front counter and out onto the floor of the store. She didn’t want to hover over him while he browsed, but she couldn’t help wanting to get a little closer. The night of the party, he’d been wearing cologne, and maybe he was wearing it again tonight.
She sniffed discretely but couldn’t pick it out. She’d long ago gone nose-blind to the smell of flowers, and wondered if that also kept her from picking out other scents when masses of flowers were present.
He didn’t respond, instead staring at the ugliest and kitschiest figurine of all, turning it over and over in his hands. Ugh. She’d always hated that one. It’d been a lot cuter in the sales magazine. When it’d arrived and she’d gone to stock it on the shelf, she’d thought it was so ugly, she’d shoved it to the back, hoping no one ever saw it again.
Why oh why oh why was he obsessed with that one?
Maybe…
Maybe he was acting like this because he liked her, and he was nervous to be around her.
Maybe Autumn was right.
That absolutely insane idea grew like a dandelion weed given a huge heaping dose of Miracle Grow, until it was all she could think about.
It was nuts, of course. But maybe…
What if she talked about how she wasn’t busy that weekend? Just in case. Just so he knew she wasn’t busy. It…it couldn’t hurt, right?
“What a quiet weekend I have coming up!” she said, twisting her fingers around and around each other, feeling her heartbeat take off like she’d just sprinted around the block. “Not a darn thing going on! Just as quiet and lonely as can be.”
She was the world’s biggest loser. She could not believe she was doing this.
She also couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“Too bad I have nothing to do all weekend. Just quiet. And by myself,” she added. In case that hadn’t been blazingly obvious from everything else she’d said.
“Uh-huh,” he mumbled, turning the figurine over and over in his hands. She was sure he was paying no attention whatsoever to what she was saying. She could start spouting Irish limericks and he wouldn’t notice.
“I’ll get this one,” he finally announced, avoiding eye contact as he headed to the cash register up at the front counter. She trailed behind him miserably, noticing even in the depths of her misery just how trim and tight his ass was. He walked with that loose gait that every cowboy seemed to have from birth.
As she scanned the barcode on the bottom of the piece of junk, she died a little more inside.
This thing? Out of all of the beautiful items in the shop, and he has to pick out this thing?!
She stuffed it into a bag along with his receipt and with it, threw the last of her pride to the wind.
“I hope you have a great upcoming weekend!”
It was only Tuesday.
She plowed on.
“I can’t believe how open my schedule is, myself.”
She was officially pathetic. This was the most embarrassing convo she’d ever had, and even worse, he didn’t even seem to realize that she was practically throwing herself at him.
Whatever had possessed him to ask her to stay for the party last weekend, it was obviously a flash in the pan. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
The next time she was tempted to believe a word out of Autumn’s mouth, she was going to remember this moment.
Christian began heading for the door, the bag clutched tightly in his hand, and she rounded the counter behind him, intent on flipping the lock, turning off the open sign, and popping down to the Muffin Man to eat a giant donut. With sprinkles. And icing.
And hey, why not – drool over Gage.
Maybe he and Cady were a thing now, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t at least look at him. She was surely never going to get anyone of her own, so drooling over taken men could be her new hobby. After all, she’d spent most of her life drooling over Westley, and he was taken by Buttercup. Why not continue the tradition. Moving to men who existed in the real world could only make her less pathetic, right?
Just then, Christian stopped, one foot out the door, and turned back to her. She managed to stop just short of barreling into him.
Wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake.
“You’re…you’re free this weekend?” he asked, as if the last ten minutes of her very one-sided conversation had only now registered in his mind.
“Ummm…yes?”
“Want to go out