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“I love them. I keep telling myself I won’t buy more, but that never works.” She stepped over the piles of her belongings and cardboard boxes strewn on the floor. “Sorry about the mess. I normally don’t have garbage bags full of stuff in every room, but I was doing a major declutter. I was packing up my stuff because…” She didn’t finish the sentence. “They told me two pieces of luggage only. I actually have all the essentials packed already.”
She went over to the two large suitcases next to the couch.
“I just wasn’t sure what to do with everything else.” She looked longingly at her plants. “For these guys, I was considering putting them on the curb with aFor Freesign in the hopes they’d go to good homes.”
“Bring them to the penthouse. I don’t mind.” It might mean we’d need to make multiple trips to collect everything, but her things were important to her, which meant they were important to me.
“Are you sure? It’s a lot, and transporting them is going to get messy. You have a nice car, and I don’t want it to get dirty.”
I peered at the closest plant. Instead of potting soil like the ones at the penthouse, these ones were sitting in hard, round balls. “What’s this?”
“Oh, that’s LECA. It stands for lightweight expanded clay aggregate. I grow all my plants in it.” For the first time since we left the penthouse, the spark was back in Lillian’s eyes. “It’s perfect for people who worry about over- or under-watering their plants. The plants are sub-irrigated.” She pointed to a tray of water sitting underneath. “See? I just add the nutrient solution to the reservoir, and the plants take up whatever they need. And when there are a ton of little plants, like those guys over there, I just put them all on one tray and water the whole thing at once.
“It makes it so much easier, and you get to control the pH of the water, what nutrients which plants get—oh! And it keeps pests at bay. The only problem is converting to this semi-hydroponic way of growing is difficult, and if you do it wrong, you lose the plant. Same with converting back. Plants that have gotten used to growing like this don’t do well if you just shove them back in a pot of soil. The roots are different.”
She looked flustered. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I just totally geeked out on you there.” She covered her face awkwardly with her hands.
“That’s okay. You’re cute when you get excited.” I liked that she had something she was so passionate about.
We found the documents she needed to apply for the marriage license, and I cleared my throat.
“I know we were only here to pick up a few things, but since everything is already half packed, did you want to finish up and we can move all your stuff to my place while we’re at it?”
She looked hesitant.
“I mean, you said you had to move out anyway, right? When do you have this place until?”
“End of the month. So next week. I know, the landlord technically needs to give me more notice than that, but with everything else that was going on, I didn’t want to fight it.”
“We can bring most of your things today and come back later for the rest.”
She bit her bottom lip, still unsure. My phone buzzed with two messages almost simultaneously, from Desmon and my lawyer. Both were surprised I was getting married. I’d asked Desmon to officiate our wedding because surely even The White Claws would think twice before they refuted the words of a dragon. Meanwhile, my lawyer was insisting on a prenup.
My lawyer was right. A prenup was a good idea. I didn’t think Lillian would try to take half my wealth after we tied the knot, but just in case.
“I have to take some calls.” I rubbed the back of my neck, deciding to broach the sensitive subject head-on. “My lawyer is drafting a prenup.”
“Of course. That makes perfect sense.” She didn’t even bat an eye. “Thanks for doing all the legwork on this.”
“If I give you an hour and a half, do you think you can get most of your stuff packed?”
She looked around her cramped apartment. “I think so. I’ll only bring what I really love.”
“Perfect. I’ll be back. Don’t open the door for anyone except me.” I started to leave.
“Wait!”
I turned back around.
“Catch!”
She tossed her keys at me.
“So you don’t need to be buzzed up.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 5
