Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 84952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
I wonder vaguely if this is what other girls feel like. Does Bellamy get this obsessed about getting dressed every morning?
Probably. And it’s probably why she looks phenomenal in everything she wears.
Ugh.
I just don’t have it in me to care this much.
I walk over to my desk and take a seat. I open my laptop and check my email. Coupons for ice cream, newsletters from romance authors, and shipping updates fill my inbox. But there’s one message buried in the middle of the list that stands out. I click on it.
The email from my academic advisor at school is short and sweet. The last few classes I need to take to finalize my bachelor’s degree are written in black and white. I needed an urban design course but had failed to take the prerequisite math class. My new advisor promised me he would work it out, and after some shifting around and an online course, I’m thrilled to see it finally confirmed on my schedule.
A rush of relief mixed with excitement flows freely through me. I sit back in my leather office chair and revel in the feeling of things going according to plan.
Landscape architecture was a no-brainer for me. It’s creative and artistic and gives me access to sunshine and fresh air—two things I need to feel alive. It was the only career option that would allow me to create something beautiful or something practical—or something practically beautiful—and feed my soul.
I let myself imagine what life might be like in just a few months. While everyone seems to think I’ll go into residential landscape design and work with my family’s friends and acquaintances, that’s not at all what I want to do.
My dreams are much bigger than designing golf courses and sculpted lawns. I want to create actual spaces and transform specific areas that make people feel at home.
I want to do something more than inspire one family. I want to do something bigger, something bigger than me.
Designing gardens for convalescent centers so people who can’t go home can still sit outside and feel safe and relaxed is on my bucket list. I hope to create green areas in the middle of the city for commuters to find a bit of calm in their day. I would die over the ability to tuck in a little garden somewhere with a flow of energy that others can flock to when they need a shot of happiness or hope. My goal is to use my skills and passions to make other people’s lives better—to extend the gifts given to me.
The summer that Bellamy and I spent at her grandma’s house changed me in a deep, molecular-level way. I needed to be surrounded by life and colors and calm to survive the disruptions in my life during those months. My heart craved that peace. It was desperate for it. And now that I know what can deliver that kind of respite from life’s stresses, I want to be able to bring that to others.
It’s a secret I stumbled onto and one that I can share with the world.
I rock back and forth in my chair, relishing in the idea of the future, and make the mistake of looking over my shoulder. Instantly, I’m reminded of my very real first world problem of not knowing what to wear.
Better to overdress and impress than underdress and obsess, my mom says.
“This time, you just might be right,” I say out loud.
I get to my feet and grab my phone. I press Bellamy’s number.
“Hey,” she chirps after barely the first ring.
“Hey, Bells.”
“What’s up?”
“Well … I was wondering if it would be okay if I wear that turquoise dress that I borrowed from you a while back. Do you know the one?” I glance at the fabric draped on the hanger across the room. “It’s a wrap dress that has a very faint cream-colored checkered design on it.”
“I forgot you had that.”
I laugh. “It must be really hard to have so many clothes that you don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Oh, like you have any room to talk.”
I roll my eyes. “So can I wear it? I mean, I could’ve just put it on, and you wouldn’t have known, but I thought I’d ask first.”
“I don’t care. I didn’t even know I didn’t have it, so it’s not like I’m attached.” She smacks her lips together as she eats something. “Where are you going?”
The thought of saying Hollis’s name makes me smile. The idea of being with him again makes me shiver. The realization that I’m going to have to tell my best friend what’s going on has me bracing myself because she’s not going to just gloss over it.
There’s no way.
“I’m just helping out a friend and going to dinner with them,” I say as breezily as I can manage.