the rest of my family, all my parents’ friends, and the majority of this town have seen it multiple times. The only good thing is that I’ll be leaving town as soon as I get another job. Otherwise, I’ll never live this down.”
“Okay, so maybe it is kind of bad. But the real question is, is Sam as good a kisser as he comes across in that film? Because that would totally make the humiliation worthwhile.”
“He’s better,” she admitted. “As for the humiliation, it’s not me I’m worried about right now.”
“What are you going to say to Walter?”
“What I should have said to him three nights ago. That our relationship is over.”
Bridget peeked out the window into the dealership parking lot. “Looks like Sam DeLuca is all ready to go.”
“Oh?” Annie said, trying to sound uninterested.
“You should go talk to him.”
“And say what?”
“I don’t know. Goodbye. Good luck. Can I ride off into the sunset with you and make babies?”
Annie couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m going to miss you too, Bridget.”
“I know.”
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Manage to make everything into a joke?”
“Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?” Bridget’s smile faded. “Life is too short to worry about what other people think. If you want something, go after it. Otherwise, you’ll never be happy.”
Instead of buckets of daisies gracing the sidewalk along Main Street, today’s special was tulips. Fat, bright red and yellow tulips everywhere. They didn’t grow locally, and they’d never been Annie’s favorite, but they looked so charming and upbeat that she couldn’t help but head into the flower shop. Paula and Celeste were hunched over a computer screen. The tingling bell above the door made them both look up.
“Annie!” Paula quickly shut her laptop. “What brings you into the shop this evening?”
“Those gorgeous tulips out there. Can you wrap some up for me?”
“Of course.” Paula nudged Celeste, prompting the girl into action.
Annie waited until Celeste left to get the flowers before she pointed to the closed laptop. “What were you two looking at? You seemed practically enthralled.”
“Oh, um, we were just checking out some Pinterest sites.” Sweat glistened on Paula’s upper lip. “With … flowers.”
Pinterest sites with flowers. It made sense. But the guilty look on Paula’s face told another story. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they’d been watching. She should pretend to go along with it. After all, the older woman was just trying to spare her feelings. Annie could almost hear Gram’s voice now. This new chapter in her life would be called Annie’s Unfortunate Incident 2.0.
Laughter bubbled up inside her.
If the whole thing wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.
Bridget was right. If you couldn’t laugh at yourself, then who could you laugh at?
“Pinterest sites, huh?”
Paula blinked nervously.
Celeste came back carrying a mixed bunch of red and yellow tulips.
“Perfect,” said Annie, admiring the flowers. “By the way, did either of you catch today’s Good Morning, USA show?”
Paula and Celeste exchanged a guilty look. “Um …” Paula began.
Annie handed over her credit card. “If you haven’t seen it, then you should. There’s like a twenty-second makeout session between me and Sam DeLuca. You know, the guy from Single Gal that you two were all gaga about? Of course, right after that, things start to go downhill fast, but those twenty seconds? Totally worth it.”
Paula’s jaw dropped, and Celeste’s eyes went round. “How … yes!” said Celeste. “We’ve seen it. But how did you meet Sam DeLuca? We’re still trying to figure that out.”
“Oh, he came to town to find me, on account of I wrote him this letter that intrigued him.”
In a daze, Paula handed her back the credit card.
“Thank you!” Annie put the flowers up to her nose. The warm honey aroma made her smile. “That’s nice. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled tulips before.” She made a point of checking her watch. “Oops. Gotta go. Can’t keep Walter waiting.” She stopped on her way out the door to wave. “Bye, ladies!” Paula and her daughter waved back, looking stunned.
Boy, did that feel good.
She crossed the street to the diner, her heart thumping wildly. As liberating as that had felt, it was time to face the music. Walter was waiting for her in their usual booth. Rats. Just one time she’d wanted to be the first one here.
“Sorry.” She laid the flowers as far away from Walter as the bench allowed, then slid into her seat.
“For what? You’re not late.” He eyed the flowers. “Tulips?”
“I couldn’t