to do work on a Monday. My mind kept wandering back to the blow out argument that morning. Why had I been so stupid to call Corey the night before—knowing that I was going to hurt him? I wasn’t that naïve to believe he didn’t have any feelings for me what-so-ever. So the cause of our fight could solely be chalked up as my fault.
What I had to keep telling myself was it really shouldn’t matter if I had gone out with Ollie or not. Corey and I weren’t exclusive—we weren’t anything, even if I knew he wanted more. Nothing for me had changed. I hadn’t headed back home to put down roots and start a new relationship. I’ve had enough of those disastrous times; all I wanted was to have fun. Except there was nothing about the situation, that was fun. I felt sick, crummy, and like a terrible person. No string attached sex—right, like that has ever worked.
A knock on my office door drew my thoughts back to the present. The door opened to the sight of bright yellow daisies. A delivery man appeared behind the flowers with a large smile on his face. I remained impervious to the sight, which I suppose was pretty unusual for someone receiving a bouquet of flowers.
“Delivery for a Miss Danielle Hamilton; I was told I’d find you in here.”
“Well, you found me.” He set the flowers down on my desk and held out a palm pilot for me to sign. With a sigh I stood and gave the man a courteous smile.
“Case of the Mondays?” he asked.
“Oh yeah.” If he only knew.
The man smiled and tipped his hat at me. “Just remember doll face, they all end eventually.” That made me smile as I thanked him again, more genuinely this time.
He left and Bailey stepped in with her arms across her chest and one eyebrow raised.
“Who died?”
“Huh?”
“The flowers,” She pointed to my daisies. “Yellow flowers are what you send someone who lost a family member or when someone’s sick. So who died?”
I slumped back into my chair. “No one, they’re from this guy.”
“Are you going to read the card?” Bailey waltzed into the room and began searching the bouquet for one.
“I really don’t feel like it.”
“Well, I’ll read it for you.” She pulled the little card from the envelope and sat down in the chair across from me.
“Dee—here’s to second chances—Ollie.” Bailey flipped the card on the desk and watched my face remain unaffected.
“What’s going on with you? You look like you ran over a small child on the way to work.”
My mouth twitched up at her humor. “Just kind of got into it with Corey.”
“You’re still seeing him?” She asked; not even bothering to hide her surprise.
I shrugged. “Not exactly, I mean…yes, but not like that.”
“I’m confused.” Join the club… I thought.
“We’re not doing anything serious, but I guess it is serious and I just don’t know what to do.”
“I warned you, Danielle. Corey doesn’t do relationships, and now you’re left hurting because of it.”
“No, that’s not exactly it.” Bailey waited for me to continue. “Corey’s the one who wants more; I don’t, and it is causing some serious shit between us now.”
“You’re serious?” she asked, shocked.
Nodding miserably I sighed. “I don’t understand how I can mean so much to him. I’m nothing special and I have serious issues and crap surrounding me.”
“So where does this Ollie guy come in?” Bailey asked.
Double Sigh. “Just another poor sucker wanting more from me than I have to offer.”
“Well cheer up, you have a visitor.” I perked up in my chair. For the first time since arriving to work I felt interested in something. Bailey smiled a sympathetic smile.
“Relax, it’s not one of them.” My slight excitement dissipated again.
“Just out of curiosity, which one were you hoping for?” Bailey inquired. I looked at her, thought about ignoring the question but decided to answer. “Corey.”
“Well if it’s worth anything—you must be special—Corey doesn’t want just anyone.” Bailey turned to go but I stopped her.
“Mind moving the death wish flowers to some other place in the Inn?” Her mouth quirked up in a smile as she scooped up the bouquet.
“Happy to, boss.”
“Dani!” My eyes shot up to see the bouncing bride-to-be, Emily. Her face was stretched into a grin that was making my cheeks hurt.
“Emily, hi! What are you….did we have an appointment for today?” I tried to match her excitement, or at least not look like the blob I’d resembled all day.
“No we didn’t,