Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 33

"So I'm probably going to spend the summer still working and maybe fit in some volunteering at a local community garden if I have time," I finished, but Kyle wasn't listening. To be honest, neither was I. We'd both been keeping an ear on Elle's conversation with her dad. They sat across a table from each other across the room, sipping Italian sodas. For the first time since I'd met her, they both felt like they wanted to be there.

"I think that's fair," Greg said. He leaned back in his chair. "I didn't realize how serious you were about buying the place."

Elle raised an eyebrow. "Just a teenage phase, right?"

"I underestimated you," he said. He pulled the papers on the table toward him and gave an approving nod. Kyle's pride swelled next to me. He'd helped her draw those paper up, a comprehensive business plan that showed exactly how Elle was going to run the business the way she wanted and still turn a profit. "To tell you the truth, I thought the whole thing was just you trying to remind Deborah and I how much you don't approve of us."

Elle took it in stride. "I don't like all your choices," she said, managing to make it sound like a fact instead of an accusation. "But it's not my business who you marry. It's not my decision. I'm with you till I'm eighteen. She's who you're going to spend the rest of your life with."

"You're still in that picture, Elle," Greg said. He put a hand out on the table.

"I know," Elle said. She squeezed her frosted glass. "We're still family. I just mean I'm not going to live with you forever. We don't even belong in the same world, Dad."

Greg watched her for a long moment, pursing his lips and debating whether to argue. Then he sighed and said, "You belong in your mother's world."

"Makes a lot of things make sense, doesn't it?" Elle said. She was smiling a little, the way people did when they were finally distant enough from something to laugh at it. "No wonder I never fit in." She fingered the crystal necklace, still the only ornament she wore. She glanced across the room and her gaze met Kyle's. Warmth and happiness rolled off both of them, and it made me smile, too. The Oracle's confusing approval aside, I'd done a good thing there.

"It's a good plan," Greg said. He picked up one of the papers, scanned a few lines, then looked over it at Elle. "Marketing this place to your community. It's a great idea."

"Kyle says there aren't enough hangouts for people our age," she said. "A few nightclubs, but that's it. This will be a place people can get together to hang out and study during the day, and we'll be doing everything right. I got a quote on coffee beans and we'll come in under budget." She gestured at the paper, but he was too busy looking at her now.

"I'm really proud of you, Elle," Greg said. He was such a soft dad type that hearing it from him seemed normal to me, but Elle's eyes immediately filled with tears.

"Thanks," she muttered. She blinked and became suddenly interested in shuffling the papers around to find the budget.

For the first time since I'd seen their relationship, he seemed to notice how she was feeling and do something about it. He put a hand on the glass, over hers. "One year," he said.

That was the deal she'd proposed: One year to run Pumpkin Spice and show she could handle it, and then she'd be able to buy the business from him. She'd promised to pay for the whole thing just like anyone else would, but he'd insisted on giving it to her at a steep discount, saying he'd make enough from the deal to focus on his side businesses. It turned out he ran a food cart and a hair salon on top of the cafe. For such a quiet, laid-back guy, he ended up being pretty savvy. And if she couldn't keep the business on its feet, she'd promised to stop sabotaging the place, which was the reason he'd come to Wishes Fulfilled with his ridiculous prom night request in the first place. It was a good deal for everyone.

"One year," Elle agreed. She rubbed the back of her neck, restless. I could tell she was itching to get started.

Kyle drummed the table with his fingers. "I think that's my cue," he said. He gave me a dorky high-five before heading across the room. He'd made sure this deal would go down on paper, and he was signing as Elle's co-investor. Normally I would have warned a new couple against going into business together first thing, but I wasn't worried. They'd be fine.

I was still watching them all talk together half an hour later, with their heads bent over the table, when Imogen tapped me on the shoulder and slid into Kyle's vacated seat. She had the vibrant smile of someone whose month had gone off without a hitch.

"It's my anniversary!" she announced. "Prom was a month ago today and we're better than ever."

This wouldn't have been an accomplishment for most people. For Imogen, it kind of was. Her relationships tended to last two weeks if they ever earned the title of "relationship" at all, and then it was on to the next boy who fell under her charms.

I was glad I was a girl. We never would have been able to be friends otherwise.

She looked across the room at Elle and tilted her head. "They worked it out, huh?" she said.

"I think so," I said.

"I still can't believe you and Kyle didn't hook up. Leave it to you to use prom to conduct business."

"I'm a faerie godmother, Gen," I said. "Proms and balls are our trading floor."

Her eyes flashed with something that looked suspiciously like victory.

"What?" I said.

"You just called yourself a faerie godmother," she said. "With no hint of irony."

She was right. I had. I frowned, trying to digest.

But it was okay. It still wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, but looking across the room at the way Elle explained her plans for creating study tables and a free lending library while Greg nodded and Kyle gazed at her in pure admiration, I realized granting wishes wasn't a bad way to spend a couple years before college. I'd rather be somewhere studying flowers and studying conservation management, of course, but that could come later. For now, it was kind of amazing to have a job where "success" meant actually making people's dreams come true.

Who knew? Maybe I was even good at it.