Thorn in My Side (Bunch-A-Blooms 2)

“Oh my God, what happened?” she whispers.

“He kissed me.”

“What!” she squawks.

“You think you’re shocked.”

“Did you slap him?”

“No, I melted like chocolate in the sun.” My lips tingle with the memory of his plump lips moving over mine.

“Oh my God, you look dreamy right now. You liked it.” She takes a sip of her coffee and points to me.

I nod my head, excited, and nervous at the same time. “I did,” I whisper.

She bounces in the seat beside me. “I told you.”

I cover my heated cheek with my hand. “I know. I should’ve listened. I was caught completely off guard.”

“And.”

“And I responded like the sex deprived woman I am.”

“Oh bully.” She shakes her head. “I’m not buying that. You wouldn’t be this freaked out if it was a sexual thing. Attraction is a human response.”

“Yeah well. He has a hidden side I’m apparently a sucker for.”

“What?”

“He was so sweet. I mean romance book sweet.”

“Are you serious right now?” Petunia asks.

“As a heart attack.” I relay the story, and she sighs.

“Oh, Olive, you have to give this man a try.”

“I ruined it. I freaked out and bailed when he wasn’t looking.”

“Have you talked to him since?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“It has to come from you. You put the ball in your court when you left early. If you don’t make the next move, the poor man never will.”

I sigh. “I know. I thought about that.” I want to take that step, explain myself, and take another shot at romance. I haven’t so much as dated in two years. There’s been no time or desire. Now my interest is peaked, and I sense something different about the complex man I happen to also work for.

“I can see the wheels in your mind turning.”

“Yeah, it’s crowded up here. Why now? Of all the times and places for me to meet a man whose too unbelievable to pass up?”

“Because life has a very skewed sense of humor. I’m living proof of that. All these years and my soulmate's been under my nose.”

“To be fair, I did point that out one or a million times,” I say.

“Oh, the same way I pointed out this thing with Mr. Davenport?”

I roll my eyes. “So not the same thing.”