“Because it has.”
Annie walked over and hugged me and I hugged her back. She was my assistant, now an executive assistant, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be real friends to some degree. She was fifteen years younger and always made me laugh, as well as question my pocket-dress style, with her lavender pixie-short hair meant to show off her unalome tattoo on the back of her neck, a spiral that opened to the left and meant female spiritual enlightenment. In contrast, as always, Annie’s dress was a conservation navy-blue knit wrap, her shoes nude vegan pumps. Only I knew she had a pair of one-dollar flip-flops tucked under her desk.
Annie nodded and tipped her head toward my office door. I opened it and stepped inside. The unadorned wall-width window faced downtown and a summer sky had settled on top of the skyscrapers. In the middle of my teak desk sat an oversized glass vase packed with pink roses and tulips, accented by deep green leaves. I stepped back into the alcove.
“Those flowers are gorgeous, Annie. Thank you. I didn’t expect more!”
“They are gorgeous,” she said. “But don’t thank me.”
I walked back into my office and shut the door. As if possessed, my desk chair swiveled around. And there was Cameron. He smiled a crooked smile and pushed his hair away from his eyes.
“You’re here.” My voice cracked and my hand touched my chest as if I were saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I blushed, but in that moment I also knew I needn’t be embarrassed at all. “I thought we were having lunch next Tuesday.”
“We are. I hope.”
“Oh, yes, absolutely.”
“I don’t have to be at school till this afternoon, so I thought…”
“I’m glad you did.”
Cameron gently tugged a tulip from the arrangement, walked around to the front of the desk, and handed the flower to me. I buried my nose in the bloom, knowing tulips had only the faint scent of freshness. I felt Cameron’s stare and looked up.
I inhaled a deep breath of emotional courage and talked fast. “I’m glad you’re here now. I would have been carrying around my phone for the next week in case you called—waiting for you to call—hoping you weren’t going to cancel—and driving Annie, and Josie, crazy.”
“Then I’m really glad I didn’t wait. The world does not need a crazier Josie.”
I laughed. “Agreed.”
“But that’s not the only reason I’m here. I have something to show you.”
Cameron pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to me. It had already been opened. “It’s from the Union County Art Council. It was mailed to Shay, and Miles sent it to me. She wanted you to see the official letter, but not to read it alone.”
I didn’t win.
And it didn’t matter.
What mattered was I was part of Shay’s life, and not just once a year. Josie and I texted every day and had chosen a book for our new Web chat book club. I’d started apartment hunting and only looked at units with two bedrooms. Cousin Maggie and Lorraine planned to visit in November and my parents were coming in December. I even thought about Beck, just for a second, and exhaled a peaceful sigh. I noticed a photo of me and Celia, one that Annie had apparently taken out of storage and placed on my bookshelf in a simple frame. Best friends’ arms draped over each other’s shoulders, heads thrown back in unsuspecting laughter. I smiled and shifted my gaze to the tulips and roses on my new desk, then to the man standing in front of me with hair in his eyes and a pencil behind his ear.
Picture perfect.