other people get to decide when big things get talked about, Levi."
"That's not what I'm doing."
"Bullshit." She grabbed the handle and slid off the seat.
"Give me a break, Joss. How are we ever supposed to discuss things if you bolt every single time it makes you uncomfortable? This is what a relationship is, working on things together."
"Working on things?" she scoffed. "That's not what this is. This isn't our first fight over something like Christmases with families or who made dinner last or why you forgot my birthday. This is me, once again, being the person in the really shitty position. I either give Levi the thing that will make him happiest, or I break his heart."
I dropped my head to my chest and struggled to breathe evenly.
"You can't even deny it."
"I'm not trying to," I told her. "But you're not being fair either. I got the call last night, and this is the first I'm seeing you, so here we are, ready to discuss it, like normal, rational adults in a relationship."
She narrowed her eyes, framed in the open doorway, gripping the seat as she leaned toward me. "Except I'm deciding that I'm not ready to discuss it right now. You can't spring this shit on me and expect that I'll be ready to make a massive life decision in the course of five frickin' minutes."
Joss turned her back to me.
I got out of the truck, slammed my door, and marched around, good and pissed now. "Great, so now I can wait a week or two until you've deemed the topic safe? 'Sorry about that, Brian, I couldn't answer you about the job because my girlfriend shut down on me.'"
She glared, still holding the truck door where she stood. "You're such an asshole when you don't get your way." She paused and tapped her chin. "Oh wait, you always get your way. Everything gets dropped in your stupid, golden boy lap."
I laughed under my breath. "Lashing out unnecessarily. Mature choice, Joss."
"I'm twenty-one fucking years old," she yelled, head tilted back as her words echoed off the trees. "I get to be immature sometimes. Now get out of my way."
"We are not done talking about this," I said, even as I did what she asked. She took two even steps to her car, yanking open the door after her other arm was braced on the roof, all without so much as looking at me again.
"Right now?" she said, lifting her chin stubbornly. "Yeah, we are."
Chapter 25
Jocelyn
There was a crack in the concrete in front of the bakery. I never noticed it until I pushed over it the next morning. For a second, I stopped and stared down at that crack. An imperfection that escaped my notice. Not because it would hurt me, or make it hard for me to get where I needed to go, but it was there all the same.
Someone might trip over it. Stub their toe. Stumble a little on their way in to buy a banana cake for their grandma's birthday party.
I found myself noticing those types of imperfections everywhere for the next twenty-four hours. All over town.
Daisy's Nut House needed to replace one of the lights on their sign. It flickered a little bit.
A member of the Iron Wraiths rode his bike down the middle of the road, whistling and hooting at me. I flipped him my middle finger when he passed in the thundering rumble.
I guess I had blinders on, too, in my own way.
Go about my day. Do what I needed to do.
Not focus on the bad because it was too easy to feel like your head was submerged under murky water. I'd learned that lesson too many years ago. Allowing the bad, the inadequacies, the defects to take center stage was an invitation to a life of misery.
But over those short hours, I made sure to look for the good stuff too.
A neighbor who I never talked to fixing the way our mailbox leaned to the side. He waved as I pulled my car down the long driveway. I lifted my hand in return.
Joy scooping change out of her apron when one of the little kids who came in after school didn't have quite enough for a treat and slipping it into the cash register when she thought no one was looking.
Cletus fixing the big mixer before Jennifer came in without her asking.
Good people doing good things for the people who lived and worked with them.
Every little thing I saw, good or