A Rose in Bloom

She felt her mouth drop open. She stared at him, speechless and shocked, as he strolled across the floor and placed a proprietary arm around her shoulder. Her astonishment fled, replaced by a sudden vehemence. Without a thought her hand rose and slapped him soundly across the face, as she spun away from his grasp.

“I may have borrowed your roommate’s empty bed, but we did not spend the night together.”

Now it was Jaxon’s turn to look astonished, as he massaged his jaw.

Scotty laughed out loud. “Whew! I guess you’re right, Sis. You seem to be able to take care of yourself, after all.”

“Sis? This is your brother?”

“It’s none of your business. Get out of my building.”

Jaxon gave her a wry grin. “But we’re still on for tonight, right? Dinner at my place? Seven o’clock?”

“I don’t think that would be a wise thing to do after the stunt you just pulled.”

His face fell. “I understand. I can clean out the refrigerator by myself. It’s just so odd the way it popped open during the night all by itself. It’s almost as if someone opened it on purpose. Do you suppose—”

She cut him off, placing both hands on his chest and shoving him toward the door. “Fine, I’ll come to dinner. Just get out of here and leave me alone. I’ve got a lot of work to do before tomorrow. Don’t you need to be somewhere doing something that makes you sweat?”

He grinned, his eyes twinkling. “No, I thought I’d save that for after dinner.”

“Out.” She raised her palm in a threatening motion.

He laughed as he backed out the door, shutting it behind him. She leaned against it, sliding all the way down to sit on the floor. The man exhausted her.

Scotty was staring at her with his arms crossed. “Seems like you may have left a few things out of your update, Sis.”

Part 10: All Tied Up

ELYSSA GROPED IN DESPERATION through the spools of colorful ribbon in her drawer. How could she have miscounted? She needed at least three more spools to finish her bows for the pew ends. But instead of the aquamarine ribbon she’d been using, the rolls at the bottom of the stack were turquoise. Her heart hammered. What could she do? It was already six thirty. Would any of the floral supply shops be open at this late hour? Would they have the exact color she needed? Frantically flinging spools about, some popped out of the drawer, rolling across the room in every direction. Maybe there’s more aquamarine buried in the bottom. Maybe… Maybe… No.

“You don’t have to throw things at me.” She jerked at the voice behind her and turned tear-filled eyes to face Jaxon. What was he doing here? She didn’t have time to deal with him now. Her career depended on this wedding.

“I came to make sure you keep your promise to help clean out the refrigerator. I thought we might pick up some Chinese take-out.”

“Jaxon, leave me alone. I’ve got a crisis right now—I need to think.”

*****

His heart twisted in his chest. All thoughts of

teasing her fled from his mind. All day he’d been rehearsing lines about chocolate addicts, food burglars and such, hoping to keep her off balance and worried about her sleep-eating incident. Now, seeing her in distress made him want to pull her into his arms and soothe her tears away.

“What’s the crisis? Maybe I can help.”

“You can’t help, unless you have a supply of aquamarine ribbon hidden under a set of barbells.” Her tone was full of sarcasm, but he could feel the panic in her voice.

“You need ribbon? For the wedding tomorrow? Shouldn’t you have bought it earlier in the week?”

“I thought I had plenty of ribbon. But I need aquamarine, and all I have left is turquoise." She straightened, holding two spools of ribbon in front of his face.

“Aren’t those the same color?”

“No, they’re not the same!”

“They look the same to me. Really Elyssa, nobody will be able to tell the difference.”

She gaped at him with the same expression Luke Skywalker wore when Darth Vader said, “I am your father.”