Violet
There was a problem.
Violet was happy.
She wasn’t supposed to be happy. Not with Ivore, not with anyone, or anything. It wasn’t right for her to be. Maybe if things were different, if someone else could feel happiness, she might allow herself to as well. But they couldn’t. Not now, and not ever again. If they couldn’t feel joy, why should she get to?
It was impossible to deny that’s how Ivore made her feel. Although she hadn’t stayed the night, she’d been yawning continuously all morning, having stayed up until the small hours of the morning talking.
Everything was confusing. After her talk with Andria she’d felt like opening herself up to the possibility of something happening with Ivore was the right way to go. She hadn’t expected to feel like she was betraying the memory of someone else by doing so.
Since it had happened, more people than she could count—those close to her and those not—had told her that she should let go and be happy. That it was a freak accident and that she wasn’t to blame. That she was forgiven.
None of it had ever sunk in. Violet hated herself, and there had been days shortly after the accident that she’d wanted to kill herself in hopes that it might balance the scales. Those days had passed eventually, with the help of alcohol to numb the pain. With the help of Andria, she’d stopped drinking daily, turning herself into a social drinker only. But what had never left her was the guilt. The knowledge that everything would have been different if she had just thought of someone else instead of being selfish.
Now she was sitting in her car in the parking lot of the apartment building where her new shop was going to be located, trying to decide what to do.
Running felt…wrong. Like it would make her out to be an even worse person than she already was, after telling Ivore that she would give him a chance. He was a good man, and none of what was going on was his fault, so she shouldn’t be doing anything to hurt him. But how was she supposed to reconcile everything that was going on? In the end, someone was going to get hurt. Violet just needed to ensure it was her, and not anyone else.
In the meantime, there was work to be done. She couldn’t just sit around in her car and avoid it. The store was coming together and she hoped to be able to open it in the next few weeks at best. Today was a good day though. Today they were supposed to be putting the sign out front.
Getting out of the car, she headed inside. Ivore was busy getting everything ready, cleaning the sign and doing some measurements, and didn’t even notice her until she came up next to him.
“Morning!” he said jovially, reaching out with one arm to give her a hug. “Are you ready to put this bad boy up?”
Violet returned it, letting her arm drop quickly. She wanted to focus on work today, pushing her personal problems to the side for a bit. Besides, there were plenty of contractors around. Ivore had hired multiple crews, and most of them were unknown faces.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” She looked at the sign, reading the name once again and feeling subdued by it all.
O’Hara’s Famous Cupcakes.
It looked great, done up in a beautiful scarlet-colored cursive font on a white background. It would stand out from the black and steel-gray building with ease. The name wasn’t her first choice, but it was an homage to someone who couldn’t be there, and she felt it had to be done. It had been his idea for the name, and now at least it would live on forever.
“Well, let’s do it then!” Ivore said, motioning to several nearby contractors to come and lift the sign. It would have to go up in two sections. A single piece would be too long and too heavy.
Four men came over, two to a section, and followed them outside. Violet stood on the sidewalk, arms crossed as they lifted the sign up and fastened it into place in front of the neon lights that would let it glow at night. Before she knew it, it was over, the men climbing down and moving out of the way. After all the buildup to the moment, actually seeing the sign seemed somewhat…anticlimactic.
“Is everything okay?” Ivore seemed to pick up on her mood change.
“Yeah, it is.”
Violet knew she didn’t hate the name, but something about it just didn’t seem like it fit. Like it wasn’t right. She tried to shake that off. This was the name that she’d agreed on long ago, and it belonged there.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling.
“Shall we go crack open a bottle to celebrate? This is a big day!”
“Sure.” She followed him back inside.
The workers waited behind them, discussing something. Inside Ivore was already rummaging through a cooler.
“Aha!” he crowed, pulling out a slender green bottle with gold decoration on it.
“I can’t believe you bought champagne for the sign day,” she muttered, somewhat touched.
“If it didn’t already feel real, it should now,” he pronounced, pouring them each a healthy dose into plastic cups that had also materialized from nearby. “To O’Hara’s!”
Violet smiled tightly and raised her glass, taking a long sip.
The door opened, and the half-dozen contractors came back inside single-file. She frowned, watching them walk by. Hadn’t there only been four of them before? Across from her Ivore’s eyes narrowed as he saw the expression on her face.
He turned around just in time to receive a hammer to the side of the head.
Violet screamed as he went down, blood shooting everywhere from the wound. The last contractor in line pulled several objects from his pockets and tossed them around her shop while the hammer-wielding attacker advanced on Violet. She was helpless, completely unarmed and unprepared to fight him off.
Halfway to her he stopped, looking down at his ankle where five fingers had locked around it. Ivore, lying flat on the ground, had managed to catch up.
“Stay away from her,” he snapped, and hauled back on his arm.
The construction worker fell to the ground, dropping the hammer to catch himself before his head hit the concrete.
“We gotta go!”
She looked up as the other worker came over. He grabbed his fallen companion, viciously kicking Ivore’s hand out of the way, and ran for the door, leaving Ivore in a barely moving heap on the ground.
A split second later the objects he’d thrown exploded, flames licking up the walls and spreading rapidly. Violet looked around in horror as vital seconds elapsed. If she couldn’t get him to his feet, they were going to burn alive.