Page 89 of Ideal Life

“Okay, but Talia?”

“Hmm?”

“Jacob and I would still like to invest.”

A grin broke out across Talia’s face, lighting up even the dark circles beneath her eyes. “Then welcome to the family business.”

Erin

Word spread like wildfire through the office about what had happened—not only how Talia had outmaneuvered Omni, but also how her sister had offered to step in to save Ideal Life. Erin had been impressed by the Morgan sisters before, but now she was even more awed by their ability to bounce back, even when the odds seemed impossibly stacked against them.

Feeling inspired, Erin drove over to the dorm Georgia was staying in for the summer. Because if Talia could come back from her dream company almost collapsing, maybe Erin could recover from something much smaller. After all, if she couldn’t be resilient enough to try again after a flubbed date, she had no business thinking she could someday become a tech founder and CEO herself.

Outside of Georgia’s door, Erin took a deep breath. She could hear music playing inside the room, and she hoped that meant Georgia was home (although part of Erin hoped it was her roommate, and Erin could postpone this act of bravery until later).

Just as she was about to knock, the door opened, and pop music, no longer muted, blasted into the hallway. Georgia stepped out, nearly bumping right into Erin.

“Oh god!” Georgia, startled, jumped backward.

“Crap,” Erin said. “Why can’t I do anything right?”

Georgia, having recovered herself, snorted. “You? What about me? I’m the one who force-fed you something that could’ve killed you. If one of us here can’t do anything right, it’s me.”

“Wait,” Erin said. “You blame yourself for our disaster of a date? I’m the one who was so nervous about it that I didn’t keep track of my own allergies and ended up ruining everything by turning into a gasping, swollen red monster who needed an ambulance.”

“It’s not your fault you didn’t know there were candlenuts in the laksa.”

“And it’s not yours that you didn’t know I had an allergy to candlenuts,” Erin said. “Honestly, I still don’t know what the heck they are.”

Georgia pulled her phone out of her pocket and showed Erin the lock screen. It was a photo of little beige nuts, like if chickpeas and macadamia nuts merged. “I’ve had this picture of candlenuts here ever since that night, as a reminder of what an idiot I am.”

Erin started laughing then. Georgia, looking hurt, began to retreat into her room.

“No, no, stop—I’m sorry,” Erin said, still giggling. “It’s just that… look at us. We’ve both been beating ourselves up, when we could have been happier if we’d, I don’t know, communicated? I mean, maybe that part is our faults, but…” Her smile softened into something more serious. “Well, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the way our first date went, and I’m sorry I was too chicken to call you after, and I’m sorry you thought it was your fault. That’s why I came today. And also, hi, since we seemed to have skipped that part.”

Georgia hugged her arms around her own chest, but she laughed a little. “Hi. And I’m sorry for all that, too.”

“I’m also sorry I didn’t do this earlier.” Erin stepped up and leaned in to kiss her. “Oh, hold on,” Erin said. “You haven’t eaten any candlenuts recently, have you?”

Georgia broke out into a full smile then and shook her head. “I will never eat nuts again if you’ll just hurry up and kiss me.”

“Consider it done,” Erin said. And then she pulled Georgia to her and their lips met, and Georgia’s mouth was every bit as delicious as she’d imagined.

Talia

Over the next week, Omni’s lawyers finished the deal-termination paperwork, and Ideal Life’s bank account had five and a half million more dollars in it from Omni, Libby, and Jacob.

Talia could still hardly believe that her baby sister had swooped in to rescue her and was now part of the startup. Life could be delightfully surprising when you didn’t try to control and plan every moment of it.

That was a lesson she’d realized she needed to impart to Erin, too. All summer, Talia had watched Erin emulate her. But Erin was too bright a candle to allow to burn out so young.

So Talia had called her up to the rooftop garden for another performance review, but this time, in reverse. Talia had written up a scorecard of her own work and behavior over the past weeks and pointed out to Erin how all of Talia’s striving for perfection had driven her a little mad (without mentioning the watch, of course) and that she’d ended up leaving no space in her life for friends or even for taking care of herself.

There was no easy answer to how women were supposed to move in the world, but Talia wanted Erin to know that “having it all” was a myth. Not in a bad way. Just that life required compromises, no matter who you were. And it was up to Erin—and each individual person—to decide what to give and what to take.

“You know, boss,” Erin had said when Talia was finished with the reverse performance review, “I learned something else new recently.”

“What’s that?”