Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 11 of 78

Kylie closed the piano lid and looked at the clock. Nine at night. Arianna would arrive tomorrow at eleven. The song was ready. The necklace was ready. The kitchen was ready. Then Kylie thought about Friday night, and Saturday, and the days after that, and she stopped moving. She had not picked a room for Arianna to sleep in. She walked upstairs. The guest room at the end of the hall held a stripped mattress and two boxes of tour merch. The second guest room held her old treadmill and a rack of stage clothes. She opened the third door. Empty except for a lamp and a rolled rug. If Arianna stayed past Friday, Kylie would have to point at one of these rooms and apologize. Or worse, she would have to say goodbye at the door because there was nowhere to put her. Kylie sat on the hallway floor. She could call her assistant. Her assistant could have movers here by seven a.m. She pulled up the contact and stared at it. She thought about Malia walking her boyfriend out of her life while smiling at her over coffee. She locked the phone. She went to her laptop instead. She searched same-day delivery within fifty miles. She typed bed. Too many results. She typed red bed. The screen filled with a heart-shaped frame, deep red, tufted, big enough for two. The listing said one in stock, warehouse forty minutes out, delivery before nine a.m. if ordered before ten p.m. She had eighteen minutes. She checked the price. She checked the photo again. It was ridiculous. It was also honest. Arianna had signed every letter with a small heart in the corner. Kylie clicked buy. She paid the rush fee. She entered the gate code herself so no assistant would see the address. She went back to the empty room. She rolled the rug out. She wiped the window. She carried up a lamp from the office and a stack of clean sheets from the linen closet. She set a paperback on the nightstand, one Arianna had mentioned in a letter last spring. She left the center of the room open for the delivery. At eight-forty the next morning two men in gray shirts carried the frame up the stairs. Kylie signed the tablet at the door and sent them out before they could ask for a photo. She built the bed herself from the printed instructions. She tightened the last bolt at ten-fifteen. She put white sheets on it and a folded blanket at the foot. She stood in the doorway. The red heart filled the wall. The room was a room now. Arianna could stay Friday. She could stay Saturday. She could stay as long as she wanted. Kylie went downstairs to warm the pan. The car was already on its way to pick Arianna up.