When I graduated high school, there were several parts of my life that I refused to leave behind: a love of chevron and rose gold, my once-upon-a-time BFF Blake, and my overuse of slang terms. And some of those didn't hurt anyone if I still liked them now, some were best left behind in the past, and some just made me seem old. But one thing I thought I was done with was sitting through a lecture about numbers and decision-making, and obviously, that plan got turned upside-down.

I didn't have the time or money to finance a trip to Paris for a business class (never mind that I didn't even speak French), but I did have an internet connection and a laptop, so I sat in a Starbucks with an almost-gone latte and my AirPods in as I listened to a professor who seemed to know what he was talking about tell me all about the fundamentals of business.

We weren't going to be able to cover everything I needed to know in one class, but at least I was getting the learning process started. It had been a while since I had been a student, especially since most of my training on life was simply being told that baby bird had to leave the nest one way or another.

Usually baby bird learned how to fly real fast, but sometimes getting a helping hand was nice too.

As the lecture came to a close, I shut my laptop to take it back home with me, and I ordered one last coffee for the road. There wasn't anyone there to celebrate the fact that I had just successfully completed my first class in a few years, but that was okay with me. I had all of the Starbucks employees in my corner.

Plus, I did have Chris. Ever since Blake and Alex had gone their separate ways, I had to lean into new friends, and Chris was much more supportive than they ever were. Blake still didn't seem convinced that I could make a career out of crochet, but I was, and I had other people who seemed to believe in me too. Now that I was enrolled in a class and taking it seriously, my parents were okay with the choices I was making, and all it took was a little explaining and Chris saw my vision too.

Maybe I could stop by Chris's place for a quick visit. As much as I loved Starbucks, the baristas weren't exactly my best friends. They pretty much just wanted to do their job, get paid, and go home.

Chris didn't live too far, and I didn't think he was busy with work or anything, so it certainly couldn't hurt to stop by for half a second. He and I had a good vibe when we were together, and it never felt like I had a gun to his head when I just wanted to talk about something important to me, or even something that was stupid and didn't matter one bit.

I froze in my tracks for just a second. I knew that I had wasted a whole lot of time chasing a sailboat that was always going to be sailing on the other side of the horizon, never letting me get anywhere close, but that was all I had done there—wasted my time. But with Chris, my time felt valuable. It felt like I was heard, like I was seen.

Oh no, Marigold. Please not this again. Haven't you been through enough?

But no, it was never enough. Scorpios were damn good at getting what they wanted, and I certainly wanted a life outside of work. Chris was a great person to spend that time with, and why would I deprive myself of that?

After all, he was the one who reminded me that if I wanted to be a full-time manager, I could do that, but if I still wanted to try my luck at being a craft shop owner, I had to keep trying and putting even more work into the process. He was the one who made sure I could get where I needed to go.

That was what friends did for each other.

Friends.

For a while, we had similar experiences of waiting for life to come to us, and maybe that was fine for a short period of time, but I had goals, and he had responsibilities. Sailing through life wasn't going to get things done for either one of us.

His car was in the driveway, so I texted him from that I had dropped by to say hi. His dad didn't like the sound of any strange people knocking at the door, not to mention the fact that we were living in the twenty-first century.

He came out the front door and waved me inside, and I followed him in.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise? How was your first class?" he asked.

He probably didn't actually mean that it was a pleasant surprise, but I was already there, and it was Midwestern culture to accept all company—wanted and unwanted—with open arms.

"It wasn't bad at all. I had a latte, so that made it easier to get through," I said.

He chuckled. "I think your blood type is Starbucks, honestly."

"It probably is, but is that such a bad thing?" I asked.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If it makes the day easier to manage, who is anyone to judge?"

I smiled at that. "So what kind of plans do you have today?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. On my days off, all I want to do is nothing, even though I definitely have to talk to my dad's nurse about his mental regression later. Does that happen to you too?"

"Uh, the nurse thing, or the not wanting to do anything thing?"

"You know what I mean."

"Well, sometimes, but at the same time, I know that I don't really have a choice if I want to get where I want to go, if that makes sense," I said.

He nodded. "I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just me."

I shook my head. "Definitely not."

I assumed everyone felt like that after working so much, and I hoped that by doing something I loved, it would be like I wasn't even working in the first place. I also knew that was never going to happen.

But before either one of us could keep talking about work, I looked up at him. "Do you ever think about how it's weird that the universe had us sit so close to each other back in high school, and then we ended up getting to know each other years later?"

He thought for a moment. "Well, we do live in a small town, so it's not like the odds were stacked against that happening."

"It's not that small," I said. Sure, Marblehead had a small population, but we were a bridge away from the roller coaster capital of the world. It wasn't like we were in the middle of nowhere. "But it's interesting, though, don't you think?"

He nodded. "I'm glad it worked out this way, if that's what you're asking me."

That wasn't quite what I was getting at, and maybe it was presumptuous of me to assume I knew the universe's intentions. His dad was struggling, and there I was, trying to work my way into a life that maybe didn't have any room left.

He did say he was tired.

I bit the inside of my cheek. "Me too."

If neither one of us felt like we had any time at all, there wasn't any way we would be able to make time for anything more between us. I knew that.

"Can I tell you something?" he asked, and I nodded.

I had interrupted his day with no warning, after all.

"I know you're really busy between work and class now, but I like what the universe has put together for us so far," he said. "Did that make sense? I don't know what the universe actually controls or whatever it does. Is it just like a spiritual thing?"

I smiled and shook my head. At least he tried to speak my language a little. "You pretty much got it. It's really not complicated."

It was definitely complicated, but that was a discussion for a different day.

"I just don't want to step on your toes or anything. Right now, I'm stuck in a certain life, which I'm perfectly okay with that, but you've got a world of possibilities ahead of you—"

I didn't even let Chris finish that thought. I wrapped my arms around him, and when he looked down at me, I got up on my tiptoes, and he met me the rest of the way as our lips met. Even though it was cold enough to snow outside, it was like a summer ray of sunshine, and in that moment, I knew I wasn't being presumptuous with the universe.

"As long as I'm not stepping on your toes, Chris," I said.

He smiled. "If I haven't thought that by this point, I don't see how that could possibly be the case now."

I laughed. "Yeah, I'm sorry about everything. I did ask way too much from you these last few months."

He shook his head. "I don't mind. I mean, I got free food out of it, and if I have an in with the manager at the Lakeside Daisy, that would definitely continue, right?"

I nodded. "Of course."

I wasn't sure how much longer that in with the manager was going to last, given that I was about to be a billionaire with all my knowledge from my online business class, but it didn't matter.

He looked down at the Starbucks cup in my hand. "Pumpkin spice latte?"

I shook my head. "It's too late for those anymore. It's white mocha season."

"Oh," he said. "I was kind of hoping for a sip of pumpkin spice."

I laughed. Well, maybe with the right crowd, you could enjoy pumpkin spice without judgment.