Bloom

I look down at her weathered skin. Her touch is gentle, just as I suspected it would be. She’s a grandmother to ten and a great-grandma to one. I never knew my grandma. I wish I had.

“No,” I correct her with a smile. “He’s just a friend.”

“I never had a friend that looked like that.” Her brow twitches. “He’s something, Athena.”

He is. I can’t argue with her.

A change of subject is in order, so I point at the arrangement that Mrs. Ducat put together. “You did a wonderful job on that.”

With a cluck of her tongue, she squeezes my hand. “We both know you’re the one with the magic touch. Your talent is rare. Never stop what you’re doing.”

I take the compliment with an appreciative nod. “I won’t. This is what I do best.”

***

“This is for you.” Liam shoves the bouquet he crafted during class into my hands.

I smile because as sweet as the gesture is, his floral arranging skills aren’t on point. That wasn’t for lack of trying. He listened intently to my instructions, but he was distracted so often by his classmates talking to him, that his arrangement didn’t turn out close to the way it should have.

He wasn’t the only one with a less than stellar end

product.

Most of the women who were here left with bouquets that looked like they were put together in the dark. Mrs. Ducat’s was the exception. She walked away with a beautiful bunch of flowers in her hand.

“Thank you.” I nestle the arrangement in the crook of my arm. “I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

He settles back on the heels of his boots. “A man should never stop learning. Today it was flower arranging. Tomorrow it’ll be something else. On a scale of one-to-ten, how did I do?”

“Five-and-a-half,” I answer matter-of-factly. “For a first try, not bad.”

He huffs out a laugh. “Not bad? That’s all you’ve got?”

I shrug. “What can I say? I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse.”

“You’re doing this again on Thursday?”

I won’t complain if he wants to drop in again. I know my other students won’t either.

“If I didn’t have to work, I’d be back here inching my way closer to a ten.”

Disappointment stalls in my chest. I shouldn’t feel that. We’re barely acquaintances. We’ve spent all of our time dancing around our mutual attraction.

I breathe in a sigh when I think about the condoms that are undoubtedly tucked into a drawer in his bedroom.

“Do you want to come back to my place?” he tosses the question out with ease.

I’m not ready for the extra large condoms, so I shake my head. “I can’t tonight. I have to clean up here and then I’m meeting someone.”

He rakes me over. I look like I’m on my way to yoga class. “For a drink?”

“Yes.”

Technically it’s a drink. I’m having coffee with my sister-in-law, Linny. She asked me to stop by after this class so we can catch up. We used to spend an hour every morning chatting over breakfast, but since I’ve moved out, we’ve been relying on text messages to stay connected.

Tonight is the first chance we’ve had to hang out in weeks.

“Are we still on for Friday?” he quizzes with a half-smile.