“Not everyone has a boy toy in their back pocket,” I told her, remembering her words to Ms. Tina.
“I was just playing with Ms. Tina. I’m not actually seeing anyone at the moment. But I need to get out. I need to relieve some stress. We should hit a bar tonight.”
“Sorry. I’m not in the mood to get dressed up or get hit on by drunk men.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what you need.”
Shaking my head, I scooted my chair away from the table and stood up.
“Once this threat passes,” I told Ivy. “Let’s all go on a girls' trip. Me, you, Dayana, your sister, and Kelly.”
“Kelly?” Ivy grinned. “Does that mean you’re going to call her and tell her to come back to work so I don’t have to handle flower orders so much?”
I chuckled. “Yes, I am. But I’ll wait until after Monique Rose’s wedding. I don’t know how Kelly would react if Rome Cattaneo walked into the store while she was here.”
Ivy nodded. “That makes sense. I’m going to hold you to that. You’re going to hack Rome one more time to make sure he doesn’t suspect us. Then you’ll leave that fucker alone, finish Monique’s wedding, and then let Kelly return to her regular schedule.”
“That’s the plan. Come on. Let's get back to work.”
Together, we returned to the front of the shop. I unlocked the door and flipped the sign to OPEN. I didn’t return to work right away. I stood there, staring through the glass, wondering if Romeo was somewhere out there thinking about his Juliet.
My heart hoped he was.
But my mind and my survival instincts hoped he wasn't.
Seeing his response to me today should’ve put things into perspective for me. Juliet wasn’t that important to Rome. I wasn’t that important to Rome. That was a good thing. That would make letting him go slightly easier.
And I had to let him go.
I couldn’t keep being a hypocrite. I couldn’t keep putting myself and my staff at risk like this. I had to let Rome go for good, for real this time. One more hack. That was it. Just to gauge his reaction, to see if he suspected that Blossom was Juliet.
If he didn’t, I would let him go.
Cold turkey.
Withdrawals be damned. There was no future for Romeo and Juliet. The only thing that awaited us was hostility and heartache. It was best I ended this now, before this fragile love turned into hate.
After all, there was a reason the full name of Shakespeare’s play was...
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BLOSSOM
––––––––
After my consultation with Monique, the rest of my day was busy.
I had to switch from wedding mode to funeral mode. And funeral mode always drained my energy. Weddings were filled with excitement. Hope. Possibilities. Brides talked about the future. They were happy and excited about what came next.
Funerals were filled with sorrow and loss. Funeral clients talked about the past. About regrets. About missed opportunities and not spending enough time with their loved ones when they had the chance.
There was no such thing as beingjusta florist. I became something more to each person I worked with. For my clients, I sometimes had to be the shoulder they cried on. The person they confided in when the grief became too heavy to carry alone.
Sometimes, they needed to get things off their chest, and they couldn’t say it to their families. So, they said it to me. It just slipped out in the course of our conversation. Ivy said it was because they sensed the empath in me.
I don’t know the reason. All I knew was that I had to be strong during their moments of weakness. But being strong for everyone took a toll after a while. By the time I locked up the shop that evening, my social and emotional battery was dead.
