Page 171 of My Real Love Affair

“Yes. God, yes. When? Where?”

“Tomorrow? My place? I’ll make coffee.”

“I’ll be there. Whatever time you want.”

“Ten?”

“I’ll be there at nine fifty-nine.”

I laughed. It felt good to laugh with him again. It felt so normal, like maybe we could find our way back to each other.

“Okay. Nine fifty-nine. I’ll see you then.”

“Melody?” His voice was soft. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

After we hung up, I sat with my phone in my lap. I didn’t know what I was feeling. Hope? Dread?

Tomorrow, we would talk. Really talk. We would figure out whether it was worth moving ahead. I wasn’t going to pressure him, but I wasn’t going to let him change my mind either.People change when they find their person.

Maybe Austin would change. Maybe he wouldn’t. I felt terrible for digging in and deciding he had to be the one to change, but I knew deep in my heart I wouldn’t be the one to give up my dreams.

CHAPTER 53

AUSTIN

Ifelt like an idiot. Like a teenager getting ready to pick up a girl for a first date.I’m nervous. And it’s just coffee. We’re not doing anything. We spent a week together practically naked. It’s not new.

But I felt like this was a pivotal moment in my life. I knew there was a big talk coming. That talk would change everything. I didn’t think showing up empty handed was the way to go into this thing.

I tapped on the partition separating me from my driver. “Hey, Matt? Pull over up here.”

The car glided to a stop in front of a small flower shop. I had probably passed the place a hundred times without ever really seeing it. The window display overflowed with blooms in every color imaginable, but I had no fucking clue what any of them were called. I didn’t think names mattered.

“I’ll just be a minute,” I said, climbing out onto the sidewalk.

I walked in and was immediately hit with the overwhelming scent of flowers. A woman in her sixties looked up from behind the counter, her weathered hands expertly wrapping tissue paper around a bouquet of yellow roses.

“Be right with you, dear,” she called out.

I wandered between the buckets and displays, feeling completely out of my depth. There were so many options. Red roses felt too cliché. Those big white ones looked like they belonged at a funeral. The pink ones were pretty, but were theyMelodypretty?

“Now then,” the woman said, joining me with a warm smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes. “What can I help you find today?”

“I need flowers,” I said, then immediately felt like an idiot. Obviously I needed flowers. I was standing in a flower shop.

She didn’t laugh at me, though. Instead, her smile widened. “Well, you’ve come to the right place. Are these for someone special?”

I nodded, shoving my hands in my pockets. “My girlfriend.”

“Wonderful! Tell me about her. What’s she like?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Where did I even start? “She’s unique,” I finally said. “Like, genuinely one of a kind. She’s this fashion influencer, but she’s not shallow or vapid like you’d think. She actually gives a shit about helping people feel good about themselves.”

The florist nodded encouragingly, moving toward a display of tall, elegant flowers with spotted petals that curved back dramatically.

“She’s beautiful,” I continued, the words coming easier now. “Not in that cookie-cutter way everyone expects.”