Page 71 of Finding My Charming

Now it was my turn to feel uncomfortable. He looked like he was barely sixteen — a sophomore maybe. We only had one public high school in the city, so that must be it. I wished I knew who he was though.

“I was on the debate team last year with you. I’m sure you didn’t notice a freshman like me.”

Well, that was one way to make a person feel like the scum of the earth. “Oh! Yes, Erick from debate.” I smiled and tried not to let my eyes drop back to the name tag he was wearing. Maybe if I seemed confident enough, he wouldn’t notice I’d cheated.

His smile grew to epic proportions. He must have believed it. “Yeah! That’s me! Wow. I never would have thought that the hottest senior would know my name.”

Hottest senior? Does he mean Ari?

“I’ve got to finish deliveries, but it was good to see you.” He looked from the flowers and back to me. “I hope whoever sent these to you knows how lucky he is.”

With one final blush, he turned and hurried out of the office while I stood stunned in place.

“Sure seems like someone had a major crush on the hottest girl in school.”

I tilted my head, confused once again. Never, ever had anyone said my name with that title in the same sentence, let alone used it to describe me. He must not have gotten out of the debate club often if he thought I was cute.

“Who are they from?” Sherrie’s question brought me back to the present.

“I’m not sure.” I gently pushed the flowers around, looking for a card.

Sherrie helped to rotate the stand until I’d searched the whole thing. “Huh. That’s so weird!” I walked around our desks to the front of the counter and saw a tiny white envelope waiting on the floor. I picked it up and rolled my eyes at her.

“Maybe he was hoping you’d forget about whoever sent them and give him a call.”

“That’s illegal and weird.”

She chuckled then pointed at the envelope. “Come on! The suspense is killing me.”

I smirked and made an elaborate show of slowly and carefully breaking the seal and tugging the card out.

“Before I die would be nice.”

My fear of her retaliation made me finally look down and read it. I stood frozen for a moment before looking back up at her.

“They’re from Vincent.”

“And why do you sound so disappointed? I thought we liked Vincent?”

I took shaky steps back to my chair and collapsed into it. “We do. I mean, I do. Did? Oh, I don’t know anymore. I guess a part of me was hoping they would be from Dallin.”

“You just saw him a whole day ago. Give him some time.” She got a distracted look in her eye before a smile slowly spread across her lips.

“Whatever you’re thinking right now, stop. Just stop!”

“Oh, calm down. I’m just thinking about what I’d like for lunch today. Maybe some chicken pesto or a salad. I just can’t decide.”

I glared at her and waited for her to crack, but the older lady was better at this than I was.

She turned to me with her suspicious smile. “Don’t fret so much, Elle. You don’t want those wrinkles to come a moment sooner than they absolutely must.”

I shook my head and looked away from her. Sometimes she was the smartest woman I knew, and other times I was just plain scared of her.

it had been hours since I’d sent Ari a panicked text about the flowers and asked her to meet up for lunch. I’d been waiting for her reply while everyone else in the office left. Finally, she responded, saying she was in Washington for the day doing a college tour. It was the first time the future had slapped me across the face and became the real.

Her dream-school was only three hours away, but it suddenly felt worlds apart. In a few weeks, I wouldn’t be able to drive ten minutes to her house. Our schedules would be different, and we might not be able to answer each other’s calls and texts immediately. Months from now, we would have two completely separate lives.

The front door opened, shocking me from my plummet into despair. I expected to see Sherrie or another coworker, but Vincent was striding toward me with a sly smile. He took his eyes off mine for a second and scanned the area before landing on the bouquet I’d put on the counter behind me.