Maybe This Time(49)

“He’s your dad. It’s not like he’ll stop being your dad if you say how you feel.” The second I said it, I realized that his mom had left for stupid reasons. That my dad had left, maybe not for stupid reasons but for reasons that I couldn’t control. Maybe blood wasn’t always the strongest bond. “I’m sorry I stood up for you …” I started to say. “Well, no, I’m not sorry I stood up for you. I’m sorry I upset you.”

“Which time?” he asked, his eyes sparkling.

“Just this one. The other times you totally deserved it.” I reached out and grabbed his hand, lacing our fingers together. “Today is all about one-time things.” I met his eyes, wondering if he understood what I was saying. That I wouldn’t yell at his dad again. And that regardless of how good it felt to kiss Andrew Hart, we couldn’t do it again. We were far from compatible. We’d proven that time after time.

He gave me a single nod.

“What are the odds that your dad would give me a referral after I just told him off like that?” I wondered out loud.

“A referral for what?”

“I don’t know. Nothing.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You think my dad can somehow give you an in to the fashion industry?”

“He knows more people than I do. I thought that maybe …”

He raised our linked hands. “Is that why … ?”

I let go of his hand. “No! If I wanted to use you, wouldn’t I have started a long time ago?”

He ran both hands through his hair. “I don’t know, Sophie. I told you I’ve never had real friends before. It’s hard for me to know if I do now.”

“You do, Andrew.” And I meant it. “We’re … friends.” How had that happened? It seemed even more surprising than our kiss, somehow.

Andrew nodded slowly. “Can you come to the benefit in Birmingham in a few weeks? The one Mr. Williams is catering?”

I shook my head. “Every Occasion isn’t doing flowers for it. They hired someone closer.”

“I know. Come be a cater waiter with Micah. It will be fun.”

I let out a laugh. I wasn’t sure how fun it would be, but maybe I would go. I loved Birmingham. “Okay.”

“By the way, my dad can’t be your in,” Andrew said as we headed back to the flower van. “He’s like me. He doesn’t really make connections.”





PEONY

Want a bloom as big as your face? Peonies have you covered. Okay, maybe they aren’t as big as a face, but peonies are known for their large gorgeous blooms and are said to bring luck. The problem? They have a short life span. Sometimes the most beautiful things don’t last very long.





I think it’s entirely unfair,” Micah said to me as we drove into downtown Birmingham, “that you can look so cute in a pair of polyester pants.”

“Nobody looks cute in this outfit.” I was sitting in the passenger seat, wearing the same cater waiter uniform as Micah. My hair had grown long enough to wear up in a ponytail. I reached back and pulled on the ends to tighten the holder.

“You do,” Micah argued.

It probably helped that I’d made a few adjustments. I’d tailored the white button-down shirt so it wasn’t some shapeless form, and I’d added cute silver rings to the belt loops on the pants.

“I wonder if you’ll still think I look cute after I do horribly at this event,” I said, feeling my stomach twist. “What was I thinking, trying out waitressing for the very first time at a fancy benefit?”

Micah kept her eyes on the road. “You’ll do fine. There’s nothing to it.”

My nerves were on edge and I was trying to pretend it only had to do with the fact that I’d be carrying large trays of food around to rich people. That it had nothing to do with seeing Andrew again tonight after three weeks of silence from both of us. I’d kissed him. What had I been thinking? I obviously hadn’t been thinking at all. It had been a weird day. I blamed it on that.

I looked out the window at the city passing by. “There’s one of my benches,” I said. It wasn’t often my mom let me go into Birmingham, but when I did, one of my favorite things to do was sit on a bench in the heart of downtown, people watching.

“The most boring bench in the world,” Micah said. I had dragged her there a few too many times, apparently.

“I think you mean the most interesting bench. Can’t you just feel the energy?” I grabbed her shoulder and shook it.

“I can feel that there are too many cars around me right now and it’s making me claustrophobic. Is that the energy you’re talking about?”

I rolled down the window and car horns and sirens and scents drifted in with the wind. I smiled. “Nope. This energy.”

“You’re weird,” she said.

“You made me this way.”

She laughed. “Did you forget what you said to me at that kindergarten family night when we were five?”

“You make sure I never do.”

“ ‘My name is Sophie and I don’t really want to talk to you but my dad said I had to.’ ”

I laughed. “I don’t think I sounded like that.”

“You did.”