a dentist in Ohio somewhere, but we never spoke again. I thought about
reaching out to her, but there’s really nothing to say. As far as regret, it depends on the day,” she joked.
“And your parents?” she asked so softly Carmela barely heard the question.
“They really have passed on. My dad had a heart attack when I was twenty and my mom went very shortly after.”
Carmela swallowed hard. Thinking of them was still painful even after a decade of therapy.
“I’m sorry,” Rhiannon said as she enveloped her with her body. “I’m so sorry.”
Carmela’s tight muscles loosened and she hugged her back like she’d neve
r embraced anyone in her life. With total submission and with an open heart and lighter soul.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AFTER A DAY WASTED in bed and a night spent barely sleeping, Carmela awoke with the sun. Careful not to rouse Rhiannon, she slipped out to bask in the hazy morning light. It was the last full day they’d have in paradise and she didn’t want to waste it sleeping.
With orange juice in hand, Carmela plopped onto a pale blue Adirondack chair and gazed over the little privacy hedge to the ocean beyond. The sky was clear, but the morning autumn air was cool, so she tightened her robe and regretted not having made co ee.
In all the ways she imagined this weekend going, finding herself hopelessly enamored with Rhiannon wasn’t one of them. Even baring her soul and most private experiences hadn’t made her turn tail and panic. Quite the opposite.
Since she’d confided in her, they’d shared even more deeply personal stories. Rhiannon had told her about being bullied and the challenges of growing up in a family where she didn’t look like anyone else.