“The kind that involves chocolate cake,” I said. “Do they have chocolate cake here?”
“If they don’t, we could go to that restaurant we always go to for coffee and desserts, Chanel. I think that place is open until, like, eleven or midnight,” Ana said.
“See, now I’m salivating, and you have to take me,” I said.
“I’ll take you anywhere you want,” Rhett said.
I looked up into his eyes and saw his lips approaching mine, encompassing mine with a sweetness that overpowered my want for cake.
“On second thought, maybe we could do the cake tomorrow,” I said.
“Sounds good to me,” Rhett said. “Sounds more than good to me.”
EPILOGUE
RHETT
SIX MONTHS LATER
I stood in front of the doorframe of the small space I’d rented on the water. It sat right by the boardwalk and soaked up all the traffic. I was squished between one of the most popular beachfront restaurants and a bar that did more business than most of the upscale places around Miami, and I knew I had lucked out. The building needed a lot of work, and the owner wanted to unload it quickly, so I took advantage of his desperate state and bought the place for pennies on the dollar.
And now, I was about to cut the ribbon on my surfing school.
Chanel had been there every step of the way even with everything she’d been through. Luke’s trial had been brutal. He’d tried to use his money to get out of what he’d done to her and she’d had to relive it all on the stand when she testified. But she’d held her head high, stood her ground, and took back her life, ultimately sending Luke to prison for fifteen years for stalking and attempted rape.
In addition to all of that, she’d helped me repair the place when she wasn’t writing and spent all her evenings helping me figure out how I wanted to lay the place out. She went with me on the weekends into town to find boards we could clean up and use for beginners, so they wouldn’t have to front the money for their gear. She thought about me whenever she slid into thrift shops and came back with stuff I could use for the school. She had been rooting for me through every advance and every setback.
Just like she was now.
As we stood there with Tommy and Ana, I held the pair of scissors in my hand. There was a huge celebration Chanel had put together, with the Miami Herald out there doing a piece on me. Her homelessness article had been a massive hit with their readers, and they’d ended up hiring her on as a permanent part-time writer. She cashed in a few of her favors to get them to do a piece on the surfing school I was opening, and I was grateful to her for posting about my school on her blog.
There was a crowd of one hundred or so people gathered on the sidewalk, waiting for us to cut the ribbon and open the school.
“You ready?” Chanel asked.
I smiled down at her as she rubbed my back, waiting for me to make my move.
“I think so,” I said.
“Then cut that damn ribbon, and let’s get you in business,” she said.
I sliced the ribbon in half as people began to cheer. There were some who poured into my business already, waiting to sign up for classes and private lessons. I booked them as Chanel took their first deposits and then handed out pamphlets with all sorts of safety practices and lists of the things they would need to start out. I rented out all the gear we had and still had many more people who wanted to sign up. The process was overwhelming.
Overwhelming in the best possible sense of the word.
The crowd died down once the food truck pulled up. Tommy and Ana had rented it for the party so we wouldn’t have to worry about catering. People rushed over to the truck and began ordering food as Chanel and I worked to get all the paperwork in order.
But eventually, she put her hand over mine to stop me from working.
“Let’s go enjoy this moment,” she said. “We can come back and do this later.”
I shoved all the paperwork into my desk and locked it. I stepped out of the building with Chanel on my arm, and people slowly began to turn our way. They were all smiles as Tommy and Ana mingled with the crowd, bragging about
how good a teacher I was and how my school was going to be a great success.
Then, the crowd slowly started chanting.
“Speech! Speech! Speech!”