Page 60 of From Asher, With Love

“Charleigh…” She sighs, resting her chin on my shoulder. “Thank God you’re here.”

“Come on,” I tell her. “I’ll take a look at the condition of the flowers. Hopefully time is on our side. At least enough to find somewhere to keep them all.”

When I reach the back room, I look through the glass doors and carefully study each arrangement and bouquet. Luckily, they don’t look terrible. I have some time, but not long.

Selene nervously bites down on her thumbnail. “I haven’t opened the doors because I was afraid of losing any cool air that might still be in there.”

I reassure her, placing my hand on her arm. “You did the right thing.”

“Okay.” She huffs, planting her hands on her hips. “What do we do, then?”

“Let’s start cleaning all this up, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”

My phone pings in my hand. Despite the internal panic, I’mrelieved to see Asher’s name, so I swipe my screen and read his text.

Asher: Is this similar to the refrigerators in your shop?

Below his text is a screenshot of a Google search for flower refrigerators. The one in my shop is the first picture in the results.

Charleigh: Yeah. Why?

Asher: Give me ten.

I close my phone out, not bothering to respond or try to figure out what Asher means. I need to get these flowers organized so I can figure out what to do.

Julianna bursts through the door, tossing her cardigan on the front counter on her way to the back, a tray of coffees perched in one hand and a bottle of Vodka in the other. “I’m here with caffeine and alcohol, bitches. Let’s get this shit figured out.”

God, I love her.

Ten minutes must pass by, with the three of us frantically cleaning up loose flowers and vases, when my phone rings from the prep table with Asher’s name flashing on the screen.

I ignore Selene and Julianna’s puzzled expressions and answer.

“Hey,” I breathe out. I nervously toy with a flower stem on the prep table.

“Hey.” Asher pauses. “How’s everything going?”

I flick my gaze up to my best friends. They haven’t taken their eyes off me as they stuff flowers into vases as if they’re moving in slow motion. I wave my arm at them and shake my head.

“Fine, I guess,” I tell Asher on a sigh, not completelyconvinced. “The flowers aren’t wilted yet, but there isn’t much time. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all of them… and every other flower that couldn’t fit.”

“Do you know the Trinity Hotel?” Asher asks.

“Um, Trinity Hotel? I think so. The hotel is here on the Upper West side, right? On this street or the street over?”

“It’s on your block, actually,” he explains casually. “A few buildings down.”

“Oh, it is?” I swing around just as Selene leaves the back room and makes her way to the front. Either she can hear Asher through the phone, or she already knows where he’s headed with this conversation. She pushes through the door and stands on the sidewalk. I watch her as she points to her right, then looks at me. She shrugs before coming back inside.

“I know the owner of the hotel. I sold him that building a few months ago,” he explains. “There’s a ballroom with a complete state of the art kitchen in the back. He was about to book the ballroom for some beauty event, but the company hadn’t finalized their offer on the rental fee yet. So, I put one in to outbid them. You can use their refrigerators if you need.”

“What?” I place my hand to my chest, unsure whether I’m hearing him right or not.

“Yeah,” he says, a few clicks coming through the phone. “You told me the refrigerator I sent you in the text was the same ones you have at your store, and I remembered seeing them at the Trinity Hotel when I showed it to my client.”

“Asher.” I want to cry. “You didn’t have to do that. It must have cost you a fortune.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he dismisses quickly. “If it helps you out until we find you a better shop with working coolers, then it was all worth it. When you go over there just mention my name to the front desk. They’ll be expecting you.”

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