would have and leaving when I kept coming up with stuff I could use his help with, like arranging some of the tables and chairs—multiple times—he stayed put, and he complimented my brownies. When we were ready to leave, it had gotten dark out and the rain had started to fall harder. I still had the biggest smile on my face. Partly because of Jack, partly because of everything else. Like magic, Raymond was already waiting at the curb when we locked everything up, and we headed to Jack’s apartment.
On Saturday, I met up with Owen. Sally wasn’t coming in so I couldn’t introduce them, but it was Owen’s first time at the coffee shop with all the furniture set up nicely. I basically held my breath the entire time he was looking around and let out the longest sigh when he finally said he thought it looked amazing. We spent hours talking about what we wanted to do for the first month and created our menu together.
After Owen left, I sat down in the middle of the coffee shop and started working on the shopfront flower installation, which I hoped would be rather striking. I’d seen it in several shops in New York and in cities like Paris—thanks to Pinterest—and I’d fallen completely in love with the look and the way it transformed a space. Since we were living in a social media age, I wanted to do everything in my power and budget to make my coffee shop eye-catching, comfy, cozy, and beautiful.
Of course, this was all rooted in the hope that I would get actual living customers on opening day, and every day after that.
When Jack knocked on the door, I’d been waiting for him to show up for at least an hour. I had a big smile on my face when I opened the door for him, and he had a bewildered expression on his own.
“Hi. Hey. You’re late. Where were you?”
Those thick and prominent eyebrows drew together, but it still didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. This was Jack—frowning was like his version of saying hello.
“I’m late?”
“You always come around earlier. So…you’re late.”
“You were waiting for me?”
“Jack, I wait for you every day. It’s been almost three weeks.” I shrugged, not even realizing what I had just blurted out. “Come in, come in, it’s cold outside.” I opened the door wider and grabbed his arm, pulling him in since he was too busy staring at me.
“What do you mea—what is this?”
I came up behind him and bounced on my feet. He gave me another look, one that said he thought I was being weird. I ignored it completely. “It’s the flower installation that’s going to go outside. It’ll start on the ground and arch over the door. I’ll also add the group of flowers that’s over there to the back of the door so from the inside, it will look as if the flowers kinda went through the glass and bloomed on the wall inside.”
He nodded and I smiled again. I couldn’t contain it for some reason. “That’s a really great idea,” he said.
I was still bouncing, smaller bounces, but still…I was bouncy.
His forehead creased and his eyes looked me up and down. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, and I burst out laughing, unable to contain myself.
“Nothing, Jack.” I shook my head, keeping the smile. “Absolutely nothing. Too much coffee, maybe?” I walked around the fake flowers that were covering almost every available surface. “Come help me?”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
I got on my knees and grabbed a bunch of roses from the ground. “You always help me.”
His jaw clenched. “Yes. Yes, I do, don’t I?”
“So? You’re not gonna help because helping with flowers isn’t manly enough? I won’t tell anyone, promise.”
He looked around the shop, around the floor, taking in all the shades of pink. Then he sighed and took off his black coat, followed by the black suit jacket.
“You can sit on the chair,” I said when he looked around as if he wasn’t sure where he should go. After a moment of hesitation, he pulled up the closest one and sat down to my left, his back to the door. “Why are you on the floor?”
“I started on the chair, but it goes quicker from here. You can hand me a wire with every flower.” I grabbed the wires from my right and handed them to him. “Different shades, though, okay? Don’t give me the same shade or shape back to back.”