Which means that ever since I quit my job in Denver and moved back to Boulder, my mom has been watching me like a ticking time bomb, just waiting to see what I’m going to do with my life next.
“Please just don’t screw this up,” Rebecca adds, tapping the doorframe. “Max Fletcher, uptight as he may be, is a very well-connected customer. Rich clients have rich friends, and those are the kind of referrals I need for my agency, okay?”
“You know what, Bec?” I scratch my head, my face growing serious. “Until you told me not to screw it up, I had totally planned on screwing it up. So I’m glad you made that distinction before I move in there tomorrow. We really dodged a bullet.”
She shoots me a lethal glare. “Just be professional, Cozy. I know how you can be sometimes.”
My jaw drops as she leaves me with that bolstering remark. I point at the empty doorway. “Can you believe her?”
Dakota shifts uncomfortably. “Maybe this job opportunity is good timing. I’m sensing a bit of tension between the Barlow sisters.”
I prop my hands on my hips, glowering at my sister’s guest room littered with my stuff. “I swear she doesn’t know me as an adult at all. Why would she act like I don’t know how to be professional?”
“Well…” Dakota’s traitorous voice rises in pitch.
I shoot her accusing eyes. “What?”
She winces slightly. “Don’t get me wrong, I love your ‘Great Defrost Cozy.’ It’s reminiscent of the original Cozy Cassie who I thought was gone forever from our childhood. But a lot has happened in the past six months. You changed from a woman we barely saw for years and was too busy to let her childhood bestie visit her in Denver to…whatever this version of yourself is. It’s a lot to take in.”
“I know, I know,” I mumble, shaking away the memory that always causes a pit to form in my stomach. “But don’t worry because Denver Cozy is long gone. And I have my Cozy Cassie hips back to prove it.” I bite the head off a gummy worm to accentuate my point before tossing the bag back onto the bed. I glance at myself in the mirror and tug at my oversized sweatshirt. I’ve gained a solid ten pounds since moving in with my sister, but it doesn’t bother me. It’s a sign that I’m happy. The slimmer version of myself that I was in Denver was stress-induced. I’d much rather be plus-sized and happy than mid-sized and miserable.
I retreat into my closet for a second armful.
“I do agree with your sister that it was time you finally got a job,” Dakota calls to me. “Selling your homemade charcuterie boards every other week was not going to get you out of Rebecca’s house anytime soon.”
“You know I don’t make my boards for the money,” I huff, nearly tripping on a dress that gets tangled under my feet as I come walking back out. “In fact, I wouldn’t sell any of my boards if you’d stop telling people about my hobby.”
“I know it’s your ‘therapy.’” Dakota finger quotes. “But you’re too good at it not to do something with it. I’m telling you, if you worked on those boards more than a few hours a week, you could turn your hobby into a legitimate business. I could help you set up an Etsy shop. Hell, you could sell the boards in my store!”
I eye my best friend with a look that tells her this conversation needs to stop. “This is my year of doing less. It’s like a gap year, remember?”
“At twenty-six years old.”
My lips thin, and Dakota finally gets the message and holds her hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine, I’ll shut up.” She pops another worm into her mouth.
I love my childhood bestie, and it’s been great to reconnect with her these past six months, but she’s just as lovingly pushy as she was when we were kids. She was always like the mini mom of our group, organizing activities for all of us and checking in on the weekends. Harping on us to get our college applications in. Honestly, it’s kind of shocking she has such a hip little business now. I swore she was going to go the young motherhood route with her high school sweetheart and have two or three kids by now. But she’s single and a boss ass bitch of her own graphic tee shop downtown. She sells the cutest little slogan shirts and does a lot of mail-order business internationally because she teamed up with one of her college friends, who turned out to be this huge plus-sized designer in Aspen.
Tatianna Ashley kind of blew up when she was featured on an episode of Project Runway. She specializes in formal wear but has designed a line of size-inclusive tees for Dakota’s store that really helped elevate her business from an Etsy shop to a legitimate storefront that has so much inventory she can’t run it out of her home anymore. It’s amazing.