Room for You(21)

“You didn’t know who he was?” Alexa exclaimed, rice flying out of her mouth and all over me.

“Keep your dinner to yourself, drama queen. No, I didn’t know. How could I know? I watch baseball, not hockey.”

“I thought everyone in the state of Minnesota knew who he was. I almost dropped the phone when he said his name, then I thought it was a post pubescent teenage boy pranking the shop, then he gave a credit card number and said they were for Kacie Jensen at the Cranberry Inn. I almost dropped the phone again.”

A twinge of jealousy sprouted in my stomach and grew taller as Alexa told me about the rest of her conversation with Brody. I would have given anything to hear his voice again.

“Did he kiss you?” Her eyes sparkled, desperate for juicy details.

“Nope, nada.”

“Kacie, you have this guy crazy enough to send you flowers and you haven’t even kissed him yet?”

“It wasn’t like that, he wasn’t like that. He was really sweet,” I sighed, “but God, I felt it, Lex. Every time our bodies accidentally touched—when he brushed past me and his hand rested on the small of my back and when he smiled at me from across the dinner table—it was there. This ridiculous pull, this tension. It was totally there.”

Alexa was frozen, her eyes the size of half dollars and her fork suspended in mid-air halfway to her mouth. “Kacie, I haven’t heard you talk about a guy like that in a long time … since Zach. You can’t just let this go.”

“Our lifestyles don’t exactly match up. It would never work, and I’m not putting myself out there to get hurt again.” I grabbed a piece of broccoli and popped it in my mouth.

“Do you know the last time Derek got me flowers? Let’s see…” She looked up at the sky and tapped her chin. “Oh yes, I remember. I was seventeen, wearing braces and the flowers were on a band on my wrist. And if I remember correctly, we capped off the night by doing it in the backseat of his parents’ car.”

“That’s not fair, you OWN a flower shop. Should he call you to place your own order?”

“My point is, why shoot this down before it’s even had a chance to get off the ground?”

“Alexa! He was arrested for swimming naked in Buckingham Fountain in Chicago for Christ’s sake! You think that’s a good role model?”

Alexa threw her head back and laughed. “I remember reading about that. Boy, I would love to see that security camera footage. That man is scorching hot, and I’m assuming his southern hemisphere is pretty heavily populated, if you know what I mean,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

I picked up a fortune cookie and threw it at her. “You’re not helping.”

“Why do you need a good role model anyway? You’re a grown woman,” she teased, cracking the fortune cookie open.

“You know what I mean, Lex. I’ve got the girls to think about too. Anyone that comes into my life comes into theirs. I have to make good decisions.”

“And I get that, but you’re not dead, Kacie. You’re young, you’re hot, and you have a lot of life left. Those girls are going to grow up and move out one day. Then what? No one is saying you have to marry him, but lighten the f*ck up. Have some fun.” She paused, looking down. Her face swept back up, looking at me impassively and she chuckled. “Here, I think this belongs to you.” She reached over and handed me the small strip of paper from the fortune cookie.





HEY BRODY, IT’S KACIE. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE JERSEY AND THE FLOWERS, ESPECIALLY THE FLOWERS. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL. IT WAS VERY THOUGHTFUL OF YOU. :)



I stared down at my phone, my mind a blank slate. Six days ago I met her, four days ago I left her my favorite jersey, yesterday I sent her flowers, today she was finally answering me, and now the noodles of my brain didn’t want to connect enough to form a coherent sentence. I felt like an awkward fifteen-year-old kid trying hard not to f*ck it up.

Smiley face. She put a smiley face—I might have a shot. I would have felt better about my odds if it were one of those winky faces, but I’d take what I could get.

Here goes nothing…



YOU’RE WELCOME, I’M GLAD YOU LIKE THEM. MAYBE NEXT TIME I GIVE YOU FLOWERS, I CAN DELIVER THEM IN PERSON WHEN I’M PICKING YOU UP FOR DINNER?



My heart pounded in my chest. I had never asked a girl out via text before, and it definitely wasn’t my preferred method, but at this point, I’d take what I could get from her. It was forty-five minutes before my phone beeped again. Okay, it was really only two, but it felt like forty-five.



K: ABOUT THAT … IT WOULD BE FUN TO HAVE DINNER, I’M JUST REALLY BUSY RIGHT NOW WITH SCHOOL AND THE GIRLS.



Bullshit.



SO, YOU DON’T EAT DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR? THANK GOD IT’S SUMMER.



K: OF COURSE I EAT, I’M JUST KINDA TOO BUSY RIGHT NOW FOR DATING.



DATING IN GENERAL OR DATING ME?



Please say dating in general, please say dating in general.



K: I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO SOUND REALLY BAD, BUT I HAVE TO BE HONEST. YOU ARE GREAT. I REALLY LIKE YOU. I JUST DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO INVEST IN SOMETHING THAT WILL LEAD ME DOWN A DEAD-END ROAD. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?