“Girl, look at this kitchen! I don’t even cook that much, but suddenly I wanna bake croissants & cupcakes from scratch or something,” I say, panning the camera slowly.
Next up: the living room—floor-to-ceiling windows with a skyline view that looks straight out of a movie, soft neutral-toned sectional, glass coffee table, gold accents, built-in shelves already calling for designer coffee table books I don’t own,yet.
“Gorgeous,” Maxine gushes. “All those clean lines and beautiful finishes. So many different surfaces for you to—”
“Don’t say it,” I breathe out, already shaking my head because Iknowwhere this is going.
“So many surfaces for you to get yourback blew out!” she yells, cackling.
“Eww!” I scream, clutching my chest dramatically. “I cannotstandyou! I am a lady, after all!”
“Yeah. Being a lady is why your va-jj is sending up smoke signals to every penis it comes within five feet of,” she chides, wagging her brows.
I gasp, flipping the camera back around so she can see my face. “The disrespect!When are you coming back to Atlanta to pack up the rest of your stuff?”
She’s wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, laughing so hard she’s practically wheezing. “Probably not until closer to the holidays. We’ve got a ton going on with Eli’s business, and I’m training my replacement for Timantha’s company from here, so, there’s really no rush for me to come back.”
“I still can’t believe Timantha didn’t kill you for quitting!”
Max went on a road trip to Canada for a romance novel conference and somehow ended up stranded there for a week.
And apparently, that’s all it took. Because in true romance novel fashion, this woman managed to get herself swept up in a full-blown small town love story—complete with a sexy Blacklumberjack who spoils her rotten and looks like he walked straight off a book cover. And even though I will hold my suspicions for later, Max is also sporting what’s starting to look dangerously close to a baby bump.
She told me while she loved being a boss and a badass back home, life in the Rockies gave her a kind of peace she didn’t even know she needed. A different pace. A softer kind of happiness.
“Why would Timantha be mad at me for leaving? I found her an amazing replacement who’s working out brilliantly!” she says, flipping her hair like the boss she is.
“I guess you’re right,” I say, flopping down onto my ridiculously soft new sofa.
“Is it weird? Living in a new city?”
I let out a slow breath. “Yes. But also it’s no different than moving to a new home. I’m used to it. I treat it like an adventure.”
“I love that,” she says, her voice softening. “And I love how you always manage to find the positive in everything.”
“It’s the only way I know how to be,” I shrug.
She sighs. “I miss you. And I’m sorry I moved the second you finally decided to come to Atlanta.”
I wave her off, grinning. “It’s fine. If I had a big, sexy Black-ass lumberjack taking care of me, I would have left you too.”
We’re both still laughing when her voice softens, turning a little serious.
“So... let’s promise to get together for the holidays?” she says.
“Which one?” I frown, tilting my head.
“How about Thanksgiving? Eli doesn’t really celebrate it, so we’ll probably be down there.”
“Okay! It’s a date,” I grin, my cheeks practically hurting with how wide I’m smiling. Just the thought of seeing her again already feels like home.
Because for me, home has never been a place.
It’s always been people. The right people. The ones who feel like safety, like ease, likebelonging.
I’ve lived a lot of lives. At one point, I was convinced I was going to work in tech—mostly because every guidance counselor I ever had drilled into us it was the one field that wouldalwaysbe in demand.
So I came down to Atlanta for a cyber security certification course at North Kensington University.