Page 90 of You'll Never Forget Me
Dimple considered it. “Is that something you would like? To be hired for cases again?”
If it was, then Dimple would find a way to make it happen. But she had a feeling that wasn’t what Saffi truly desired.
Saffi paused to consider. “The most fun I’ve had in years was trying to catch you. But now I don’t know if I have anything I’m passionate about anymore. Not like you do.”
After a moment’s thought, Dimple took her hand. Saffi didn’t protest, but she did watch with furrowed brows. Dimple dropped a tiny paper into her palm. The corner of the note she’d kept from the hotel—the part that simply read-S.
“Have I taught you nothing?” Dimple asked. “There’s nothing you can’t ask for. And nothing you can’t have.” Up here, so high above the bustling city, it seemed especially possible.
Saffi pinched the paper between her fingertips, holding it up to the sky. “Have you ever considered that a universe where we can both be happy at the same time may never exist?”
“Then we’ll build one, together,” Dimple said. “We’ve achieved far more impressive feats.”
Saffi shook her head, looking out over Los Angeles, but she was smiling. “It still weirds me out how much of an optimist you are. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“I didn’t either. You know about my college years,” Dimple reminded her. “This is the most exciting part. Life can take you anywhere from here.”
“It really is.” This time when Dimple turned, it was Saffi who dropped something into her palm.
A torn bit of paper just like Dimple’s, but it read-Dinstead. From the apology note she’d left Saffi. Traded and then traded back.
“No more setting fires,” Saffi said.
Dimple reached into her pocket, pulling out her lighter. She’d cleaned it of all traces of blood, but sometimes she was almostcertain she’d seen a lingering remnant somewhere along the surface. Dimple weaved it through her fingers one last time, igniting the flame. The fire was as beautiful as ever, but Saffi was proof that it wasn’t the only all-consuming thing in this world.
Her aunt and uncle, Irene, Isaac, Mia, Priyal, Atlas. All gone so that Dimple could finally have everything she wanted. With Saffi by her side, there were simply no more fires left to set—nor any left to put out.
“No more running,” she said, holding the lighter over the roof’s edge.
When Saffi nodded, a determined look in her eyes, Dimple finally let go. It soared, but neither of them paid any mind to where it landed. Perhaps, someday, someone else would find it—make better use of it than Dimple had.
This was an end in some ways, but mostly it was a beginning.The thing about life is that you never know how long someone is going to be a part of yours.It wasn’t entirely true. From the first day Dimple had met Saffi, she knew that she would be a thorn in her side for a long time to come. Now she was glad forit.
A year ago, Dimple had viewed her life in two parts: before and after her aunt and uncle. Then, with the addition of Irene and Isaac it split into three. Now she felt a new fissure begin to form. And, for once, it wasn’t one created by death. This one, brought about by Saffi alone, felt like a rebirth.
Dimple didn’t know what was to come. Perhaps the pieces of her life would continuously fissure and break apart and come back together. And perhaps by the end of it, her life would be an endless cracked mosaic of time. But wasn’t that the fun ofit?
