Return to Silver Lake by Julius Geoffrey

Author:Julius Geoffrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Return to Silver Lake, Julius Geoffrey, Contemporary Romance, Second Chances, Workplace Romance
Publisher: Julius Geoffrey
Published: 2025-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2: The Homecoming

The “Welcome to Silver Lake” sign was the same eight years later. Same peeling blue paint, same carved wooden waves under the letters, same promise of “The Jewel of the Pacific Northwest” below. As she drove past it, Olivia slowed her car, and her stomach flipped complicatedly.

Everything was just as she remembered, but somehow smaller. The thick evergreen junipers still clung to the winding coastal road. Morning fog still clung to the treetops. You could tell even the weather was conforming to her sense of déjà vu — gray skies promising rain, just like the day she’d left.

Her GPS chirped, commanding her to turn right in half a mile. She didn’t need it; she could drive to The Riviera with a blindfold on. All teenager in Silver Lake did. It was the only place open past nine, the only place that would let guests nurse a cup of coffee for hours as they crammed for exams or nursed a broken heart.

As she drove, the town began to come into focus. Pete’s Hardware, where she’d picked up supplies for innumerable art projects. The Silver Lake Cinema, which still promotes films on its vintage marquee. Bells Books & Coffee, where she had spent rainy afternoons sifting through the shelves while Marcus worked his shifts at the restaurant.

She hung a left onto Harbor Street, and there it was. The Riviera.

The two-story building loomed on its corner lot, its windows shimmering with morning light. The blue-and-white awning was new, its exterior recently painted, but the fundamental character remained intact. Cars already occupied half the parking lot — the breakfast crowd, she figured.

Olivia parked at the far end of the lot, turned off the engine and sat for a moment, attempting to steady her racing heart. You can do it, she said to herself. It's just another project.

That was when she heard a tap on her window. She looked to see a familiar face beaming back at her through the glass.

"Lucy?" She immediately rolled down the window.

"The one and only!" Lucy Chen hadn’t changed much since high school — still tiny, still pouring energy out like a nickel-silicon miniature sun. “I saw your car pull in and had to come say hi to my favorite cousin!’ You didn’t tell me you were coming to town.”

“I...” Olivia had no words. "It was kind of last minute. I'm here for work, actually."

"The renovation, right?" Lucy's eyes sparkled. “I think the whole town is talking about it. I can’t believe it’s you that’s behind the design! Just wait till I tell everybody in the salon.”

Great. Just what she needed – the town gossip mill working overtime. The news in Silver Lake, population 3,827, flew faster than the speed of light.

“How do you know about the renovation?” “What?” Olivia asked knowing the answer already.

"Are you kidding? That’s the only thing Marcus talks about when he comes in to get his haircuts. Well, the renovation, and the new menu he’s devising. Although he never said you were the designer.

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