AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I gaze at him in the bright light stream filtering through the room’s thin, low-coverage curtains. My normal energy levels seem to finally be restored, and the sight of him fills me with intense desire. If only he weren’t such a gentleman. I wish he’d woken me up last night, as I’ve got to rush over to the store this morning.
I linger for as many minutes as possible before forcing myself out of bed. Soundlessly, I slide just close enough to feel the warmth of Bo’s breath. It dawns on me that he must have gone a good thirty-six hours without sleep. Not to mention the concentration it would have taken to make a trip that long in a single night. The greatness of this man seems increasingly impossible the more I think about him. Maybe Holly was right all along. Maybe I should have thrown everything to the wind and allowed a long-distance relationship with the guy.
As much as I want to ‘accidentally’ wake Bo up, I slip out of the sheets and get changed like a ninja. Knowing he’ll still be here this afternoon sets me up for a most pleasant day. But a sickening sensation wracks all the way to my gut when I turn my phone on to find it blown up with calls from Quade. What could he possibly think he could say to me now, that would make anything remotely okay between us?
As I start my car, my mind charges furiously through all the things Quade has done in spite of my good behavior. He rigged my house, devastated any semblance of privacy in my life, accepted my inheritance…which he could have talked my father out of if he’d tried to, sold the house without asking…roofied me and trapped me in a creepy room!? I still can’t wrap my brain around that one, don’t even want to.
By the time I pull into Fiona’s, something else comes to mind with instant clarity. Quade tapped my phone and blamed it on Ulysses, and I bought it hook, line, and sinker. The continued occasional presence of Ulysses, in this town, has been more annoying than creepy. Why would I believe for a moment that Quade is innocent about anything? Quade is a liar who would stop at nothing. Of course he wasn’t going to come clean when I called him out on my tapped phone. He had a perfect alibi.
My disgust only increases when I remember the false sense of safety I felt, as Quade announced with concern that Ulysses must be my phone tapper. Maybe I still wasn’t ready to come to grips. My ex husband, and best friend of seventeen years, is a complete creep. Too much testosterone drugs gone to his brain or whatever…he is not the man I married, nor the one I cared for all this time.
What I struggle the most with is when, exactly, this transition began taking place. Thinking back, Quade’s general demeanor had been icking me out for quite some time…but not too long. Come to think about it, his attitude changes probably were synonymous with the physical changes his body underwent. At first I felt so proud of him for deciding to whip himself into shape, and then it started to feel like he was flirting with me. Something he didn’t even know how to do when we first met.
I’m still reeling from this train of thought when I find Maxine in the back cooler room.
“Maxine, how’s it going with the Endrigo account?” I ask, feigning normality.
“It’s going great. I pretty much have everything sketched out already, just have to make a few more decisions about what types of blooms to use,” she replies.
“Great. Wanna show me what you’ve got?”
“Yes! And I also need to talk to you about something. Personal. Something personal that affects my work life. Something that pertains to me and you.”
For some inexplicable reason, a sense of dread overcomes me at those words. I wait, in stunned silence, for Maxine to continue…fearing the worst.
“Um,” she says, guiltily clearing her throat, “should I show you my sketches first?”
“What is it Maxine?” I ask, with approximately zero patience remaining in me this morning.
“Well, on New Year’s Eve, Ivan asked if I would move in with him.”
I’m confounded.
“We’ve been pondering our future a lot, and trying to figure out how my career fits into it. Ivan’s offered to put forth the funds to help me kickstart my own business, so I can ultimately leave the shop and become more mobile. Maybe open a store in London or Chicago.”
“Okay,” I respond, “so you’re saying you wanna quit here and go somewhere else?”
“Well, yeah. You could put it like that. It doesn’t need to be right away, just whenever you find someone you’re comfortable replacing me with. I can train them before I move to Chicago. All my stuff’s in storage since I’ve been in Zenovia’s house, so that won’t soak up my time.”
During her diatribe my phone vibrates with a text. Great. My lunch meeting has been canceled. And hey, you know what? Who cares? Why not have as little responsibility in my life as possible now. I’ve got no home or future finances, just lost my star employee, and I’m sure Quade was going to pull the carpet any minute anyway. What was I ever thinking?
“That won’t be necessary,” I inform her. “You’re free to go whenever you want. Just let me know if you need me to get someone to take over the Endrigo wedding.”
“Oh no! I’ll definitely finish everything I’ve got open first. We didn’t even discuss a timetable on this, so I’m very flexible.”
“Up to you,” I say with a deadpan expression, as I make tracks for the door. I’m not about to give Maxine the satisfaction of believing I care, yet I really don’t know what I’d do if she’d bailed out on that wedding. “I’m out of time now, got an early lunch meeting,” I lie, “so you’ll have to show me the sketches on Friday. Remember to do closing and lock up today because Laura won’t be back in till morning.”
Suddenly glad about the canceled meeting, I burst out the door and strut to my car. I’ve got the whole afternoon ahead of me now. In fact, I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, Fiona’s Flowers and Quade and my house and my phone and my privacy and my inheritance be damned. I’ve got Bo Thompson snoozing in a hotel right now, waiting for me to show up and turn him on like a power plant. I’m on my way, Big Bo, I’m on my way.
Chapter 36
Bo
I’m still sleepin like a bear when Fiona steps through the door, as I wasn’t expectin her back until after her lunch meetin.
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry I’m such a slob,” I say, pushin myself upright in a sudden state of alertness. Fiona gets my blood flowin faster than anything ever has.
“Bo, do you have any idea how glorious it is to walk into a dim room, containing nothing but a bed, and find you sprawled across it in a state of partial undress?” she asks, beginning to laugh as she falls into my arms.
