Chapter 146

• The wind was stronger near the waterfront that night, the kind that carried the salt smell from the bay and pressed the loose strands of my hair across my face. Julian had suggested we walk after closing the boutique, and I had not asked where. I just let him lead, his hand in mine, as we wound through streets where the lamps threw long golden shapes across the wet pavement. It had rained earlier, not heavily, but enough to make the air feel soft and clean.
• We passed the shuttered front of a bakery, the scent of bread still clinging to the doorway. Somewhere down the street a busker was playing guitar, not loud enough for words to carry but just enough for the chords to find us in snatches. I thought about the long day behind us, about the orders stacked up on my worktable, about the quiet pressure that had been building since Claudia’s proposal to expand into Asia. It had been a flattering offer. The numbers made sense. The opportunities were obvious. And yet something in me resisted it without being able to explain why in a way that would satisfy an investor or a boardroom.
• Julian must have felt my thoughts turning over because he gave my hand a small squeeze. “You’re not here with me right now,” he said. It was not an accusation, just an observation, like he was gently catching me before I drifted too far away.