I smiled an uncertain grin and shrugged. “Well, I think I’m going to take this chance with Jason.”

She laughed.

Yup. Maiv laughed out loud—a sound I hadn’t known she was able to create. “How long have you been in a relationship?” she questioned.

“We are going on a year and a half.”

The way she burst into a laughing fit almost made me want to cry. Tact wasn’t her strong suit.

Please go back to the nonlaughing boss I know and fear.

“Well, it’s your life. You’re free to make all the mistakes you want, but remember, each mistake turns into a forehead wrinkle, and Botox is expensive.” She waved me away and went back to reading whatever it was that sat in front of her.

“Um, okay…but I do have one more thing to say.” She looked up from her paperwork and arched an uninterested brow. “I won’t be becoming a housewife when I move out to California in a few weeks. I am in search of another journalist position. I am hoping to ask if you could maybe write me a letter of recommendation?”

“You should probably leave my office now.”

“Okay, right.” I stood swiftly from the chair I’d obviously stayed in a second too long. As I was walking away, I turned back to face her. “I hope you know, Maiv, that I am so honored and thankful for you giving me the opportunity to work for your company. This has been the best job I’ve ever had and the experience of a lifetime, and—”

She held her hand up to silence me, took off her glasses, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“You told me when you came to work here that working at Passion was your biggest life dream, and you are throwing that away for probably an average-sized dick of a man you’ve known for less than two years. Did he ask you how you’d feel about giving up your dream for him?”

“No.”

“Then don’t expect your dreams to go any further when you’re married to a man who doesn’t even try to come up with a way for both of your dreams to come true.”

I stood there, completely quiet and baffled by her words.

She looked back down at her paperwork and cleared her throat. “I’m also assuming my invitation got lost in the mail.”

“Your invitation…uh, right. Yes, of course. Your invitation definitely got lost in the mail.”

“Then you better make sure I have a seat at a table. Send the information to my assistant. I don’t require a plus-one, but I’ll be in attendance.”

“Why?”

She looked up eerily slow and cocked an eyebrow at me, forcing me to speak again.

“Why that is wonderful news,” I said, trying to shift the why that left my mouth.

“Why are you still in my office?”

“Right. Of course. Goodbye.”

I left a bit stunned, uncertain what to say and unsure of how I should’ve felt. Had Maiv just invited herself to my wedding? Had she said she was coming? Oh gosh, the seating chart was already done. I’d have to call to get that shifted around. Luckily, right after work, I was on the way to my soon to be mother-in-law’s home, where she’d help me fit Maiv into the chart without issue.

If I’d ever gotten a shot at having my own mother, I’d have wanted her to be just like Marie Rollsfield. When I first met her, she talked about her son a lot, about how she and her husband adopted him when he was five-years-old. I told her about how lucky he was to be adopted by a great woman, and I’d never forget how that comment made her eyes fill with tears.

“I’m not a great woman, but I try to be a good mother,” she explained, wiping the emotions away from her eyes.

I disagreed, though. Anyone kind, filled with love, and willing to take in a child who wasn’t biologically their own was a hero in my mind. I would’ve killed to be adopted by parents as loving as Walter and Marie.

Mr. and Mrs. Rollsfield were my favorite kind of love story. They’d just celebrated thirty years of marriage the summer before, but if you looked at them, you’d think they were still squarely in the honeymoon stage. I’d never seen two people who loved so loudly at all times. From the handholding to the forehead kisses, Marie and Walter were relationship dreams come true.

It wasn’t until Marie invited me over for Christmas dinner that I was introduced to Jason. Marie recalled it better than either of us did, but I remembered being in the Rollsfields’ home and feeling as if I belonged.

Sometimes I wondered if I loved Jason’s parents more than I loved him. Especially his mother, Marie. She was the definition of motherly love, and she welcomed me into their family with arms wide open. When I still worked at the coffee shop, she was the one who actually called 9-1-1 for me when I had the episode, and from that moment on, she had a special place in my heart. After that, to keep myself distracted from my health situation, I joined Marie’s book club, and we grew closer and closer.