“Dylan?” I ask, stepping closer, wondering if I’m going to have to resuscitate him.
His head shoots up and he smiles wide despite his labored breathing. “Hi Dimples! You’re late!”
“I’m sorry,” I say, still in a daze at seeing him here. I guess this is what Nathan meant by Leave it up to me. “Traffic was nuts today. Here, let me help you up. Also, I don’t want to alarm you, but there’s a good chance you caught an STD sitting on that floor.”
He shrieks and jumps up without my help. “Am I going to have to burn these clothes?”
“It’s probably for the best if you do.”
“Oh my gosh. Why do you live here?” He looks around like cockroaches might be crawling all around him. Actually, it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if they were.
I laugh and turn to unlock my apartment. “It’s a little thing called money. You see, I don’t have much of it.”
“Umm, you’re basically dating a bank. He probably has more money than a bank actually. Go move in with him! Here, I’ll help you. We’ll pack your things and move right now.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell Dylan that Nathan is just my friend and I don’t want his financial help when I’m cut off by the sight of my apartment. Dylan steps in behind me, pulling two of his suitcases, and gasps.
“Holy flowers, Batman! I’m assuming, Ms. I-don’t-have-any-money, that you didn’t go out and buy yourself all of these magical bouquets?”
I shake my head slowly, speechless. There are dozens of bouquets filling my living room. Big glorious pink and green blooms everywhere. I don’t have a favorite flower because it’s too hard to narrow it down to one, but I do have a favorite flower color combination. Apparently, I’ve told Nathan this at some point. And he remembered. Pink and green. My stomach clenches tight.
“You’ve got a note over here.” Dylan is already picking it up and opening the card like we’ve been besties for twenty years and don’t keep secrets from each other. I snatch it out of his nosey hand with a reprimanding look and turn away to read it privately.
I hope you don’t mind, but I found a way to make your apartment smell better.
Be by at seven to pick you up.
-Nathan
My heartbeat is fierce, and it’s all I can do to not squeal like an excited little piggy in my living room. What is happening to me? What is happening to us? Nathan and I have been friends for a million years and he’s never once bought me flowers…and definitely never bought me a whole flower shop before. My mind races wondering what this is. What does this mean? That hope Lily was talking about blooms in my chest unbidden.
But I’m too scared to fully dive into it. He’s probably just trying to get me in the mood to fake a date tonight. Put hearts in my eyes. Unfortunately, they were already there even before any of this—and it’s making it much harder to not allow those feelings to escalate. And yesterday in my office…
“Lock it down, Bree.”
“Did you say something?” Dylan asks.
“Nothing. Never mind.”
He gasps suddenly. “There’s some sort of sticky goop on my butt! What do you think it is? Actually, no, I don’t want to guess. I want you to move apartments. Right now.”
I laugh and tug him with me to my bedroom where I pull out a pair of sweatpants and toss them at him. “Here, you can wear these.”
“Ugh, thank you!”
I leave the room so Dylan can get changed, and when he comes back in the living room in my light grey jogger sweatpants, he points to his rear end. “Umm, ma’am, these say Juicy on the booty.”