January Embers Read online

  Skylar pushed Mik forward. “My friend here wants to apologize to her ex for the terrible way she dumped her.” Thanks, Sky! That’s really helpful! Mikaiya would have turned around and bopped her friend on the nose if she weren’t so humiliated. “You got anything that says, ‘I’m really sorry and I’m still madly in love with you?’”

  “Hey!” Mikaiya protested. “She doesn’t need to know about that.”

  “There are many flowers that can express that sort of sentiment.” The florist’s meek voice was almost inaudible over the passing automobile traffic on Main Street. Mik wasn’t complaining. She was still planning Skylar’s demise. Would anybody notice if she went missing? Ugh. Probably. “As for one particular flower… not so much. I suggest a tasteful bouquet. We could combine yellow roses, which is the international symbol for being sorry,” she held up two yellow roses by their fragile stems, “and a few red roses to show your heartfelt feelings. Oh! How about we sprinkle it with some lily of the valley I have over here?”

  Mikaiya still wasn’t quite sure how she got wrapped up in buying Ariana a bouquet. Yet that was her card swiped through an attachment on the florist’s phone, and that was her best friend squealing like she was about to be the maid of honor at the Vegas wedding of the year.

  Depending on how Ariana reacted to her gift, Skylar might be.

  Chapter 14

  ARIANA

  “Hazelnut latte, please.” Ari slumped against the front counter at Heaven’s Café, where the owner was the only one on duty and more than happy to help out the haggard woman stumbling in for some caffeine. “Twelve ounces, I guess.”

  Heaven cocked one of her slender eyebrows, hand on her hip and the other bracing against the counter where Ari now lay her head. “You sure you don’t wanna go for sixteen? Why not a whole pound of latte?”

  “Because it’s after three,” Ariana muttered. “I’ve got an early shift tomorrow.”

  Chuckling, Heaven took the debit card protruding from Ari’s grasp. “You didn’t work today?”

  “Nah. Get more Saturdays off.” All the better to visit invalids in the hospital. I didn’t visit Mik, though. To be fair, Ariana already knew how Mik was doing since she was the one to deliver her ex to the hospital. Besides, Mik was in the hospital on days Ariana had to work! Did anyone know how difficult it was to coordinate hospital visits out of town when…

  Right. She could’ve visited Mik while on break at the hospital. Not like Ariana didn’t spend half her days there sometimes… depending on whether it was hunting or fireworks season…

  “One hazelnut latte, coming right up.” Heaven turned around and grabbed a cup out of its dispenser. Ariana pulled herself away from the counter, although there was nobody in line behind her. Even on a Saturday, Heaven’s was relatively quiet in the middle of the afternoon. The cozy little café was a haven for the local artists and digital nomads who didn’t have an office of their own. Heaven often joked that it was the writers, the sketchers, and the independent contractors chained to their laptops who kept the place open. That may be so, but it made it difficult to find a place to sit outside of the big table by the front window. It was usually packed in the morning when friends met up to chat, and families went out to grab a small bite to eat. That day, however… Ari was a sitting duck when she plopped down at the big table adjacent to Main Street.

  The day was nice enough to bring out the crowds from their shuttered hovels. So many of the local townsfolk looked as if they hadn’t seen sunlight in six months. Never mind a single week. Ari couldn’t blame them. Just because she was used to being rained on, didn’t mean she liked it. Okay, so maybe she liked it. A little. There was something to be said for the cleansing power of nature’s tears.

  Ha, ha! I’m so funny! ‘Cause it was totally cleansing when I kissed my ex in the rain!

  The café door opened and closed next to her.

  “Hey!” It was Anem Singer, sprung free from her eternal post at the main checkout counter over at the supermarket. Her bushy red hair couldn’t obscure the giant smile on her face, but it could hide her long-term friends behind her. Great. A bunch of people I went to high school with. Ariana spared them a small, friendly smile as half the town descended upon Heaven at the front counter. Anem stayed behind, because she was that kind of socializer.

  “How’s it going, Ari?” Anem helped herself to the chair across from her old school pal. We were never really friends… That was the thing about a small school that served two small towns. You may not be friends with everyone, but you were definitely some kind of acquaintance. The same was true for upperclassmen and underclassmen. A bubbly, friendly gal like Anem? Everyone knew her. Everyone might not have liked her, per se, but they definitely knew her. She definitely knew them.

  And all their personal business going all the way back to high school.

  “Things are fine. Just got back from visiting Abby Marcott at the county hospital.”

  “Oh! I heard what happened! Is she doing okay?”

  “Yeah, she had another stroke. Guess she’ll be okay. She was pretty tired, but cognizant enough to make me feel sixteen again.” She didn’t have to explain any further than that. Anem knew better than most what it meant to feel sixteen in Paradise Valley. Had nothing to do with hormones and everything to do with every adult knowing better than them.

  “Did you bump into Mik while you were up there?”

  “Huh? No.” Thank God. “Why?”

  “I saw her down at the farmer’s market a little while ago. With that new girl.” Anem shrugged. “She was buying flowers from Meadow. Assumed they were for her grandma.”

  “Guess so.” Ari must have missed Mik at the hospital, because she didn’t see any other flowers in there. While she had assumed Abby would tell her granddaughter who had come to visit, Ari was now treated to the scenario where Mikaiya, weighed down by a bouquet of freshly cut flowers, asked, “Where did this paltry little thing come from?” Ariana couldn’t help it. EMT pay didn’t exactly buy huge bouquets. Not like those marketing salaries did. “How are things at the shop?” It took every bit of restraint within her to refrain from calling the supermarket, “Ted’s Ripoff.” The owner took every liberty to price gouge the locals in the name of “shipping costs,” but everyone knew he only got away with it because of his monopoly on dried goods. There was constant talk of a Dollar General opening sometime soon, but the town was of a mixed opinion about how good that would be for the locals. Some competition was desperately needed in Paradise Valley. Yet was a corporate store the answer?

  Anem launched into the latest gossip from Ted’s Ripoff while her friends dithered over Heaven’s menu and decided to spring for a late lunch. Ariana barely paid attention. Kinda hard to when a giant bouquet of yellow and red flowers passed behind her, distracting Anem.

  “Whoa, would you look at those?” She was more excited when the deliverywoman popped into Heaven’s the moment she saw who sat by the window.

  “Hey, Ari!” a deep yet excited voice rumbled through the café, “got some flowers for you! Was running them down to your place, but then I saw you in here!”

  Anem’s shock was the most palpable thing in the room. More intense than the dread rising in Ariana’s throat. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

  Heads turned when the vase holding a bouquet large enough to overtake the table was set down. The overpowering aroma of roses and whatever those funny little white flowers were blotted out the hazelnut latte Heaven personally brought. She had a whole line of women waiting to get their caffeine and food, yet everyone was so enamored by the buzz of activity in the front corner that nobody thought twice about the only barista on duty getting a front-row view of the goings-on in her café.

  “What’s this now, Ari?” She put her hands on her hips and clicked her tongue. “Last time I had live flowers in my café, I got complaints from customers with allergies!” Her big, genial smile was the only reason Ariana wasn’t profusely apologizing for something she couldn’t contro
l. The deliverywoman laughed to explain that Meadow had sent her on this “special errand” from the farmer’s market.

  “I was taking my break from the Bryer’s Wool stall when Meadow asked if I knew where Ariana lives. Said sure! I’m pretty good friends with one of her roommates.” Ah, so that was where Ari recognized this woman. Great. Everyone in town was somehow related to her and whatever drama currently cooked her. “Y’all saved me a trip, though. Think I’ll get everyone at Bryer’s a coffee while I’m here. How about it, Heaven?”

  The proprietress shrugged. “You’ll have to get in line. Although I’m not sure what’s going on right now.”

  Anem snatched the card out of the bouquet before Ariana could find it. “Hey!” Ari reached across the table to get it back, but Anem had already ripped it open and passed it to one of her friends. The game of keep away that erupted must have delighted the other patrons in Heaven’s, because Ari and her giant bouquet had yet to drop their attentions. One of the newcomers to town, a young woman who always wore colorful scarves on her head, approached with a smidge of curiosity in her bright brown eyes.

  “It’s very beautiful!” She clapped her hands in excitement. It only served to stir up everyone else. “Yellow roses are my favorite! Are those lilies of the valley, too?”

  “Don’t yellow roses mean you’re sorry or something?” someone else asked. “Do red roses mean she wants to sleep with you?”

  “Who is it from? You got a secret admirer, Ari?”

  Anem ended up with the card again. Ariana conceded defeat, but only because she didn’t want to make a huge scene by cussin’ everyone out and knocking over this expensive-looking bouquet. Meadow ain’t cheap. Ari would know. She had bought Abby’s get well flowers from the Paradise Flowers’ stall earlier that day. Meadow had a knack for creating gorgeous floral designs, and she never let a bad bud get out into the world, but she definitely charged for the service. At least she was always busy in the summer, when every lesbian within a hundred mile radius came to Paradise Valley to get married…

  “What’s it say, Anem?” Heaven asked.

  Ariana braced herself, hands clasped over her mortified face. Yellow roses meant you were sorry? Red roses meant you were in love? Those other white things were lilies? No wonder her sinuses were stuffing. She was allergic to lilies.

  Anem cleared her throat before reading a private note out loud to the whole class. “’I’m sorry. Can we try again?’” She frowned. There’s no name. Darn!

  Heaven snorted. So did half the room. The only ones who were disappointed were either too young to remember or had moved in too late to appreciate the Ballad of Ariana Mura and Mikaiya Marcott.

  “Oh…” Anem’s eyes widened. “Oh!”

  “Give me that.” Ariana snatched the note back. Sure enough, that was Mik’s cursive handwriting returning her longing gaze. I can’t believe it. Couldn’t she, though? Mikaiya definitely had a thing for public debacles. She also adored her little love notes. How many had Ari found in her locker back in high school? How many ended up in her backpack, or in her notebooks? That was how they communicated before cell phones became more ubiquitous in Paradise Valley than Blackberries.

  The chuckling from her surrounding audience ended abruptly. Ari glanced up from her crumpled note and figured out everyone had been distracted by something on the other side of the window. She was afraid to turn around.

  Ah, yes. Being afraid was quite the good idea. Because Ariana immediately regretted turning around in her seat.

  Mikaiya stood on the sidewalk, looking back at her in mild shock. The new girl she brought to town was beside her, totally confused until she realized what they were looking at in one of the town’s only cafes.

  “Oooh,” Heaven muttered to the other women around her. “This is gonna be good.”

  Ariana turned back around with a huff. She was trapped. Couldn’t get out of her seat without disrupting the whole café, and couldn’t turn her nose up at them because it meant seeing the last person she wanted to acknowledge right now. Didn’t help that her stomach was a swarm of mixed feelings. The kiss from earlier that week. The horrifying realization that she had never really gotten over Mikaiya and the love they once shared. And the reminders that what had happened was unforgiveable… that was what she pounded into her head the most.

  Yet there Mikaiya was, looking like a sad, lovesick puppy for everyone to see.

  Chapter 15

  MIKAIYA

  If Mik had any doubts about Ariana getting her bouquet in a timely manner, she could eradicate them now. Yup. She had. Right in front of God and Paradise Valley.

  This was an actual nightmare, wasn’t it?

  She had not counted on an audience. Nor had she counted on Ariana having the day off. The plan was for the flowers to be delivered to her house for her to find when she arrived home. Whenever that was. By then, Mik was supposed to be back in her house, where she could batten down the hatches and turn off her phone out of fear that she had once and for all ruined anything between them. Nope! Instead, she looked down the barrel of a metaphorical gun that was about to blow off her face. She simply didn’t know who was holding the gun.

  The audience, who tittered among themselves to see such beautiful drama erupting before them?

  Skylar, who refused to let Mikaiya run the rest of the way home?

  …Ariana?

  I’m so sorry. This time, she wasn’t apologizing for what happened ten years ago. She was telling both herself and her ex-girlfriend that this wasn’t supposed to happen. Since when did Paradise Valley light the town fires so every bit of lesbian drama was aired out in public? Why the hell had the deliverywoman – there! there she was, getting a freaking coffee! – dropped the flowers off here? This wasn’t supposed to happen! Mik was going to die!

  The door opened. Bells jingled, and the wooden OPEN sign clacked against the glass. Heaven leaned in the doorway, arms crossed and a smirk the size of Wolf’s Hill grazing her angular face. “You wouldn’t happen to know who gave Ariana these pretty flowers, would you, Mik?” she asked.

  Big words from a woman who once played softball with Mikaiya!

  Saturday afternoon was the worst. Families off work and school. Tourists in town from the bigger cities. Sometimes the weather got its act together and brought a sunny paradise to the valley. There wasn’t a drop of rain now. Instead, the sun gracefully took its place in the sky, illuminating the exact spot where Mikaiya and Skylar stood in front of Heaven’s Café. Mik saw her own reflection before she made out Ari’s bulky figure on the other side of the window. Hell, she saw the likes of Anem Singer before she recognized Ari’s jacket. All the sun did was make this worse. Everyone was in too good of a mood to get the hell home, and people approaching them from either side stopped to see what the commotion was about on Main Street.

  The number of people who recognized Mik and Ari was the #1 reason Mikaiya dreaded coming back to the small town that raised her. All right, the #2 reason.

  Number one was glaring at her through the window.

  “Go on!” Skylar hissed. “This is your big chance!”

  Mik didn’t know what that meant. Time had slowed to a still. Was her heart still beating? Or was she better off jabbing her fist into her eye? It would feel about as good as staring at the woman she still couldn’t get over.

  Didn’t help that Paradise Valley closed in all around them, that place they called home, for better or worse. The only way this could be worse is if we were trapped on the grounds of Clark High. Yet Main Street was where it all ended. They weren’t too far from the place Mik was supposed to meet her girlfriend so they could run away and declare their eternal love to one another.

  That same love now bubbled in her heart, but it was so acidic that it coated her throat in an ill-ease that made her want to vomit.

  Well, if she was going to puke, she might as well have a good reason for making such a mess in the middle of the street.

  “Excuse me.” That was the only thi
ng she said between pushing herself into the crowded café and standing before Ariana, who was more trapped than a fly in some spider’s web. She looked like she was ready to die at any moment. The bouquet’s handwritten note was clenched in her hand.

  A few people parted to give Mik admittance to the table. She locked eyes with Ari and was reminded why she had once loved her so much.

  There was life in her eyes. Breath. Soul. Fire. Mikaiya could pull any word she admired out of her ass and pretend it was gold. Didn’t stop the memories of that first day they had a full conversation in high school. I closed my locker door and saw those eyes. They glowed so brightly for a girl who was otherwise plain and lanky. It turned out that they glowed with puppy love for the school’s rising softball star. Ariana was the one who approached the other first. She once explained it as, “I couldn’t have lived with myself if I didn’t try. I never expected you to ask me out later that week… it was like a dream come true.”

  That same luminosity greeted her now. The fire may have dulled to mere embers, but Mik still saw it. The love that Ari harbored in her hardened heart.

  “Can we talk?” Mikaiya finally managed to spit, although her throat was so dry she considered it a miracle.

  Ariana glanced at the faces surrounding them – and at the bouquet separating their familiar faces. “Do I have a choice?”

  “You could say no. I’ll leave.”

  Heaven slammed the café door shut and barred it with her body.

  “Good luck with that,” Ari said with a sniffle. Oh, no. The flowers! She was allergic, wasn’t she? That’s why her eyes were red, too. How could Mikaiya forget that her ex was allergic to lilies? Are those white flowers actually lilies? Or just called that? I have no idea! Mik second-guessed everything she said and did right now. Things had never been so dire since coming back to Paradise Valley. Her grandmother’s illness didn’t compare to this. Abby would recover, as her stubborn soul always did. Yet who could say if this relationship ever had another chance in hell?