Dream With Me (With Me Book 4) (23 page)

I click off. Still stunned.

I press the first message and put it on speaker. The person who hired me, the head of HR, is on the other end. She informs me that there is no longer a position due to unforeseen circumstances and wishes me the best of luck. The next is from the creative director, the woman I would be directly reporting to, who gives me pretty much the same message as the HR’s. And then my parents. My sisters.

And then, most surprisingly, there’s one from Lily Harlow herself. I’ve only met her a handful of times, but she was always kind to me. She never struck me as the feather-brained heiress who has often been photographed or reported about in the media. She seemed smart and creative and funny and . . . generous. I was excited to work with her. In her voice mail, that she keeps very brief, her voice is tense and apologetic as she wishes me the best.

I look at Chloe and Taylor. Shock must be in my face. I know it’s in my voice. “What am I going to do?”

I don’t have a job. I’m heartbroken. My future doesn’t seem bright or hopeful.

I have nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Saturday, One Day until Graduation

‡

I’m making myself a cup
of coffee when a bleary-eyed Chloe walks in. She glances at the clock on her way to the fridge. She rummages for her flavored creamer of the week and soon finds it.

“So,” she says, “you look like hell.”

“I feel like hell.” I idly stir my spoon in the coffee and then take a sip, scrunching up my face in distaste at the too bitter flavor. None of the many coffees I’ve made have been right.

Chloe takes my cup out of my hands and takes a sip. “Yuck. Awful. I’ll make you one.”

I move to the side to make room for her.

“I’d ask how long you’ve been up, but I think it’s pretty obvious you haven’t slept.”

“I tried,” I say. “I just . . . couldn’t.”

“Understandable.”

“I just don’t know what I will do.”

“Well.” Chloe falls silent for a moment as she stares at the thick brew inside the coffee pot. She shakes her head and turns to look at me. “What do you see in that pot?”

“Um, coffee.”

“How long has that coffee been in there?”

I’m not sure what Chloe’s getting at. “Maybe since midnight?”

“And it’s almost seven. So it’s been sitting there and you’ve had . . . how many cups?”

“I’ve lost track,” I say. “But it’s never been a full cup. I’ll take a sip or two and then toss it. And then since I was up, I thought I should be productive. Except I didn’t feel like making any nail polishes or anything. So I’ve just been watching QVC all night.”

“The problem with this coffee is that it’s been sitting here. It doesn’t taste good to start, so nothing will fix it.”

“Are we just talking about the coffee? Or are we talking about Griff or the internship blowing up or everything?”

“The internship. I thought you and Griff were good for each other and would actually make it.”

“I thought so, too.”

“So, the internship and coffee. When something doesn’t have a good feel, you start over.” Chloe takes the coffee pot and dumps the liquid in the sink. She rinses out the pot and puts it back in its place. “Why did you take the internship at Transfixed?”

“Well, it is—it
was
—a really good company. Fairly new and young and hip. And I thought I could learn there.”

Chloe leans against the counter. “Let me put it this way: Why were you taking
any
internship?”

I frown. “I’m not following.”

“Okay. Let me try again. Coco Chanel.”

“Coco Chanel,” I repeat dumbly.

“You’re like her. In makeup design, I mean. Why would you take an internship or work for
someone else’s
company when you should have your own?”

“My own company.”

“Yes.”

This is not a new conversation. Chloe and Taylor have talked about this before, and I’ve always had the same argument, one that I repeat now. “But there’s steps to that. It takes a lot. Experience—”

“Experience that you learn on the job. No amount of training or school or anything will ever prepare you for the real thing.”

“It takes money.”

“Which you have,” Chloe says. “Your parents have money, and you have a trust fund.”

“I don’t have access to those funds until my twenty-fifth birthday,” I say.

“But you have money in your accounts. You told me that.”

“It would be enough to start it up,” I say. “But I’d have to use it all, and the costs might be too much in New York for—”

“Why do you even have to go to New York?”

I sit in a kitchen chair. “Because that’s where I grew up. It’s—”

“It might be where you grew up, but do you want to go back because you love it or because it’s safe?”

It’s an echo of what Griff asked me, and pain sharpens my breath. I study the table. Am I playing it safe? What if I was going back to New York because it’s also what
I
know and have always known? What if I’ve been lying to myself and haven’t been taking the risks I thought I was?

“Los Angeles isn’t any less expensive,” I say.

“It is when you’re with your two best friends.”

“What do you mean?”

Chloe eyes the coffee pot. “Wait a sec. I need to get Taylor for this.”

Minutes later, Taylor is sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop open while Chloe starts pouring coffee into mugs.

“What’s this all about?” I ask once Chloe takes a seat.

“Chloe and I’ve been talking,” Taylor says.

“About . . .?”

“About you and the internship.”

“I know you both haven’t been exactly excited about it,” I say.

“That’s only because you should be starting your own company,” Chloe says. “Your Evie Hart line, remember?”

“But that needs more time. It needs—”

“No time is ever going to be the right time, Evie,” Taylor says softly. “You could start finding excuses to not start your line. Like, oh, I got a promotion in Transfixed.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen since Transfixed is kaput,” I say darkly. “And you’re forgetting something important. Most start up companies fail. I could start my makeup line and have it do nothing.”

I shock myself into silence. Do I really believe that? Is that why I’m making excuses? Do I think I’ll fail?

It is a possibility. Failure is always a possibility.

Won’t I fail if I don’t try? If I never go after my dream? But I went after love and look where that got me.

“Besides,” I say, hoping to not think of Griff or what happened right now. “It’s a huge undertaking and . . .”

“You were going to start small,” Chloe reminds me.

“You have a business plan,” Taylor adds.

“It would need adjustments. And yes, I was going to start out small. I was going to start with nail polishes and film tutorials for YouTube, Instagram, and other social media sites. I planned on going to beauty trade shows, conventions, going from store to store. I’d make makeup wherever I lived and then move it to a bigger production scale when demand called for it. And . . .”

“Hold on.” Chloe runs off again and returns in a few, holding something behind her back. “Show her, Taylor.”

Taylor turns her laptop to face me. “I’ve been working on this. Your site.”

It’s a beautiful website, clean and professional and pretty. The ombre pink background gives it a soft romantic but contemporary chic feel.

And the label for my name looks exactly like I’ve always imagined it. How I’ve sketched it out to the girls.

“You drew this,” I say to Chloe, recognizing her artistic talent and skills.

“I took what you wanted and added my own flair,” Chloe says. “You like?”

“I love,” I say.

The E and H of my name are looped in such a way to form a heart and the rest of my name is in easy-to-read cursive font. All in a bright pink.

“And I took some of your bottles and made labels. Taylor and I placed them strategically to get the best shot. Here, you can see for yourself.” Chloe finally shows me what she’s been hiding behind her back. Some of my nail polishes all labeled up.

Taylor shows me the page for the nail colors. When I hover over a bottle, a dot of the color is shown and then photographs showing how it looks on nails. I hover over all twelve to see how each one looks. It looks amazing.

“We know there’s only twelve up,” Chloe says. “A really small number.”

“But it’s a start,” I say. “They look awesome. These are the colors that I would want to start with. I might add a few more to the page—”

“I can do that,” Taylor says.

“And that’s the other thing, Evie,” Chloe says. “Why start the company in New York? Come out to L.A. with us. It can be a fresh start for you. And also, why would you have to do this alone?”

I stare at both of them. Truthfully, in my wildest dreams, I always wanted to work with my two best friends. “You want to do this with me?”

“Hell yes,” Chloe and Taylor say at the same time.

“But I thought you two had other plans.”

“Plans change,” Chloe says. “And, okay, here’s the thing. Coming up with the graphics for your website and looking at your colors, it made me want to be involved. You’re really good with the names and thinking of colors you want, but I could bring different kinds of nail colors to the table. Like you know that sunrise you always wanted?”

“Yeah.”

“I figured out how to do it.” Chloe shows me another bottle, a beautiful color of a sunrise, all orange and pink and red mixed together. I open it up and place a streak along a napkin.

“It shimmers with gold,” I say. “Like sun rays streaking across the horizon. You did this?”

“I did.”

“This is awesome!” I glance at Taylor then. “But I thought you wanted to become an actress.”

“My dreams have changed,” Taylor says. “I like behind the scenes stuff more. I loved making your website. I love thinking about how to market your stuff. I want to be there with you and Chloe.”

“There’s one problem,” I say.

Chloe leans forward, looking prepared for any argument I bring forth. “And what’s that?”

“The name,” I say.

They both give me blank looks.

It’s fun for once to have turned the table on them. To surprise them.

“If we’re doing this together, it has to be equal,” I say. “My name isn’t going to work as the product name. It needs to have all of us.”

“What about ETC?” Taylor suggests after a moment. “Our first initials, and it also has a little play on et cetera.”

Chloe claps her hands. “I love it! Evie?”

“I absolutely love it. Is it a problem to switch the site? To redo everything? And we’ll need a new graphic.”

“None of that is going to be an issue,” Taylor says. “The site was a work in progress.”

“Designing something will be fun,” Chloe adds. “So, are we really going to do this?”

I put my hand out and watch as Chloe and Taylor put their hands on top of mine.

“We’re doing this,” I say. “And I’m going to Los Angeles with you two. I just need to tell my family.”

“Will they be upset?”

I shake my head. “My parents? God, no. Meredith won’t care, either. She’ll probably be glad that I won’t be crashing at her place. My family might not be artistic and stuff, but they want me to go after my dreams. They understand when my dreams change. They know I go all in. And I’m ready to go all in with you.”

We smile wide at each other, all happy with this fresh new possibility. It will be scary and hard, but we’ll do it. Together.

Taylor clears her throat. “Not to ruin this party, but what about Griff?”

“Griff ended things,” I say flatly. “He’s not going to care that I’m moving away. I’m not sure I’ll even tell him. I mean, how will I even tell him? It’s not like I plan on running into him. He’s made it perfectly clear, and I’m not going to seek him out. And you know, I’m not running away from him. I want to see where this new dream with ETC and you two goes. And maybe being thousands of miles away will help me get over this heartbreak.”

Taylor nods sympathetically and squeezes my hand. “I’m sure it will.”

“It
definitely
will,” Chloe says. “You’ll be so busy that you won’t have a spare moment to think about him.”

That doesn’t seem possible, but I’m willing to try anything at this point.

After I talk to my
parents—which, as I predicted, went well—Chloe and Taylor push me to my room and I soon fall asleep.

I wake up hours later. Tonight is the dinner back at Green College campus but I don’t feel like going, mainly because I don’t want any possibility of running into Griff. Chloe and Taylor are in agreement about skipping and we decide to spend our second to last night in Vermont at the first place we went out together. Sweetwaters. The food is great, the dessert even better.

And, as we exit, I’m laughing and actually having a good time. It’s not that I’m ignoring my heartbreak, but that I’m trying to still live my life. Because this is how my life will be, until I either get over loving Griff (which I don’t think will ever happen) or learn how to live with a permanent broken heart. Maybe one day I will move past this, but I just don’t see how.