“I mean, it was okay. No orgasms in sight, but at least it didn’t hurt much.” Owen grumbled something I couldn’t make out. “What did you say?”
“This place looks legit,” Sally said, ignoring him. “What you did with the flower thing is still blowing my mind. It looks so beautiful with the black exterior. The furniture, the colors—everything came together so nicely. You put out the flyers too. We’ll easily reach fifty coffees.”
When Sally left me and went to the kitchen, I got up from one of the chairs they had basically pushed me into, walked to the door to flip the closed sign to open, and just rested my forehead on the cool glass for a few seconds. Flipping that sign felt like I’d welcomed an elephant to come sit on my chest. People passed by. I even saw some of them stare at the roses as they walked by, but no one pushed each other out of the way to get in.
“Okay.” I sighed. “Now all we have to do is wait.” When I turned around, both Sally and Owen were standing in the doorway to the kitchen, Owen wiping his hands on a kitchen towel and Sally smiling and munching on a lemon bar. Taking the last bite, she walked up to the espresso machine.
“Would you like to have the very first latte of the day? I’ve been polishing my latte art skills.”
I let out a deep breath and smiled. “You know what, that’s a great idea. In fact, lattes all around, on me. We might need to drink forty-seven more today, but that’s not all that much, right? Death by caffeine is a real issue, but I’m sure we’ll be safe.”
We clinked our mugs together, at least Sally and I did and hoped for the best for the rest of the day. The first customer came thirty minutes after I’d flipped the sign from closed to open. Owen was in the back, but Sally and I were ready with our overly excited smiles plastered on our faces.
An hour or so had passed and we had a few more customers. Sally was preparing a second cup of cappuccino for the customer who’d come in earlier as she was looking through the food selection on the counter. She’d already had her free blueberry muffin, so she decided on a sandwich this time.
I grabbed a plate, lifted the glass dome, and picked up a turkey & swiss that was wrapped with parchment paper and secured with red twine. The bell on the top of the door rang, but I was busy taking payment so I couldn’t look away. After giving her the change and thanking her, I finally looked to my left, excited to greet a new customer.
And right there…right there standing with the most uncomfortable look on his face was Jack Hawthorne. I didn’t think I’d ever been that happy to see him before, but him being there so early, him just being there… The smile that broke out on my face was embarrassing.
“Jack, you came,” I managed to say softly, and even though he couldn’t hear me, his gaze dropped to my lips.
Before he could walk in farther, Raymond came in with an armful of roses and handed them to an unhappy Jack. My breath hitched and my smile brightened up a bit, taking it from embarrassing to a touch closer to manic. Jack’s expression, however, didn’t change.
Were they for me?
I begged my heart to stay calm as he walked toward me.
“There was a mix-up at the flower shop, and they couldn’t bring these themselves,” he said, and my smile faltered.
“I don’t understand. They’re from a flower shop?” I asked, my eyes going from the roses to Jack’s face in confusion.
His lips tightened and his brows drew together. “No.”
I waited. I could feel Sally standing just behind me, on my right, too.
Jack released a frustrated sigh. “They’re from me. You don’t have to use the fake stuff on the tables. It’s so the property looks good. That’s all.” He leaned forward and thrust the bouquet into my hands.
Feeling something weird and very much unexpected in my chest, I took them. There were maybe fifty or sixty long stemmed roses in every color—pink, white, yellow, peach—and they were all wrapped up in slightly shimmery brown paper. They were gorgeous, way more than what I would need for the tables, way more