Page 15 of Call and Response

“Oh!” He chuckled; eyes wide. “I did not pick up on that,” he said, gesturing for me to move, so I did. “I can’t say that was in my plans though.”

“Nottonightor not at all?” I asked as I started up the steps to the door.

“I… uh—”

“Relax.” I laughed. “Two days, okay?”

He grinned from where he was still standing on the sidewalk and nodded. “Two days.”

CHAPTERFOUR

Noble

Figure outwhat space you’re in and that’s where we’ll write from.

As with most things these days…

Easier said than done.

That wholefigure out what space you’re inthing?

Man…

“Damn, are we already through those orchids?”

August’s question pulled me out of my head and I looked up to give him an answering cringe. “I put the last couple out a few minutes ago. Did we get all we could from the greenhouse?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “It’s this damn heat.”

Shaking his head, he went back out to the front of the shop, leaving me where I was, in the back ofPosh Petalson another helping hand task with the family. The flower shopwasshort-staffed today, but we all knew Simone was doing me a favor just as much as I was doing one for her.

I didn’t have a damn job.

Roman had been an active enough influence that I’d done well with my earnings from the group, so I didn’t need money—yet.

What I needed was something to freakingdo.

Since what I loved seemed less and less like an option.

So… it was the flower shop today—helping keep things stocked, helping customers, etc. I’d been offered the job of handling deliveries, but turned it down. I wasn’t trying to be part of the lovey-dovey romantic shit.

Oh.

Damn.

That was kind of the answer to my question right there, wasn’t it?

If I was thinking with my songwriter brain, especially considering my preferred genre, putting myself right in the middle of romantic gestures and seeing those reactions, the emotions, should’ve been like catnip to me.

Instead… it was about the last fucking thing I wanted to do.

I wasn’t on any anti-love tangent. I enjoyed seeing the people I cared about find their fit in relationships that worked for them. I just… could never seem to find my own approach.

And that shit was never more vexing than it was now.

Here in the Heights, I was surrounded by what many people would call the best examples of relationships and love. Perfect in their imperfections, real and raw, aspirational for damn sure, but not out of reach.

Maybeout of reach.

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