What was it she’d said to him yesterday? “The only way out is through. I know it’s hard, really hard sometimes, but your options are to either give up, or push through the hard parts. And I know you don’t want to give up.”
She didn’t want to give up either.
Fine. FINE. She would just work a little on that one idea. Just until the timer went off. She picked up her pen and flipped open her notebook.
When the waltz trilled from her phone, she stared down at her notebook for a few seconds. Okay. Okay, that was a start.
“Izzy?”
She turned the page of her notebook quickly so Beau wouldn’t see what she’d been doing, and looked up at him. “Yeah. I was thinking.” She gestured to the laptop at the end of the table. “Why don’t you turn that on today?”
He looked at the laptop, and in that moment, she saw some of the fear and shame in his eyes that she hadn’t seen since that day in the kitchen.
“Why? What’s wrong with the notebook? I like the notebook.”
She forced herself not to smile at that. “I know, I do, too. But I thought today, you could type up some of what you’ve written in it. Maybe what you wrote on our first day. You can just type it exactly how you wrote it, or you can make edits to it, expand it, whatever you want. But now’s the time for you to look at it again, and for it to exist in a form that isn’t just the notebook.”
He was already shaking his head, but she kept going.
“I think—correct me if I’m wrong here—that you were almost scared of the laptop, after how hard it all was before. This might be one way to start using it again, and not be afraid of it anymore. Just fifteen minutes. What do you think?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Does it matter what I think? Or are you going to make me do this, no matter what?”
She started to respond, but then she saw he had a tiny smile on his face, and she smiled back. “How about this? It matters what you think, and also, I’m going to make you do it, no matter what.”
He laughed out loud and pulled the laptop toward him. “Fine. I think this sucks, that’s what I think and that you’re mean for springing it on me with no warning on this bright and sunny Friday afternoon, just when I’d gotten used to the stupid notebook.”
She pursed her lips. “I thought you said you liked the notebook, and now you’re calling it stupid?” She had an idea. “Okay, how’s this: If you do this, I’ll drink one of those disgusting juices of yours.”
His face lit up. “Seriously? Okay, fine, you have a deal. But you have to drink the whole thing—you can’t just take one sip and make a face and act like you’re done.”
She took one of the bottles from the tray. “Fine.” She unscrewed the top and suppressed a shudder. “I don’t know why they call it green juice. Even this color is disgusting. More gray than anything else.”
He flipped open the laptop. “A deal is a deal, Izzy.”
She rolled her eyes and took a sip. Huh. This green stuff was actually…delicious? Not that she’d tell him that.
“It’s as disgusting as I thought it would be, but I said I’d drink the whole thing, and I will. Now. Go.”
He just looked at her. “You’re a bad liar. You even sort of like it. Admit it.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t help the smile she could feel on her lips. “I admit nothing. Don’t you have work to do?”
He flipped pages of the notebook, still smiling, and started typing. Izzy kept smiling as she looked down at her phone. Her pep talks for Beau worked so much better now. Probably because they knew each other a lot better now. And also probably because she really meant them now.
Priya texted her right after she set the timer.
Ugh, I’m at happy hour with other people from the office and everyone is boring and/or annoying except for you. It feels like you’ve been in California forever. I can’t believe you’re going to be there for another three whole weeks!
Izzy forced herself not to laugh out loud.
I miss you, too! Omg but I just realized, I think I’ll still be here when you come out for your cousin’s wedding, I can see you then!
Priya wrote back immediately.
Oooh yesss I almost forgot about that! And you’re going to introduce me to Beau Towers, yay! Holding you to that
Izzy would just ignore that. Should she go back to her notebook and her new project? Maybe just…look at it, to see if she had any other places to start brainstorming? But what if it was all bad, and she could tell immediately?