“Fitting for one of the most stubborn women I know.” She squeezed my hand before sitting back in her seat and lifting her coffee cup. “You deserve so much, Adele. I’m glad you’re realizing that as well. So, tell me. What comes next now that you’re finished with school?”
All I could think about was Theo.
Of leaving.
I gave her a loose shrug. “I’m planning on painting. Selling my work. I think my next big step is to get away from here. Maybe not forever, but for a while. Too much has happened and even though this is the only home I’ve ever had, I’m ready to try finding another one where I can reinvent myself without old ghosts lingering.”
She nodded along. “Sounds like you’ve got a well thought out plan. Just remember that you don’t have to change yourself. It’s others who need to change their perspective.”
It took a moment, but I found myself agreeing with her. “I know. I’m a work in progress.”
“We all are, dear.”
After we said our goodbyes, I called Theo with a relieved smile across my face to let him know I was on my way home. While that was split between our two places, I knew anywhere he was, was as good as home as any.
When I walked into my apartment, I saw Ramsay and Theo on the couch together, our favorite cooking show on the television, and a Denny’s takeout bag sitting unopened on the coffee table.
I stopped and stared, taking a mental picture, and wanting to bring it to life on a canvas full of color. Full of hope. It was the exact image that I would display on my wall and show off to the world because it was mine. A life deserving to be bragged about and shared.
“Theo?”
He looked over his shoulder and smiled, one hand curled around Ramsay’s back. “I got your favorite for dinner. Didn’t think you’d mind. Come sit with me?”
Kicking off my shoes, I sat on my knees facing him, my eyes freely scoping him out while he watched me with a lopsided grin.
“What are you looking at?” he asked gently, leaning in for a brief kiss and trying not to disrupt the pup.
It might have been cheesy, but the words slipped right off my tongue like they begged to be spoken. “My future.”
His grin widened. “Yeah?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions, Theo,” I teased, leaning in again and grazing his lips in a kiss that lasted too long for Ramsay’s liking. He stirred and barked, causing me to roll my eyes and sit back.
I focused on getting the food out of the bag and splitting it between us. “I was thinking about seeing Sophie tomorrow. I texted Lydia and asked if she could meet us. She was free, so…” I paused, passing him a napkin. “Unless you have other plans. I should have checked.”
“I’m free,” was all he gave me.
“You’re not worried about, Sophie?” It shouldn’t have surprised me that he wasn’t. Theo seemed fearless, and not even somebody like Sophie could get under his skin. She’d tried.
His hand came up and brushed my jaw, something in his eyes that was light and amused at the same time. “No, sweetheart. I’m not scared of her at all.”
Epilogue
Della
The summer came with a brutal heat wave that matched the growing tensions portrayed when Richard Pratt’s trial was scheduled for late August after his arrest by NYPD and Federal Agents for first-degree murder, and drug, weapon, and counterfeit money manufacturing. Special Agent Michael Flamell assured me during a short meeting at the beginning of June that I wouldn’t be needed in the trial and that Pratt wouldn’t be getting off.
Thankfully, I escaped the city by July when Theo set up appointments with real estate agents in upstate New York, far enough from the city where the spectacle of Pratt wouldn’t find me but close enough that day trips weren’t impossible. It’d taken only a week to find a home that I always pictured living in, a space perfect for two people and a dog with plenty of room to run around and be comfortable without the luxuries or complications that the city came with. The house was set back from the
rest that surrounded it with more acreage than we needed and held a serenity foreign to me. On the first night, it’d been too quiet to sleep, so Theo had stayed up with me watching TV even after unpacking and setting up his new home office all day. While he’d need to go to the city occasionally, we both knew we’d never truly escape the Big Apple. When he went in for work, I went to see Sophie, Ren, and Tiffany before she’d left for her newest adventure with the Los Angeles Ballet Company.
My biggest obstacle had been telling Sophie and Lydia that I was in love with Theo and had every intention of leaving with him before the new trial began. The sweat that had collected on my forehead and the clamminess of my palms seemed overexaggerated when Theo took my hand and led me into Sophie’s parlor as if he had no care in the world anymore. Lydia had hugged me with a knowing smile and said she was happy as long as I was, and Sophie had told me, “I suppose you could do worse, Adele” with a tight curve to her lips. I’d expected a fight, a heated exchange of words that Theo would need to reassure me of when we’d left.
I’d gotten closure. A new beginning where my chest was light and the butterflies in my stomach were free to flutter all because of the man who held me in public and kissed me in crowds and hugged me with a purpose no matter who stared. And some people did. But neither of us paid them attention, even if they’d had smiles on their faces from our public affections.
Saying goodbye to the city wasn’t as hard as I wanted it to be knowing my parents were buried there, but I knew deep in my gut I had to go if I wanted to survive the frenzy of a media trial. Ren had gotten me a present and told me not to open it until I’d moved into the new house (Viagra that Theo didn’t find funny), Tiffany told me my present was being delivered there at the end of the week (a new mirror she told me to try to not break), and my aunts had hosted a small dinner with my friends to celebrate both graduation because I chose not to walk across the stage, and moving to my clean slate. Even though I could tell Sophie had wanted to say something, she held her tongue. That night, I’d walked up to my aunt, wrapped my arms around her lightly because I knew she wasn’t a hugger, and said, “I’ll miss you.”
She’d been tense, but eventually hugged me back, rested her chin on my shoulder like I’d done to her, and replied, “I’ll miss you too.” There was a small pause. “Della.”