55

Her stare reached places far deeper than my chest. “California is going to be the start of something wonderful for you.”

“I hope so.”

She returned to the glass she had been sitting behind and reached inside once it was open. “He cares about you—you do know that, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“Jenner just needs time to work this through his brain. You caught him off guard—not what happened per se, I mean, you, in general. Love is an uncharted territory for him.”

“Is there anything I can do?” I glanced down at my gel polish that my nerves had caused me to slowly pick off. “You know, to speed the process up?”

Monica had told me to be patient. My mother, who had dated sporadically since she and my father had divorced, had told me to be persistent.

“I’ve apologized,” I told her even though I was sure she felt that. “I’ve offered solutions. I’ve told him I care about him. Nothing has changed. He still won’t budge.”

She pulled out a piece of fudge that was white and blue and set it on a plate. She cut