Even if everything wasn't going quite right for me at the moment, it was nice to talk to an old acquaintance about it all. Chris was always just a table away back in high school. It was funny to run into him again a few years later.

A few? Was six years a few?

But after we spent what could have been a bored afternoon catching up (this time, outside of a car), it was abundantly clear that we had just about as much in common as anyone in our high school class. Everyone else was well on their way to success (or, in the unfortunate case of Adelyn Jones, dead), and then there was us.

But I would get there eventually. I had to if I ever wanted my red sailboat life.

Back at home, I had a few orders that I had to prepare to ship and as I got out my light pink mailing packages and tissue paper, Alex burst into the room.

"Lydia's dead," she sputtered in between exhausted breaths. "George found her this morning. They don't know what it was, but she's gone."

Out of breath? Did she sprint to tell me—

Oh shit.

"Lydia from the Lakeside Daisy?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. It was a small town, and there weren't too many Lydias running around Marblehead.

Well, now there weren't any.

Wow, Marigold. Could I be any more insensitive?

Alex nodded. "I just heard it and left work early to tell you."

I frowned. "Why'd you leave work? You could have called me."

"I didn't want to be there anyway." She waved her hand dismissively. Must have been nice to have that luxury. "I know she was getting older, but this still feels so sudden, you know?"

I nodded. She and her husband George owned the Lakeside Daisy, and she was the one who decorated the building for every season, managed the personnel, and made it the winery everyone knew it to be. It wouldn't have had all the charm of a waterside property without her.

Even before I started working for her, I knew her and that she owned one of the biggest attractions in our small town. Every kid in Marblehead did. She had hired me a few years back, and she had kept in touch with me just enough throughout my employment that I felt like I was allowed to be upset about her sudden passing.

I let out a breath. Work was going to suck for a while, wasn't it?

Marigold, no. A woman just died, and you're making it all about you.

"You okay?" Alex asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. She was really sweet, and she managed so much, so I really don't know how the business is going to manage without her."

She was maybe in her mid-sixties from what I could tell, but like a true lady, she made sure that no one but her husband knew her real age. Retirement wasn't even a thought in her mind as far as I knew, so where was George going to go from here? And the rest of the staff?

"Well, I should probably call Mason and tell him. I don't think he's scheduled to play until next weekend, but I'm sure he would want to know," I said.

Alex nodded, even if she was usually against the idea of me calling him. "Good idea. And if you need to talk, I'm here for you. I know you don't usually get attached to people, but—" She trailed off. "I'm just here for you."

I looked down at the white glittery tissue paper in my hand. "Thanks."

I wasn't quite sure where she had gotten the idea that I didn't get attached easily, because that couldn't have been further from the truth, but I didn't say anything about it. It wasn't helpful when someone was dead.

***

Work in the evening was about as unsettling as I imagined it would be. Plenty of people showed up to support the family, but despite the uncharacteristically large crowd at the Lakeside Daisy, there was no joyful laughter that usually came with wine. And with George busy, that burden fell upon the wait staff.

"No, you may not speak to the manager about the slow service today, you dumb twat," Ashley muttered to herself as she walked behind me. "Read the damn room."

I nodded, even though she couldn't see me and my table definitely heard her. Without any music or lively discussion in the background, there wasn't much to cover up our usual bitching, let alone the grievances of the day we were having.

After I took the orders at that table and listened to their stories about how they had been coming to the Lakeside Daisy for years and were devastated to hear about Lydia, I headed back to the kitchen and took out my phone.

I left a voicemail for Mason when he didn't answer my call, and although I hadn't gotten a response from him, it could have been for a variety of reasons. Either he hadn't gotten the message yet, he needed time to process the loss, or he didn't know how to respond to the news. And all of those were okay. It was a difficult time for everyone, even the newest members of the Lakeside Daisy family.

It certainly wasn't like I had lost my aunt or grandmother like in an actual family, but I spent more time with my work "family" than anyone I was actually related to.

"If I have one more person tell me what Lydia meant to them, I'm gonna scream," Ashley said as she grabbed a few plates to take out to customers.

"I get it, but they're trying to be nice. Everyone in this town knew her, and now they want to express how much they appreciate her now that she's gone," I said.

"Unless you're gonna tell me about some secret affair you had with her, I really don't care to hear about your memories right now. I just want to go home," she continued as she headed back out to be with the people.

I wasn't quite sure why she ended up in a customer service job when she hated everyone so much, but I couldn't judge. It wasn't like it was my first choice either.

Even in the kitchen, the air still carried a quiet somberness that settled uncomfortably in my stomach. But I couldn't take the heat, so I got out of the kitchen.

I just wanted to go home myself, but a loss in a small town was felt by everyone.

Oh, to be a tiny fish in a sea in a city like Pittsburgh right now.

"Marigold," someone said from behind me, and I took in a deep breath and put on a friendly smile before turning around to see Chris.

Great. Another person who had to get some things off their chest now that it was too late. But unlike Ashley, I had the decency to pretend that it wasn't annoying.

"Figured I'd pay my respects just like everyone else in Marblehead," he said.

Of course, half the kids we grew up with alongside the Lakeside Daisy were long gone on different adventures. There wasn't much to stick around for, anyway.

I nodded. "It's a really weird vibe in here right now because of it. Not quite awkward, but something like it."

Unsettling. Yeah.

"It sure seems like it. I'm gonna let you get back to work, but I just wanted to say hi to you and give my condolences to someone, at least," Chris said.

I gave him a small smile and continued on to the next table that needed my attention. There was a gaping hole left in the winery, and who was going to be able to fill it? Not George, for sure. The man didn't know turquoise from teal or profit from revenue.

Of course, it wasn't my responsibility to solve that problem (in fact, it wasn't really my business at all), but I couldn't help but wonder. I was a Scorpio, after all.

-------------------------------------------

Hello, and thank you so much for reading and for your patience! I have been super overwhelmed with work lately, and I'm so glad I finally managed to put something together for this story. I've been slowly chipping away at it for weeks now. Sad.

But anyway, Part 2 of this chapter will be coming out soon enough (hopefully), so in the meantime, let's do our question. Do you like podcasts, and if so, what do you like to listen to?

I'm not a super big podcast fan, honestly. It's just people talking who may or may not know what they're talking about, so there's not really one that I listen to regularly, but I'll listen to one if someone recommends it if it's on a topic I'm interested in. But I think I would make a super interesting podcast if I made one myself. That sounds egotistical, but I like to think I'm an interesting person who definitely doesn't know what I'm talking about, but sometimes I'm funny. That's all some podcasts seem to be, anyway.