Chapter 12

On a summer evening four years earlier, Lucy debates voicing a risky idea: asking her aunt to let her take over In Bloom. Bridget reacts with unreserved enthusiasm, promising to handle taxes and paperwork and to help pitch the plan to Stacy. Lucy admits her parents wouldn’t approve, and Bridget gently names their subtle put-downs, reinforcing Lucy’s need to choose herself.

Felix arrives as Christine stocks up oysters for his shucking practice. The three banter as Lucy times Felix in the kitchen. The flirtation intensifies: small touches, shared looks, and a charged exchange deepen their mutual awareness despite the rules they set years earlier.

Overheated and flustered, Lucy heads for a shower but collides with Felix in the hall. In the steamy bathroom, they acknowledge their attraction and the constraints they’ve imposed. Felix describes what he would do “otherwise,” and Lucy proposes a single exception—one time to get it out of their systems.

They agree, with Felix’s condition that when Lucy climaxes she call him by name. He undresses her, they kiss, and he positions her before the mirror, asking her to watch him and hold on. As they begin, Lucy affirms the one-time rule, even as the moment threatens to upend their boundaries and complicate her friendship with Bridget.