Page 56 of Rum & Coke
“No.” I chuckled slightly, which only made my head hurt more. “My friend had his bachelor party last night and … Let’s say I don’t remember much past ten.”
“You had a bachelor party on a Monday?”
“Yeah. He’s getting married on Saturday.” I poured the java into a mug before setting the pot back onto the burner.
“Why not have it on Saturday?”
“He just got engaged, and we didn’t have time to plan a bachelor party for another night.”
“It’s a shotgun wedding or something?”
I laughed again and then sucked in a breath. I needed to find aspirin for my head. “Not exactly. We went to the fight last night.”
“Oh, right. Heard about it. Weird it wasn’t on Saturday too.”
I moved to the fridge to grab the hazelnut creamer. “It wasn’t a title fight. Title fights are usually Saturday.”
“Oh. Well, I hope you feel better soon.”
“Thanks. I should be fine after this coffee and some aspirin.”
“I have some if you need it.”
“You’re a lifesaver. I would love two, please.”
“Sure, I’ll go get them.”
“I’ll come with.” I poured creamer into the coffee and stirred it slowly for a few seconds. After putting the creamer back into the fridge, Kandace and I started to walk toward her classroom. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Hypothetically speaking, if you won a bet and the prize consisted of a guy cooking you dinner, would you expect the guy to bring flowers?”
She stopped walking and looked up at me. “Are you telling me you have a date?”
“It’s not a date.” Or was it? Hell, I didn’t know anymore what anything with Tessa was. I just knew I wanted to spend all my free time with her.
Kandace snorted. “It’s a date.”
“Fine, it’s a date. I should bring flowers, right?”
“A girl never turns down flowers, Vincent, but it’s all about which kind you buy that will tell her how you really feel about her.”
I dated for a living, and I’d like to say I knew how women worked. Most of the time, I didn’t even need a woman to say the words for me to know what she was thinking. Of course, that was because all the women Idatedwere into me because they’d specifically hired me. But I felt as if I was going in blind with Tessa. What kind of flowers did she like? How does she like her steak? Did she drink wine with dinner? All of those questions never needed an answer when it came to other women because I had their preferences in their client sheet at my fingertips, or it fucking didn’t matter. But with Tessa, it all mattered.
“How do I know which ones to get?” I asked just as we walked into her classroom.
“Well …” She grabbed her purse from her desk drawer. “Don’t get her red roses unless you know she likes them. It’s everyone’s go to, and really not that thoughtful.”
“Really?”
Kandace bobbed her head. “Flowers are always thoughtful I guess, but go outside the box and it will seem like you put a lot of thought into them and didn’t just pick them up at the grocery store with dinner.”
Damn, that was exactly what I was thinking of doing. “Do you have any suggestions?”
She handed me two pills, and I stuck them into my mouth with a swallow of coffee. “Go with whatever ones remind you of her.”
I thought for a moment, bobbing my head slightly. “That’s a good suggestion.”
