Page 5 of Approved

She laughed. “Now you are friends? You felt you couldn’t speak to him a minute ago because he didn’t defend you.”

“I’m fickle.”

“Oh, here we go,” she said. “West Parker has dated a lot of the city’s elite. He doesn’t currently have a partner but does hope to have a husband and a dog someday. BOOM!!”

My stomach swooped. “Shit. I guess there are other fish in the sea and all that, but he sure is fun to think about.”

“This article is from last month, too.” I sighed.

“Alright, it’s been a long day. Thank you for your hard work today, we’ll catch up more tomorrow.” We said good night and hung up. A few minutes later, she sent a text message with a link to the article.

Why did he have to be into men? It would be so much easier if he weren’t. Even with how it ended, today had been an unexpectedly good day. It was a lot of work, but West had made it easier. When I crawled into bed, I was still sulking because if he were really a good guy, he would have stopped the bullying I went through. When that happened, he was young, a teenage brain isn’t fully formed, and he might be different now. I scrolled through the article, then looked at a few other stories about him. He did a lot of things for LGBTQ+ organizations and animal charities.

“Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?” I flopped my head back. I supposed the good news was that I wouldn't see him again unless I planned to go to The Dapper Duck. At least that was my reasoning. I knew it was a weak argument, but I thought it might help my resolve. He probably wouldn’t be interested in me anyhow, so all this wasn’t relevant. Plus, making friends and maybe dating meant trusting another person, and Jamie was the only one I’ve trusted in the last ten years, but there was something about West.

Chapter three

WEST

When Tyler walked out the door, I understood why. He had remembered who I was; it hurt him, and I deserved it. When my team members used to corner him, call him names, and push him, I wouldn’t do anything. I would stand in the background and do my best to ignore it. I should have stopped it because that would have been the right thing to do, but I was afraid to get involved. What if they found out about me? At the very least, I owed Tyler an apology for what happened all those years ago.

Since I knew the name of his business, it would be easy to find him, and for now, I was going to ignore the other reasons I wanted to see him again. The day we spent together was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. My past may destroy the opportunity for a repeat of that, but I could step up and be the person I wasn’t years ago. Forgiving myself for my inaction would be hard, but possible because I was fifteen, regardless of my age, though I was still responsible for what I did—or in this case, what I didn’t do.

When I returned to the bar, I looked at all the couples and singles. “Stupid holiday,” I said under my breath.

Once I locked up for the night, I headed out and got into the van. On the seat were the forms signed during the deliveries and Tyler’s other paperwork when we started the day. I smiled, now I had an excuse to go to his shop, and my heart beat an extra time. It was time to show this cutie that I had become a better person.

When I woke up the following day, I planned to convince Tyler that I was sorry about the past and that maybe I could convince him to let me take him on a proper date. At 11:00 a.m., I walked into my friend’s cookie shop. “What a delight to see you, Mr. Parker, and it’s before noon.” I laughed, walked around the counter, and hugged him.

“Bryson you glorious son of a bitch how are you?” I had known him for years and knew he would help me make a good impression on Tyler. “There’s a guy I want to apologize to for being a twat to when I was in high school. I would also like him to let me take him on a date.”

“That’s an awful lot of pressure on my cookies.”

“I have a lot of confidence in your confections.” I gave him a toothy grin.

He laughed. “Well, let’s see how we can improve your chances of both things.” He grabbed a box and started to line it with multicolored tissue paper.

“Tell me what you know about this guy.”

“He’s cute, in fact adorable, owns a flower shop, and is really funny.” He hummed to himself while I watched as he thoughtfully grabbed individual cookies from his display cases, all of which looked delicious—I hope Tyler likes cookies. If hedidn’t, I might have to rethink dating him because that’s a crime against nature.

Bryson got a rainbow ribbon, wrapped it around the box, and fashioned a fancy bow. It looked beautiful. I would be impressed if someone brought it to me as an apology gift. “You are a lifesaver. Come by the bar this week, we’ll find someone to keep you company for the evening.”

He grinned at me. “I might just do that.”

In the car, I carefully set the box on the seat next to me and entered the address for Flower Power into my GPS. My hands were sweaty, and I felt nervous. It had been a long time since I cared enough to be anxious about talking to a guy.

I had never admitted how much I liked Tyler in high school. I would watch for him in the halls, never drawing attention to myself, wishing I had the guts to talk to him, but that wouldn’t happen because I was deep in the closet. I didn’t actually know if he was into guys, but in my fantasies he was into me, and my horny teenage self had no shame. We had three classes together, and in all of them, I made sure I sat behind him, even though I never really spoke to him then. I was chicken, but I was drawn to him, and now that the universe had brought him back into my life, grown-up West planned to handle my attraction to him completely differently.

My heart pounded when I pulled up in front of his shop. I tried to act normal as I entered Flower Power with the fancy box in my hands. Customers were in line, so I stood out of the way until Tyler was free. When he saw me, I couldn't miss that he smiled at me before he scowled—I chose to focus on the former, not the latter.

He continued to help his customers, but he would look over at me, and I smiled each time. The last person left, and we stared at each other.

“I’m surprised to see you, West. Did you need something?” He tried to be annoyed with me, but he betrayed himself with a little smirk. My feet refused to move for some reason, which was a problem. “Is that box for me?” His eyes lit up a little, which was a good sign.

My ability to speak was also absent. This wasn’t the impression I wanted to make. Right now, I felt like I was a fourteen-year-old in front of his first crush, which ironically was how this all started. Without any fanfare, I pushed the box at him. He laughed a little. “Box. Yours.” At least they were words, even if I sounded stupid.

“Thank you. You helped me, shouldn’t I be the one giving the gifts?” I blinked at him. What was he talking about? I was the one who didn’t step up and protect him. Then I remembered that I had spent the day with him yesterday, and smiled.

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