Page 86 of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

‘It’s OK,’ Hollyn says as we leave the building. ‘It was bad timing on our part. Like you said.’

‘Dax!’ Celeste says my name, her heels tapping on the floor behind me. I drop my head. Speaking of bad timing. ‘I’m so sorry, Daxy.’ She gives me an awkward hug.

‘I’ll just wait outside,’ Hollyn says, walking away from us.

I hope she doesn’t think this Celeste thing is anything to worry about because besides her emailing me daily, it’s not. I never even respond. The girl cannottake a hint.

‘Your final product was gorgeous,’ Celeste says once Hollyn has disappeared out the front door. ‘The bottom two sucks, though. Going through it on week one was humiliating, so I feel you.’

‘Thanks, Celeste.’

‘Wanna hang out? My flight doesn’t leave for a few hours.’ She seems hopeful as she asks, batting her eyes at me as she waits on my answer.

‘I’ve actually got something planned with Hollyn, so…’

‘Oh,’ Celeste says, defeat now in her voice. ‘No worries.’ She waves a hand my way. ‘Call me later. I sent you my number; we’ll talk. You can tell me all about the problems you’re facing. I’m a great listener.’ She touches my chest, planting her lips on my cheek before walking away, turning once to flash me a smile that makes me cringe.

‘Looks like someone wants a piece of Daxy,’ Hollyn says as I join her on the sidewalk.

‘She’s persistent. I’ll give her that.’

She reaches up to wipe Celeste’s lipstick from my cheek. ‘This is really all my fault,’ she says.

‘How?’ I ask. ‘It’s not like I had to break out the secret crush thing when I did.’

‘True,’ she says with a nod. ‘It’s allyourfault.’

‘You, uh…’ I reach down, taking her hand in mine. ‘You think holding hands is too risky?’

She glances down. ‘I think it’s pretty safe,’ she says, lacing her fingers through mine.

My hand around hers makes my brain fizz. Maybe going slow was a bad idea. I can’t get my head off her. Off us.

‘This is our car.’ Saved by the Uber I ordered pulling up. ‘We’re doing something fun.’

‘What about our flight?’

‘I had McKenzie move it to this evening.’ I open the car door. ‘I made plans,’ I say, coaxing her into the car.

‘Plans?’ she asks, sliding into the back seat. ‘Like a date?’

I cock my head. We hadn’t talked about dating.

‘Do youwantit to be a date?’

‘Maybe,’ she says with a nod, lifting a shoulder.

If I wasn’t nearly six five, I’d slide into that back seat next to her. But considering this is a compact car, I get into the front, greeting the Uber driver before glancing back at Hols.

‘Alright,’ I say. ‘Let’s say it’s a date.’

We pull up to a local florist thirty minutes later. It was the only place I could find open on a Sunday.

‘You really can’t get enough flowers, can you?’ she asks, stepping onto the curb, flipping her sunglasses to the top of her head.

‘When I first started my business, I’d go to the Saturday market on Sundays and hand out single stem flowers for free. I can’t count how many people would gush that they needed it at that moment. There were a lot of tears those days, and not all from me.’ I wink, although that’s truer than I want it to be.

‘Really?’

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