Page 4 of Second Chances

Crystal would be there with Simona in less than three hours, and she wouldn’t have time to do anything but help customers after her daughter arrived.

Normally, Simona would sit in Crystal’s small office after school and either do her homework or watch her shows on the secondhand iPad she’d purchased last Christmas. But since today was the very last day of school, she had a few extra plans for her daughter.

Sarah Rothschild, Crystal’s daughter, also known as Serenity, was going to pick Simona up for a playdate with her daughter Aurora.

The two girls were only a few months apart and the very bestest of friends, according to them.

Sarah and her husband, Ben, had another daughter, Luna, a few years younger, who trailed behind the friends and tried to keep up. The three of them always tried to convince everyone that they were sisters instead of just friends.

But Simona’s jet-black hair, which matched her own, was in complete contrast to Aurora’s and Luna’s pale blonde hair. Still, it was cute that the girls loved each other that much.

After the girl’s playdate, they were all going to meet down the street at Ed’s Pizzeria for a big end-of-the-school-year party. Simona’s first-grade graduation was the next evening, but Sarah and Ben were heading to New York the morning after graduation to visit his parents in the city, so they’d decided to celebrate tonight.

Since Olivia was still the store manager, she’d scheduled Cora to fill in for her that afternoon. The store wasn’t big enough that it needed two employees working behind the counter at one time, except during holidays. Crystal and Daisy taught yoga classes at various times during the day in the large studio rooms in the back of the store. Lea, their part-time massage therapist, had clients coming and going during the daytime and had two small private rooms with showers for her clients.

But for the most part, the store made its money from the items stocked on its shelves. Items that most locals came in and purchased on a regular basis. Tourists would also drop a lot of money during the season, attracted by the store’s eccentricity.

Serenity’s Attic stood out from the other almost identical buildings on the street because of the bright blue-and-yellow sun and purple moon designs painted on the front of the building. The bright colors and designs covered every last inch of the storefront and marked it as an authentic hippie store. White lights hung on the eves, showcasing the place and all the colors at night. The front doors were painted bright purple with white stars covering every inch of them, a true testament to its owner’s belief in astrology.

Not a week had gone by over the last seven years when Crystal hadn’t read Olivia’s star charts. Olivia didn’t truly believe in the stuff, but it was interesting to hear it anyway.

This week’s reading had her meeting her soulmate once and for all. Olivia didn’t get too excited about that prospect, however, since in the past seven years, she’d had almost half a dozen of the same readings, all promising her soulmate was just around the corner.

This one, however, did cause her a moment of pause when Crystal mentioned that it was a child who would find her love. Olivia had tried to see what Crystal read in the cards. There were images on the front of each card, but how did she understand what they meant? After all these years, she had no idea what any of the cards meant. She remembered a handful of them, but each time, Crystal claimed they meant something different because of the other cards lying next to them.

As far as bosses went, Crystal Holley was by far the best one she’d ever had. It hadn’t taken Olivia long to rise up in the ranks of the store. Crystal had been basically the only employee back when she’d applied for a job there, shortly after she and Brock had moved back to Silver Cove.

In a way, Crystal was the reason she and Simona had stayed in the small town. Her kindness had been one of the only lights in an otherwise very dark year.

Being freshly divorced hadn’t affected her as much as being a single parent had. Brock may have been terrible to her, and she’d had to deal with his attitude and his control, but he’d been a father to Simona. Seeing her daughter go through father withdrawals had been hard. Simona had cried every night for a while, and Olivia had to comfort her as she cradled her daughter in her unbroken arm.

She hadn’t wanted to tell her daughter how she’d hurt herself. After all, she didn’t want Simona to get the idea that her father was a complete monster. She’d read enough children’s health articles to understand what demonizing a parent could do to a child.

So instead, she’d lied to her daughter and told her that her father had to go away for a few years and that he loved her and would be back just as soon as he could. No one around her had wanted to break the mother code, so they had gone along with the ruse.

Olivia figured that she’d tell Simona when she was a little older and could understand what had happened a little better.

Then she’d had to juggle state-required counseling while dealing with a full-time job and a toddler whom she had to shuttle to and from day care each day. Crystal had made sure that she was paid enough to care for Simona and had even taken it upon herself to watch the young girl at times.

After a while, she’d fallen into a schedule and was thankful Kayla or Sarah had been available to fill in with Simona when she’d been unable to be there.

The three of them—four, if you counted Lilith Carriveau, Sarah’s best friend—had formed a tight group, as they all had kids around the same age. Lilith and her husband Adam had three kids a little younger than Simona.

The entire gang was going to be there later to celebrate, one of many times she knew they’d get together over the summer. It made the second half of her workday drag out. She was really looking forward to spending the evening with her friends.

By the time Crystal showed up with Simona, she was so ready for the workday to be over.

Holding her little girl was one of the best feelings in the world. Her daughter was full of stories about her special playdate with her friends from the moment she ran into the store and wrapped her little arms around her neck.

For the next few minutes, she listened while Crystal helped a few customers. It was her shop, after all, and she loved it as much as Olivia did, if not more.

When the customers walked out, several bags filled with their purchases in hand, Crystal turned to her and asked, “So, are we ready to party?”

“I am, I am.” Simona jumped up and down while waving her hands in the air.

Olivia laughed and swooped her daughter up into her arms, noticing how much bigger she’d gotten over the past few months.

When Cora showed up to take her place, she gathered her daughter’s many things and walked down the street to the pizzeria to meet their friends.