“Come over here, girl,” Zoe said, luring Muff to her window seat with a dog biscuit.
“You thinking of getting a dog?” Cassidy asked, eyeing the treats.
“What? No, Whiskers would kill me.” She shook her head. “I was helping Kallie at the pet shop. She wants to make homemade dog treats and sell them. They’re loads better than the commercial ones, and you know me, the more natural the better.”
The pup sniffed around for a minute before taking up residence in Zoe’s window seat as promised.
Cassidy inhaled deeply, letting the scent of pine and eucalyptus calm her. A rustic wooden counter ran along the back third of the shop, covered with ribbons, shears, spools of floral wire, and mugs of tea in varying degrees of fullness. Chalkboard signs labeled galvanized buckets brimming with winter blooms such as white amaryllis, snowy roses, deep-red ranunculus, blue thistle, and soft-green eucalyptus.
The shop had a small corner devoted to custom bouquet wrapping, with kraft paper, silk ribbons, and gift tags that read “For You,” “Winter Wishes,” and “Just Because.”
Zoe was adding a sprig of holly and sugared berries each to an array of vases.
“These are gorgeous,” said Cassidy. The centerpieces had red roses in the center, with evergreen, holly, and sugared berries tucked around them. The round glass vases were tied with red satin ribbon.
“Thanks. Five done, only twenty-five more to go.” Zoe beamed.
Cassidy rolled up her sleeves. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”
A little while later, after Cassidy had tied all the ribbons, she sat on a barstool in Zoe’s flower shop, pizza in one hand, a glass of red wine in the other, watching her friend fuss over a bouquet of red roses.
“Alright, enough with work. Now, do you want to tell me what’s going on with you and Liam?”
Cassidy finished chewing the bite. “I’d love to, but you don’t want to hear about his ding-dong, so…”
“Don’t suppose you could skip over his ding-dong?” Zoe asked hopefully.
“’Fraid not. It’s literally the crux of the problem.”
“Fine, fine,” Zoe said, waving a pair of scissors in her direction. “What’s so important about Liam’s ding-dong that’s got your whole relationship messed up?”
Cassidy wiped her hands with a napkin. “All I was trying to do was tell him how good things have been between us. How he’s opened my eyes, if you know what I’m saying.”
Zoe tilted her head. “Not really.”
“I told Liam I’ve only ever been with Jean-Paul, and Jean-Paul never did anything like what Liam does.” Cassidy’s cheeks flushed. “Zoe… he’s like a sex god. He’s wicked with his mouth, his fingers, those dirty words of his. Plus, I’ll never be able to look at a scarf the same way again.”
Cassidy clenched her fist, trying to suppress the heat rushing to her face.
Zoe held up a hand. “Okay, okay! I get it. He’s good.”
Cassidy let out a dreamy sigh. “Like really good. I feel like a completely different woman with him. There’s this whole other side of me I didn’t even know existed. And when I started to tell him that, he shut down. He thinks he’s pushing me too fast or that I’m just going along with things I wouldn’t normally want.”
“Are you?” Zoe asked carefully. “Doing things you didn’t want to do?”
“No!” Cassidy said, a little too loudly. She lowered her voice. “I loved all of it. I don’t even care how that makes me sound. I tried to tell him that, but he didn’t believe me. Or maybe he didn’t want to believe me. I honestly thinkhe’sscared. So now he says we should slow down.”
Cassidy reached for another slice of pizza.
“Don’t throw your pizza at me,” Zoe said, “but if you do think Liam is scared, and he’s asking you to slow down, what’s so wrong with that?”
Cassidy opened her mouth, ready to fire back, but shut it. That wasn’t the question she’d expected.
“He’s not saying it’s too much for him; he’s putting it on me,” Cassidy said after a moment. “He’s making me the one who isn’t ready. Like I can’t know what I want. And I just don’t think that’s fair. If he’s the one freaking out, then he should say that. Own that. Don’t try to spin it like he’s doing me a favor.”
Zoe leaned back, considering. “Okay, I’ll give you that.”
“Thank you! And no, I’m not throwing pizza at you. This stuff’s too good.” Cassidy took a big bite of her veggie lover’s slice—black and green olives, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and bubbling cheese. It was her favorite combo, comfort food at its finest.
