A few seconds later there was another knock at the door. “Come in,” Timber called out.
Alex poked his head in the doorway and gave Timber a huge grin. “Hey you!” he said cheerfully, as if they were still on good terms and had just seen one another yesterday.
“Hello,” Timber replied coolly. The nauseating scent of his cologne hit her before he barely got inside the office. Alex was wearing oversized gray sweats, and his stomach was poking out from underneath the huge jacket. He had grown a scruffy beard to undoubtedly camouflage his slightly bloated face, and all-in-all, he looked a surprisingly unkempt mess.
“Have a seat,” she offered, struggling not to laugh at his appearance.
“Thank you,” Alex replied, sitting across from her. “So…how’ve you been?”
“Great. And you?”
“Oh, you know, I’m hanging in there….” Alex paused, and then continued. “I don’t know if you’d heard, but…I just found out that the movie I shot in Australia didn’t get distribution in theaters, but it’s streaming online, so.... And the next film I was scheduled to shoot has been put on hold indefinitely due to budget issues. But, uh…you know me. I’ll bounce back.”
“I’m sure you will,” Timber replied insincerely, thinking oh how the mighty had fallen.
“You look good,” Alex told her. “Really good. Actually, you look great.”
“Thank you.”
“And this place is amazing,” he continued, taking a Soothing Bliss brochure from her desk and thumbing through it. “I asked Anne to give me a tour when I got here. The space is a perfect fit for what you’re doing.”
Timber felt as though Alex’s words had just kicked her in the stomach. He looked back up at her, his expression filled with a mix of amusement and satisfaction.
“Too bad the building was sold,” he added spitefully.
“Really, Alex?” Timber said before it dawned on her. He hadn’t come all the way there to make yet another desperate attempt to get back together with her. He was there to revel in the fact that the property had been sold. “How’d you even know about that?”
“Oh, you know you how it is.” Alex smiled, sitting back in his chair and crossing his legs arrogantly. “We industry folks like to keep up with one another. That art gallery owner who bought this building once put up some money for a movie that I was in, so we go way back. I even like to consider him a friend.”
Timber’s eyes squinted in anger. But before she could say another word, there was a knock at the door, and as if right on cue, Anne stuck her head in. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Timber, but the guests have started to arrive, and Eva is here.”
“Thank you, Anne. Could you please send Eva back?” Timber asked, standing up as if to let Alex know that it was time for him to leave.
“Sure thing,” Anne said.
“Oh wow!” Alex exclaimed. “I haven’t seen Eva in so long! I’m glad I’m running into her. I’ve actually been meaning to reach out to her. I heard she’s starting up her own PR firm, and since I parted ways with my rep, I was going to have her sign me and—”
“Not a chance,” Eva said, breezing into Timber’s office and slamming her purse down on the desk. “Please excuse us,” she continued, tersely dismissing Alex.
“Aw, come on, Eva,” Alex responded, his smug expression suddenly falling into a frown. “I thought we were—”
“We’re not,” she interrupted, shaking her head adamantly. “And we never were. Now again, please excuse us before I call security.”
Alex turned to Timber solemnly. “T, since we’re both kind of down and out right now, I was thinking that maybe we could—”
“Nope. In the words of the great Eva Morris, not a chance. Goodbye, Alex.”
And with that, he dropped his head and walked out of Timber’s office. Eva marched over to the door and slammed it shut behind him, just for good measure.
Timber looked over at Eva and laughed. In spite of all that had just happened, her best friend still managed to put a smile on her face. But then, her expression turned solemn. “I’ve got some bad news,” she said, sitting down behind her desk.
“Please don’t tell me…,” Eva began before her voice trailed off. She pulled a chair up next to Timber’s and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m so sorry. You did everything that you could. And you will find a great new location for this wonderful place. So don’t worry….”
Timber fought back more tears, knowing that in a few minutes she would have to go out and face her employees and partygoers. “You know I’m going to have to pack up and move out of here immediately.”
“I know. And I’ll be here to help you every step of the way.”
“Thank you…. And I’ve decided that since everyone will be here tonight for the party, I’m just going to make the announcement in front of them all so that they’ll know the store is closing and the next location has yet to be determined.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Eva said supportively. “That way you won’t have to worry about repeating it over and over again. But be sure to let everyone know that the company will still be up and running, and that as soon as you find your new location, the spa will reopen, too.”
“I will. Now let’s go out there and put on our happy faces and make the best of this Christmas celebration.”
“You’re always so positive, and that’s one of the most admirable things about you,” Eva said, standing up and heading to the door.
“Thank you, friend,” Timber replied, smiling brightly before heading out the door to face the music.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Timber looked around the party. It was completely packed. So many of her customers, family members, friends and townspeople had shown up to celebrate Soothing Bliss’s first Christmas with her. She blinked back tears at the thought of having this much support. But they weren’t just tears of joy. They were also tears of heartbreak over what was to come. It was time to deal with the inevitable.
The lead singer of the band saw Timber approaching and instructed the musicians to quiet the music. He handed her the microphone, then stepped off to the side. Timber turned and faced the crowd, willing herself to get through this as she looked into the joyful eyes of so many familiar faces.
“Hello, everyone,” she said into the microphone before taking a deep breath, then continuing. “First of all, I would like to thank each of you for coming to Soothing Bliss’s first Christmas party. This is such a special time of year, and Christmas just so happens to be my favorite holiday. So being here celebrating with all of you means the world to me.” Timber paused as the crowd nodded their heads and buzzed in agreement.
“But for me,” she continued as her knees began to shake, “tonight is about more than just celebrating the season. Tonight I wanted to bring all of you together to show my appreciation for your amazing support. Most of you have been there for Soothing Bliss from its inception in my home’s basement to its expansion into this beautiful space. So thank you for that….”
Timber felt herself tearing up again. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked over by the Christmas tree and saw Eva and Anne standing there with their arms around one another. They both seemed to be fighting back tears. And then, her eyes were guided up to the crystal star at the top of the tree. It was somehow sparkling intensely, its light almost blinding. Timber blinked rapidly, then looked back down at the crowd and focused on her speech.
“And speaking of this beautiful space…I have to share with you all that—”
Before Timber could continue, there was some sort of commotion over by the door. When she looked to see what was going on, she noticed that Alex was still in the store, standing off to the side and staring at her with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. He appeared to be loving every minute of this. But that wasn’t what all the fuss was about. As the crowd stepped to the side, the mayor of Archdale walked through the door, along with Timber’s attorney Stan, and surprisingl
y, Brian.
Timber was shocked to see the mayor at her Christmas party. She’d been sure to send him an invitation, but when he didn’t RSVP, she assumed that he was unavailable. She was even more shocked to see Brian hanging out with him. Apparently he’d been climbing up the social ranks and keeping it from her.
As the crowd greeted the mayor warmly, Timber saw Brian rush over to Eva, whisper in her ear and hand her a piece of paper. All Timber wanted was to get through her speech so that the burden of having to tell everyone about the store’s closing would finally be lifted off her shoulders. And then, just as she lifted the microphone to ask everyone to quiet down so that she could finish, Eva tore through the crowd and frantically approached her.
“Read this,” Eva screeched in her ear, shoving the piece of paper at her.
“What?” Timber asked, completely confused. “What is this?”
“Read it,” Eva repeated.
Timber looked down and scanned the paper. It was a real estate deed. According to the date at the top, it had been executed that same day. Underneath the date was the name of her landlord’s son, which was listed in the “Property Seller” section. Underneath it was Soothing Bliss’s current address, which was listed in the “Legal Description of the Sold Property’s Location” section. And there, listed at the bottom of the page in the section titled “Property Purchaser” was the name Brian Morris.
Timber’s hands began to tremble. She scanned the document a few more times just to make sure she was reading it correctly. When she realized that her eyes had not deceived her, she pressed the deed against her chest and looked up at Brian, who was staring right back at her. She didn’t know what to say, so she just mouthed the words, “Thank you.”
Brian smiled at her and mouthed the words, “You’re welcome.”
Timber turned to Eva and hugged her tightly as tears once again streamed down her face. But this time, they were only tears of joy.
The crowd was still enthusiastically greeting the mayor and seemed to have forgotten all about Timber’s speech. She was too emotional to continue anyway, so Eva took the microphone from her and said, “Thank you again for coming everyone! Have a wonderful time, and a very Merry Christmas!”
Timber flew over to Brian and threw her arms around him. “Thank you thank you thank you!” she repeated elatedly. “How’d you pull this off? What happened to the gallery owner? How is all this going to work? How did you—”
“Hold on, hold on.” Brian laughed. “We’ll work all of that out. But for the time being, just know that I couldn’t let you lose your space because I know how much you love it. So when Eva came to me with the news that there was a serious buyer looking to purchase the property, I did what I had to do to save it for you.”
“But how?” Timber asked. “I thought that sale was pretty much a done deal.”
“Not quite. The buyer was waiting on one last permit that would’ve allowed some sort of pyrotechnics to be used in the space. That one was the hardest to obtain. So while he was waiting, I swooped in and called the landlord’s son to make him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. It helped that I was his chemistry professor back when he was a freshman at the university.”
Timber stared at Brian in disbelief. “I feel like I’m dreaming. I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“Well, believe it,” Eva said, approaching Timber from behind and wrapping her arms around her. “I am sooo happy for you! Aren’t you glad I didn’t listen to you and I told my father what was going on in spite of your protests?”
“Yes, big mouth.” Timber laughed. “You always know what’s best for me.”
Anne hurried over and hugged Timber as well, congratulating her on the news. Through the corner of her eye, Timber noticed Alex glaring over at her, then slipping out of the store. Timber just laughed at his ridiculous behavior and turned her attention back to Anne.
“I’m so glad we’re able to keep the store here,” Anne said. “There’s just something so special about this space. Being here feels so right to me.”
“Same here,” Eva chimed in. “I couldn’t bear the thought of Soothing Bliss moving away from this location. That’s why my wish on the Christmas tree star was for Timber to stay in this space. So you were right, Anne. That star really does grant wishes!”
“It most certainly does, because I wished the same thing as you!” Anne replied joyfully.
“But it didn’t make my wish come true,” Timber said quietly.
Eva and Anne looked over at her confusingly, but before she could tell them what she’d wished for, Brian asked her if they could go back to her office and talk.
“Of course,” Timber said, leading the way.
Once they were inside, Brian closed the door and asked Timber to sit down. He sat closely beside her. She figured he wanted to iron out the terms of his owning the building. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
“I love you,” he said unexpectedly, staring deeply into her eyes.
“What?” Timber asked, completely taken aback.
“I love you,” he repeated, even more passionately than before.
“I...I,” Timber stammered. “Brian, where is this coming from? What about your girlfriend?”
“Timber, I have never wanted to be with any other woman except for you. Linda is a good person, and there’s a mutual respect between us. But there’s no love, and no passion. If I’m being completely honest with you, the only reason I was with her was because you were with Alex.” Brian stopped for a moment and shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”
“No, go on,” Timber said softly, placing her hand over his.
“When I found out that you and Alex weren’t together anymore, my first thought was to break up with Linda and work to get you back. But when you didn’t seem interested, I backed off.”
“I didn’t show any interest because you were in a relationship. I figured you and Linda would end up staying together because she seemed to be everything you wanted. So after my breakup with Alex, I just forgot about a relationship altogether and threw myself into the store.”
“You’re everything I want,” Brian said, moving in even closer. “Would you have gotten back together with me after your breakup had it not been for her?”
“Maybe,” Timber said coyly. But when she saw skeptical expression on his face, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay. Yes, I probably would have gotten back together with you. You’ve changed a lot. You’ve become the man that I wanted you to be back when we were on the verge of breaking up.”
“I definitely think I’m a better man now than I was then. I had some learning and growing to do. And as a result, I’ve become much more open-minded and accepting.”
“I agree,” Timber said. “But what does all of this mean for us, and what are you going to do about Linda?”
“She and I are no longer together.”
“You’re not? Since when?”
“Since a few weeks ago. When I told her that I was looking to invest in your company by way of purchasing this building, she didn’t like the idea. At all. And that was the last straw. Our relationship had practically dwindled down to nothing at that point anyway, so it really didn’t make sense for us to be together anymore. The breakup was mutual, and surprisingly amicable. She knew that I’d never stopped loving you.”
“I never stopped loving you either….”
“So does this mean that you’re willing to give us another try?” Brian asked.
“Yes,” Timber said wholeheartedly. “It does.”
Brian leaned in and gave her a long, lingering kiss. When he pulled away, she had a huge smile on her face.
“I guess Christmas miracles really do exist,” she told him. “Because what started off as one of the worst days of my life ended up being one of the best.”
“Well I’d like to make it even better,” he replied.
Brian stood up and reached down inside of his pocket, and pulled out a small red velvet box.
Timber felt her heart palpitate as he got down on one knee. He opened the box and slid a two-carat platinum and diamond princess cut solitaire onto her finger. She gasped at the sight of the beautifully sparkling ring.
“Timber, will you marry me?” he asked.
“Yes! Yes!” Timber exclaimed, reaching out and hugging him tightly. When she heard a knock at the door, she turned around and called out, “Come in!”
“Hey!” Eva said, sticking her head in, “Everyone’s out here looking for you two!”
“We’ll be out in a sec,” Brian said, looking over at Eva with a huge smile on his face.
“So I’m assuming you said yes?” Eva asked Timber. When Timber held her left hand up and wiggled her fingers to show off the engagement ring, Eva ran in and threw her arms around her. “Congratulations!”
“I can’t believe you knew this was happening and didn’t tell me!” Timber said, hugging her friend back.
“Come on, I can’t tell you everything,” Eva said, walking towards the door. “I’ll meet you two back out at the party.”
When Eva closed the door behind her, Brian turned to Timber and said, “Should we go back out there and let everyone know that you’re going to be my wife?”
“Yes, we should,” Timber replied happily, taking Brian’s hand in hers and heading towards the door. But before she walked through, he stopped her.
“Hey, wait a second,” he said, pointing up at the top of the doorway. “What is that?”
Timber looked up and squinted her eyes. “Wait, is that…mistletoe?” She looked over at a smiling Brian. “You must have put that there, because I certainly didn’t!”
“Guilty.” Brian laughed, wrapping his arms around her and bringing her in close.
“You’re going to end up on Santa’s naughty list,” Timber told him.
“For this kiss, it’ll be worth it,” Brian said before leaning in and pressing his lips against hers softly.
After a few moments, Timber leaned back and said, “We’d better get back out there and rejoin the crowd before they start thinking that we escaped out the back door.”
The Road To Bliss Page 23