Page 18 of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

‘Well,’ he says, glancing down at me with a shy grin. ‘At least you look good, right?’ He stops at the automatic doors, motioning for me to exit first.

He’s even a gentleman? Thingshavechanged.

‘You’re a liar, but I appreciate it.’

‘It’s not a lie. You do look good.’ He pushes the cart through the doors behind me. ‘You’ve hardly changed at all. How’d you manage that?’

‘Exactly,’ I say. ‘I’ve stayed the same, and you’ve done an impressive one-eighty.’

A grin grows on his face, and once again, he glances at the ground below him as if I’ve embarrassed him.

Suddenly, his phone rings from his pocket. ‘Hang on.’ He answers it. ‘Now, what’d you do?’

No hello. It must be River. I stand on the sidewalk next to him, waiting out his phone call and breathing in the Oregon air. It’s drier than the air in Seattle. The whole place feels lighter.

‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘Brynn, my cousin, entered me into some reality competition, and they like me!’ He acts surprised.

‘What, are you the nextBachelor?’ I joke, but I can picture it, and I shouldn’t.

He bursts out a laugh. ‘The Bacheloris still on? Jesus, I thought for sure that’d be played out by now. No.Battle of the Blossoms. A floral competition put on byHere Comes the Bridemagazine.’ He lifts his shoulders, his lips pressed into a straight line. ‘That’s all I know about it. Not sure I’ll be signing on the dotted line yet.’

‘Floral competition? Really?’ I didn’t see that coming. ‘You mean you didn’t buy these at Safeway on your way here?’ I grab the bouquet from the cart, once again lifting them to my nose only to realize they still have no scent. God missed an opportunity there.

His face drops to stone-cold serious. ‘I went out early this morning, hiked the canyons, and picked those stem by stem just for you.’ A grin slowly grows on his face as he watches my reaction to his blatant lie.

I bite my lips together to stop the ridiculous smile I can feel trying to take over. Yep, he’s definitelyTheBachelormaterial.

Dax winks, and my grin turns into an awkward laugh.

‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘I just—River never told me, and I hadn’t imagined you taking over your dad’s business in a million years. You were always mister sports star. Baseball, basketball, swimming. I assumed you’d go pro. And if that didn’t work out, I thought for sure astronaut.’

He laughs to himself. His cheeks reddening by the second as I talk about his past life is probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. Here is this gorgeous sweetheart of a man who used to regularly freeze my bras when he’d stay the night with my brother, seemingly embarrassed to hear me talk about him in the way I am.

‘Meeting you now, in the ten minutes I’ve known you again…’ I shrug, glancing down at the daisies in my hand. ‘Florist seems to fit this Dax.’

‘Trust me, I never saw it coming either. Kinda hit me out of the blue one day, and I ran with it.’ He pushes the cart across the road into the parking garage. ‘How about you?’ he asks. ‘What are you up to these days? It seems like there was something you wanted to do when you were young. What was it?’

I spent the plane ride overthinking, coming up with answers for the questions I’m sure are headed my way. None of which I ended up with actual answers for. At least nothing that sounds like I have my life together and didn’t give it all up for some stupid boy and the idea of love at first sight.

Eight years as a ‘professional’ server, now in-between jobs, doesn’t sound as impressive as it did two bottles of champagne in.

Like an idiot, I made Tristan my entire world from the moment we met, and I didn’t think through what might happen if he destroyed it. Now that it’s imploded, I realize I have no idea who I am, no plan, no job, no skills, only every one of his left shoes.

Yes, I stole all his left shoes and tossed every roll of toilet paper into the dumpster before I left. I had to do something, and it was the only way I could think to dampen his coming days. It brings me great joy to think of him on the toilet, no toilet paper in sight, and no left shoes to run to the store in. A minor setback that I’m sure he’ll blow by as though I never existed.

‘I wanted to professionally fangirl Justin Timberlake.’

Dax drops his head with a laugh. ‘That sounds right.’

‘Probably would have done more for me than what I actually did. I didn’t even graduate college. Dropped out with nine months left to go, so I don’t have more than a high school diploma. I’m sure I’ll end up back at Mom’s record shop like when I was eighteen. She’ll be so proud.’ Disappointment hangs in my voice as I attempt to shrug it away.

Dax frowns as he clicks a button on his keys, his car coming to life and the back hatch opening without him even touching it.

‘I’m sure she’ll be happy to have you back despite all that.’

‘We’ll soon find out.’

He shoves a bag over the back seat, so there’s room for everything. He piles the rest into his trunk, barely able to close it once it’s all been loaded.

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