Page 95 of The Floral Arrangement

“Do you know if Roz can make it?” Blake asked.

A pain stabbed my chest. “Um?—”

“Hi. Sorry I’m so late.” Dana appeared, lowering herself to the ground. She looked like she hadn’t slept either—dark circles under her eyes and her face a few shades paler than usual. Her gray pants and white t-shirt were faintly crumpled. “I brought some dips.” She opened a small cooler and pulled out some containers, peeling back their lids and placing them in the middle of the blanket next to the rest of the food. “Hummus, baba ganoush and tzatziki. And carrot sticks and pita chips.”

I swallowed. Hopefully the topic of Roz and the farm wouldn’t arise.

“Yum!” Hannah leaned in, grabbing a pita chip and swiping it through the hummus.

“Is everything okay, Dana?” Jenny asked.

Dana’s brows shot up as her eyes flicked to me. “You didn’t tell them?”

I shook my head.

Dana slammed her mouth shut. “I’ve said enough already this weekend.”

A gray bird swooped overheard, dipping down into the river with a splash and reappearing with a fish between its beak.

Jenny’s gaze darted between us. “What’s going on? Did something happen with the flowers? I thought you got the aphids under control?” Her eyes widened. “You didn’t have another cow-trampling incident, did you?”

“No.” Tears welled in my eyes. I blinked them away, but they began dripping down my cheeks. I swiped them away. “Shit.”

Jenny jumped up and bounded over, wrapping her arms around me. I leaned into her warmth, letting out a shuddering breath.

“Oh Liv. What happened?” Jenny asked.

Five pairs of eyes stared at me sympathetically. My world was imploding. I was losing Sapphire Blooms, the farm and Roz in one fell swoop. If ever there was a time I needed to talk to my friends it was now. I couldn’t do this alone.

I cleared my throat. “Fred backed out of the investment and now Roz is going to shut down the flower operations—and she thinks the farm may not make it past winter.”

There was a collective intake of breath.

“Shit! Why did he back out?” Blake asked.

“He found out we were fake dating.” I struggled to hold back a sob.

Jenny tilted her head, wide-eyed. “How did he find out?”

My eyes flicked to Dana, who cradled her face in her hands.

“He ran into Dana at Novel Gossip yesterday and made a comment about how we’d been dating for six months. Dana corrected him, saying it was only one month at the most. Roz and I showed up just as all this was happening and Fred asked us on the spot. We had to tell him the truth.”

“Oh no!” Hannah groaned.

“Yeah, it was really bad.” Dana grimaced.

“Like we said yesterday, it wasn’t your fault.” I reached out and rubbed Dana’s back. “It’s all on me and Roz—well, mainly me. I was the one who got us into the stupid fake-dating situation to begin with, and we never explained to you what was going on.”

“I’m so sorry, Liv. If it’s any consolation, I thought you two were quite convincing. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought there was something going on between you.” Blake picked up a carrot stick and dipped it in the baba ganoush.

Dana shot a glance at me.

My stomach clenched. This was the perfect opening to tell everyone what had really been going on. But nausea rocked my stomach at the thought of them hearing how stupid I’d been, letting myself get pulled into a fling that had no future, after swearing off dead-end relationships. Not only that, but I’d have to talk about my sexuality. And I still didn’t know how to answer those damn dating profile questions. I’d hoped to have a clearer idea before I had this conversation. Olivia in her thirties was meant to be all about knowing what she wanted and grabbing it by both hands. So far, that wasn’t going so well.

Roz’s advice floated through my mind.You don’t need to put a label on it if you don’t want to. Or you could just use a general term—like queer.Tears pricked my eyes again.

“Yeah, um, well actually…” I sniffed, glancing over at George, who gave me a small, encouraging smile. “There was.”

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