Practically Ever After

by Isabel Bandeira

  Dad either didn’t seem to notice her lack of enthusiasm or was ignoring it. “It’s a great opportunity. Another step on the ladder to CEO.”

  I didn’t understand Mom’s reaction, but stood up to give him a hug. “That’s amazing, Dad.”

  He took the hug, but then held up his hand to let us know he wasn’t done yet. “Tons of executive perks. Corner office, executive VP title, French and German lessons, oh, and relocating to Geneva and something along the lines of seventy-five percent travel.”

  That last sentence made my heart drop straight into my stomach. “Um, Geneva?”

  “David—” Mom shared a long look with Dad and then, suddenly, her lips quirked up into a real grin and she started shaking her head. “You didn’t take it.”

  Suddenly, all the fighting the past few weeks made sense. It wasn’t just all of Dad’s extra hours working on the Taiwan project. Dad must have known about this and Mom’s relief meant she had known or suspected something.

  “Nope.” He dropped into the other armchair opposite me. “I didn’t. I thanked them for considering me, but let them know I had too many important obligations here. A really smart person reminded me of that.” He looked Mom in the eye and said, “They were outlining the salary and the entire position and I kept thinking how I should be happy. But what you said about missing all the important things happening here just wouldn’t get out of my head. Plus, I would have had to start right away, which probably would have meant missing Grace’s graduation.”

  She perched herself on the arm of Dad’s chair and started rubbing his shoulders. “It was the seventy-five percent travel that did it, wasn’t it?”

  “You know how much I hate flying.” He said, picking up one of her hands and dropping a kiss onto her knuckles. “HR needs to learn how to better pitch a position, though. If they hadn’t mentioned relocation or travel, I might have bit before realizing what they wanted.”

  I dropped back down into my own armchair and gave Dad my best owl impression. I hadn’t expected any of that. “Seriously? Dad, you’ve been talking about positioning yourself for CEO my whole life.”

  He grinned at me, looking happier than I’d seen him in a long time. The faint wrinkles on his forehead and around his mouth even seemed to have relaxed a bit. “I know. I probably lost my chance, but life is way too short not to spend it with the people you love. I’m tired of fighting because of things that aren’t important,” he squeezed Mom’s hand as he said that, “and I don’t need to keep chasing after something better when I already have something amazing right here.” He and Mom shared a long look, then he leaned forward to tap my arm. “I miss enough as it is. And, besides, I think Mom would kill me if I took her even further from New York. Geneva isn’t exactly ‘the boonies,’ as you like to call this place, but I didn’t want to risk it.”

  “That’s not very practical, you know,” Mom said, teasingly.

  Dad started laughing. “Screw practical. Besides, that means I get to keep working with the team I just spent a long time getting back on track.” He then joyfully slapped his hands on the armrests and said, “Now, let’s talk about this potential business opportunity, Inez. It would be nice if at least one of us gets to be a CEO.”

  Chapter 41

  “I look like a Disney fairy reject,” I said, watching as a cloud of gold glitter floated to the stage’s black marley floor with just the slightest tug at the skirt attached to the equally sparkly leotard. That glittery scourge was going to follow me for weeks, maybe even years. “A glittery, half-naked fairy reject. I’ll never understand why something with this little fabric costs so much.” Natalie was in a matching design, except her simple contemporary dress was crisscrossed with silver ribbons, in contrast to my glittery gold dress. In response to my comment, Natalie waved her arms to mimic wings, and wiggled so she could drop a ton of glitter on my feet. I was used to getting my recital costumes weeks before the recital, so only getting it on dress rehearsal night meant I didn’t have time to adjust—and shake off all the extra glitter—before having to actually dance full-out in it.

  Aunt Drina, who was standing second row center in the audience seats, waved her clipboard at us. “Stop it, you look great from here. I can’t wait to see how the dresses move.” She settled back into her seat and picked up her walkie-talkie, ready to talk to the people camped in the sound and lighting booth at the back of the middle school auditorium. “Just have fun, okay? Don’t worry about technique at this point.”

  Natalie and I took our marks and, just before the stage lights came back on, she whispered, “Dance pretty.”

  My heart stopped for a minute—Leia had always used that phrase after I told her that saying ‘good luck’ was bad luck for dancers. Since she refused to say ‘break a leg’ or ‘merde’ like everyone else, she’d settled on ‘dance pretty.’ I knew it wasn’t unique, but…

  Just like when I demoed the jetés for my class, it was too late to shake those thoughts out of my head. The music started and I threw myself into the first pencil turn, the familiar tune slipping under my skin and twisting my heart and lungs. The longing in the lyrics pulled through me, mixing with memories I couldn’t brush away. The electric feeling of Leia’s hand touching mine for the first time, the breathlessness of our first kiss… I dropped into a roll and, as I reached for Natalie’s hand to let her pull me up into my tour jeté, let the chorus wash over me. Leia’s expression at the patisserie rose up in my mind and I almost stopped, but, instead, I whirled into chainés, as if the little turns could help me run away from every bottled-up feeling from the past few weeks that tore through me, helped along by the music.

  I circled Natalie and her eyes met mine, the split-second sympathy in her expression breaking me even more. I wrapped my arms around my waist in my barrel leap, just like I’d done a million other times before, but that time, I was trying to just hold back all the emotions threatening to break free. I dropped to the floor, curved my back and arms into our final pose, and used every last bit of energy in me to keep back the tears tightening my throat and threatening to break free. The stage lights dropped and I collapsed out of the pose, out of breath but also emotionally exhausted, like someone had wrung all of the emotions out of my body.

  “Here,” Natalie whispered, holding out her hand to help me up. “You okay?”

  I heaved in a deep breath and nodded, afraid that if I said anything, I’d break down.

  All of the lights came back on again and Aunt Drina stood, a huge grin on her face. “That’s exactly what I was looking for. It’s nice to see you finally let go, Grace. Natalie, your stag leap was gorgeous, just really stretch your fingertips on it, okay?” Without waiting for us to answer, she dropped her reading glasses back onto her nose and checked the schedule. “I’ve got to run and make sure the ballet classes are ready, but good job, both of you.” She rushed out the stage side door, leaving me and Natalie still trying to catch our breaths center stage.

  Natalie reached over to gently touch my shoulder and met my eyes again. “I know,” she said, her voice soft, before pulling me into a hug. “It’ll get better, I promise.” With that, she walked into the back wings, leaving me alone on stage, trying to compose myself before my crowd of giggling students could reach me.

  Chapter 42

  “Between the glasses and that green thing you’re drinking, you look like some sort of celebrity coming off a bender,” Em said as soon as I got back to the Noelle’s Song table. It was opening day of Lambertfield’s first annual farmer’s market, and she’d convinced us to help run the charity’s fundraising table.

  I pushed down my giant Diore sunglasses slightly and gave her my best celebrity-esque glare. “I couldn’t sleep because I was too wound up last night from dress rehearsal, if you consider that ‘partying.’ I think I got about two hours of sleep.” I’d tossed and turned all night, mixing dreams about Leia with nightmares about our breakup and my parents moving to Switzerland, and with all that, the bright sunlight was just too mu
ch to handle, especially after a long day of school.

  “Dancers gone wild.” Phoebe chimed in with a laugh. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail and she already had sweat marks on her blue Noelle’s Song t-shirt. “At least you still manage to look glamorous when you’re tired and melting, not like the rest of us mere mortals.”

  “Thanks, I try.” I took a sip from my iced matcha latte and took my place behind the table. “Where’s Kris? Since this is his aunt’s charity, why isn’t he here to help us out?” I said to Em.

  Em shaded her eyes and looked out across the library parking lot, then shook her head and turned back towards me. “He went to go find us an umbrella or something so we don’t cook to death. His cousin usually has extras at his farm stand.”

  “How many cousins does Kris have?” Phoebe asked. She was busying herself rearranging the basket of signed books and advanced copies she had scored from a few authors for the raffle. Taking a cue from her, I started fixing up the hockey raffle basket on my side of the table and slipped the basket of local cheeses into the cooler under the table.

  Em snorted, checked her cell phone, then shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I just assume he’s related to the entire damn town except for you guys.”

  “Thank God for that,” Alec said under his breath. I elbowed him and he shot me an ‘am I right, though?’ look.

  “Well,” I said, getting up and pulling my purse out from under the table, “I’m going to go buy a bunch of water bottles. We’re not going to be any help to Noelle’s Song if anyone ends up in the hospital with heat exhaustion.”

  Em pointed in the direction of another stand. “You don’t have to buy any. The mayor said we could grab some from the town info booth. Just tell them you’re with me.”

  “Taking government kickbacks, huh, Em?” I teased, dropping my purse back onto the ground and shoving it under the table with my foot.

  “Oh, shut up. Town hall is providing water for all the people fundraising or volunteering today.”

  Em looked annoyed, so I resisted another jab and headed in the direction she had pointed, instead. The fact that Em, formerly one of the most apolitical people I’d ever known, was now practically on first name basis with the mayor thanks to spending so much time at political stuff with her boyfriend, amused me to no end.

  On the way back to our booth, arms full of water bottles, I could make out Em and Kris arguing while trying to attach a big beach umbrella to the table, Em’s big hand gestures visible all the way back to the Springfield Farm CSA booth. Kris’ infuriating smirk kept growing until he finally handed her the duct tape and gestured for her to take over. By the time I reached the table, the umbrella was up, Em was gloating, and Kris took a moment to drop a kiss on her temple before adding a few more layers of duct tape to the connection Em had jury-rigged to keep it from falling over.

  Sometimes relationships that didn’t look like they’d even be possible on paper worked out perfectly.

  “The redheaded lady on the town council says hi, Em. Nice to see you’re making lots of friends in high places,” I said jokingly as I dropped the bottles on the table. “I—” my next sentence died in my throat when I noticed Leia standing off to the side of the table, chatting with Phoebe. The umbrella had blocked them from my view. This town was too damn small.

  Em faux-preened. “Town council is nothing. I’ve met our governor three times already.”

  “And insulted her at least once,” Kris said.

  “Hey, my taxes are paying her salary. If she makes a dumb-ass decision, I’m allowed to criticize her. I didn’t sweat my butt off in Colonial stays for half the summer to have those taxes wasted on something that only helps a big corporation.” Em shot back at him.

  “Tax credits to incentivize corporations to come to our state…” Kris started to say.

  Em cut him off. “Is corporate welfare. Economic fairy dust.”

  “Tell that to the economists who—” Kris said, and I tuned them out and turned my focus over to Phoebe and Leia.

  Phoebe had Leia’s phone in her hands and was typing something into it. “I know this range has a great JOAD—junior Olympic development—program, and it’s not too far from Rowan if you like your lessons and want to continue with it. And if you want, I can lend you the bow I used when I first started,” Phoebe looked at Leia critically and nodded, “I mean, the coaches should check, but I think it will be a good fit for you.”

  Leia took the phone and stared at the screen. “I can’t believe I’m letting you talk me into trying to become Maeve.” She quirked her lips up as she mentioned one of Phoebe’s favorite book and movie characters.

  I took a deep breath and stepped towards them. If Leia could do this, so could I. “You know Phoebe’s an enabler,” I said, forcing a light just-talking-with-friends-smile across my lips.

  “Yes, I am,” Phoebe said, making a cutesy anime-esque gesture with her free hand, some sort of cross between an okay sign and a victory sign. “And I think Leia would be an awesome archer. She really takes time to think through stuff and focus.”

  She did—Leia was the most level headed and thoughtful person I’d ever known. A feeling of pride rose in my chest, but was then squashed as Leia graced me with her super distant polite smile. I ignored the lump of ice that dropped into my lungs and said in an exaggeratedly fake conspiratorial tone, “Soon, she’ll have you flying out to compete at Nationals with her. You’ll be bow buddies. You’ll never get out from her archery cult clutches.”

  Phoebe let out a giggle at that. “Who knows? Maybe Leia will be the next archery superstar.”

  “You both are being ridiculous,” Leia finally said, breaking our chain of banter.

  “If anyone can become a superstar, it would be Leia,” I said, adding, “You are amazing at succeeding at anything you decide to do.”

  “Says the girl who is going to take over the world someday,” Leia shot back with a smile.

  “We make a good pair, don’t we?” The words slipped out of my mouth out of sheer habit, then, like a punch to my stomach, I remembered, and I added, weakly, “Not ‘together pair,’ but I mean…”

  Leia stared at me for a second before her phone buzzed, breaking the silence that seemed to spring up around us. She glanced down at her phone. “Gotta go. Looks like Mom bought a chest from the Amish woodworkers and now needs help getting it into her car.” She shoved her phone into her pocket, muttering, “How many chests do we need, anyway?” before turning her smile back on Phoebe, Em, and Kris. “See you later. Good luck fundraising.”

  I caught her purse strap as she turned to walk away. “Do you need help? You know I’m a pro at figuring out how to drop the seats in your mom’s car.”

  Leia’s smile was sad as she gently tugged the strap from my hands. “No. Thank you, we’re fine.” Without another word, she hurried down the row of booths.

  Em leaned on the booth and looked at me with a curious expression. “Was that flirting between the two of you?”

  Far down the aisle, I could see Leia meeting up with Abby, and I could practically hear her laugh carry our way. It stung, but I turned my attention back to Em and shook my head. I hesitated and took a moment to open up a bottle of water and take a sip before answering. “I need your advice.”

  Phoebe and Em shared a look. Phoebe put down the ribbon she’d been fussing with, crossed her arms, and put on a serious expression. “Okay, we’re listening. What’s up?”

  “I think I screwed up,” I said, slowly, as reality smacked me hard across the head.

  A wide grin inched across Em’s face. “I knew it. You miss Leia.”

  “Well, yes—”

  Em cut me off, “And you want our help getting her back.”

  “Well, yes…”

  Before Em could say anything else, Phoebe, who had been quietly studying me with a look that was a direct contrast to Em’s smile reached out to put a hand on Em’s arm to stay her and said, “Why did you change your mind?”


  “I don’t know.” I was too blindsided to figure out a real response. “And… and…” I couldn’t find the words to express what had been picking at me for the past few weeks.

  “And Leia is worth the risk of failing and getting hurt later?” Phoebe asked, softly.

  I closed my eyes and nodded, feeling the surety of that sentence deep in my bones. “Yes.”

  Em inched over and put an arm around my shoulders, giving me a one-armed hug. “Finally. We’ve been so worried about you. We’ll help you fix this.”

  I wanted to hope, but I knew there were a few extra variables no one was acknowledging. “Assuming she’s not so mad at me she never wants to see me again, or that she’s not seeing Abby.”

  “She’s not,” Phoebe chimed in. “She told me so when we went to the cupcake shop the other day and I joked about setting her up with the Sailor Mars lookalike.”

  I froze mid pity party and did a doubletake at her comment. “You went to the cupcake shop with her?”

  “Don’t worry, Phoebe is a terrible matchmaker,” Em said with another sympathetic squeeze to my shoulders. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her mouthing “What the hell?” to Phoebe, who shrugged unconcernedly.

  I held back a laugh. “It’s not that. I thought you didn’t like hanging out with Leia.” Between cupcakes and talking archery with Leia, Phoebe had come a long way from barely tolerating her. It was like I didn’t know my friends anymore. “Since when did you two get so close?”

  “Since I realized she actually wasn’t talking down to me all the time, it’s just the way she talks.” Phoebe said, unconcernedly. “And she helped me set up for the kids’ knitting workshop at work so I bought her a cupcake as thanks. She’s so sweet.”

  “And I majorly screwed things up with her,” I said, returning us to the original point of our conversation.

  “Right, but we can fix things,” Em said. She untangled herself from me and slapped both palms resolutely on the table. “Step one, you need to apologize to her. Like, really apologize. You were the one who decided you didn’t want to make this work, not her.”