Page 111 of January
“And what’s the truth?”
“I hate that you know me,” Bridgette said.
“No, you don’t.”
“No, Idon’t.” Bridgette sighed, staring out the windshield. “We had to let them go.”
“Did they do something wrong?”
“No. We couldn’t afford them anymore, which is why we haven’t hired anyone else.”
“Couldn’t afford them?”
“You know how I’m supposed to take over the company one day?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, there might not be a company to take over.”
“What?” Melinda asked, turning to face her friend.
“Yeah… We’re hanging on for now, but we’ve had to cut some expenses, and we’ve already dropped some stores in order to make sure we could replenish the ones we can get to without vendors. I’m hoping I can finally convince my parents to let me open an Etsy shop or, at least, sell on Amazon or something. They’ve been hell-bent on keeping things local forever, insisting that people don’t buy greeting cards online, but that’s just not the truth.”
“I’m sorry, Bridge.”
“I’ll keep working on them. Hey, are you big on anniversaries?”
“Huh?” Melinda asked, her head spinning a bit at the change in conversation.
“Anniversaries; like, celebrating each month you’re with someone.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever really cared about months, no. Why?”
“Kyle asked me if you did.”
“She did? When?”
“I ran into her when she was shopping and I was restocking. She asked me if you cared about that stuff.”
Melinda smiled and said, “She did?”
“Ugh! Go inside and talk to her already.”
Melinda laughed and said, “Are you sure? I can tell Ky that you and I need to hang out tonight. Sounds like you’ve got some stuff going on.”
“I’m sure. I’m tired from driving around today and need to chill out.”
“Okay. Well, call me later?”
“Tomorrow, because I suspect you’ll be a little busy tonight.”
Melinda rolled her eyes and opened the door. She waved Bridgette off and carried her bag up the stairs, where she saw Kyle standing on the other side of the screen door with a big smile on her face.
“Hi, babe,” Melinda said as Kyle opened the door for her.
“Everything okay? You were out there for a while.”
“Yeah, we were just talking about monthly anniversaries,” she said, teasing Kyle.