Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
It was beautiful she understood we were all in this for a lifetime. But it still made me sad, as much as it made me proud she was mature enough (Timothee and Errol could take lessons) to consider herself, Sirk, their futures, and how something like this might affect them and the beings they cared about.
It still sucked.
“I’m super excited you’re going on your quest,” I said.
“Me too,” Monique agreed. “Once I finish pumping my credit line enough to get the renos done on my flat, and if you haven’t found him yet, I’ll join you for a month. Though, then I’d have to pump my credit line up enough to be away from clients for a month.”
“That would be awesome,” Gayle replied, her green eyes lighting.
“I’m down with meeting you for some long weekends and mate trawling,” Cat put in.
It occurred to me then that the idea the problem with Aleksei and I was space, actually was part of the problem.
But only part of it.
He needed space and time.
He and I both worked. We weren’t together 24/7, but we were together a lot, and that togetherness had been intense from the start. He enjoyed work, but now he had all of this other stuff weighing on him too.
So perhaps he not only needed space to see to all the things he needed to see to, without having to worry about looking out for or paying attention to me, we also both needed time.
Time to deal with the loss of Antheme. Time to get to know one another better. Time to settle into our lives together.
The thing about that was, all of that made sense, but it didn’t feel right.
And it hurt my heart, and my beast didn’t like it either (at all), to think of giving it to him.
But everyone needed a break.
And they needed those on the regular.
Anyway, I wanted to support Gayle on her quest too.
“I’m in for long weekends as well,” I said. “And maybe we can ask Alchemy if she could narrow down the search area.”
Alchemy was the witch that had her mystic sanctum in my building.
Gayle scrunched her nose. “Do you think she’s actually a witch?”
“No, but it doesn’t matter. We’d have fun wherever we went,” I replied. “She could just offer vacation suggestions, and I’d be down.”
“Too true,” Cat agreed.
Monique raised her glass. “Suck ’em back. I need dinner to soak up some of this vodka.”
I should have requested snacks, because she was very correct.
We all lifted our glasses and did as told.
Then we all hoisted ourselves out of the comfortable but tight fit on the daybed.
Cat linked arms with me as we walked to the door.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said.
I took in a deep breath, let it out and nodded.
“Also, you totally need to tell the staff to stock your fridge and snack cupboard up here,” she went on.
I turned to her in order to refute this assertion.
“Don’t say it,” she said before I could say anything. “It’s their job. They like to have those jobs, since they get paid to do them. And you have a job as well, actually, two of them. The point of having staff is so they’ll do things to give you time to do the things you have to do.” She jostled my arm. “There are lessons Madam Garwah can’t teach you but you need to learn, because you aren’t Laura Makepeace anymore. You’re her, of course. You always will be. But you’re also the True Bride.”
I absolutely was.
And I needed to remember that in all the things that were swirling around us.
Destiny put me here. Destiny gave me Aleksei.
And I needed to embrace my destiny.
“These include offloading and delegation,” Cat continued. “I know it doesn’t seem like it’s any skin off your nose to wait until someone can deliver the ingredients of martinis to you. But first, it takes them a lot less time to stock the snack cabinet than it does to constantly be running up here with stuff you order.”
I hadn’t thought of that.
“Also,” she kept at it, “time is our most important commodity, and you need to learn how to stretch yours as much as you can, because you’ll have tons of stuff pulling at it, and when you need to work things out with your gals, you don’t need to be placing a call and waiting for vodka and olives.”
There it was again.
Time.
She pulled me closer to her as we kept walking.
And she finished, “Trust me.”
I always trusted her.
But this was excellent advice.
It would feel weird at first, but I’d get used to it.
I hadn’t really thought I’d get used to living in a penthouse and being looked after by bots.
But once I was in, I barely noticed it.
And now I was living in a palace.
I nodded to Cat.
We then followed Gayle and Monique to the parlor where the family had drinks before dinner. Fortunately, a room I knew.