Page 101 of Unexpectedly In Love

The doorbell rings and my mother wipes her mouth, walks out into the living room and opens the door. “We have a delivery for Anise Loveridge.”

I stand slowly and I walk to the door. “I am she.”

“Great, could you sign here for us?” The delivery man passes me the clipboard, and I sign.

“What is all this?” I ask.

“Roses,” he casually says and walks back to the brown van.

Cassia and Rosemary stand next to me as we watch this man make multiple trips from his van to the house with gold boxes.

“What are they?” I ask as I lift the gold hat box lid.

“Oh, Anise, they are roses. This box has white roses,” Sage exclaims in excitement.

“I love this! This one has yellow roses. Oh, this is so sweet.” Cassia claps in excitement.

After the man leaves, my mother closes the door behind him.

“I think he is trying to say he is sorry.” My mom opens a box with black roses in it and passes it to me.

I take flowers and I inhale deeply. “They’re beautiful.”

The doorbell rings once more, my mom goes to the door and opens it. “As expected. Hello, I’m Myrtle, and you must be the person who made my living room look like a wholesale florist shop.”

I hear the dark chuckle and a few hushed tones.

“How did Eryx know we were going to be here? I told Zac to zip it. I didn’t tell him. Who did?” Sage asks.

“I didn’t tell him.” Rosemary shrugs as she breathes in the pink roses on her lap.

Cassia opens another box. “Oh, look, it’s rainbow roses. I wonder what that means. This is nice.”

I sigh and pinch my nose bridge. “Cassia!”

“What? I did threaten to kill him but he said he was sorry and I felt sorry for him,” Cassia bends her head and continues looking at the roses.

My mother comes in and claps. “Everyone come to the back and see this new Fiddle Fig Tree that I brought in Home Depot,”

“I want to stay. Ani might need us,” Sage drops the roses on the table, folds her arms and watches Eryx.

“Nope Ani is a big girl. Come on all of you.” My mom marches my sisters down the corridor.

“I have a scalpel in my bag Eryx and I know how to use it,” Rosemary shouts. She staggers as my mother pulls her along.

Silence spreads throughout the room. He stands with a gold hat box and me sitting with roses. God, I miss him, I feel like dumping these roses to the floor and running into his arms. I won’t though.

“I was wrong.” He swallows.

“About?” I glide my fingers over the flowers on my lap.

He begins to pace with a gold hat box in his hand. “Let me lead by saying, I do love you. Anise, I love you.”

I blink up at him. “Okay.”

Eryx brows frowns meeting each other in the middle of his forehead. He seems shocked by my reactions.

“You love me too.” He places the box on the sofa, takes off his dark blue blazer, and lays it on the sofa. He begins to pace with his hand behind his back. Why does a white shirt look so crisp and good on him?

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