Page 3 of Willows and Waterlilies

“A public service, if you will,” I reply with a shrug. “I just want to see if this girl is aware of the fact that she’s seeing a married man.”

“I dunno, this guy is helping me to pay for my holiday to the Bahamas at the end of the year,” she says. “Besides, I’m sure that would be an infraction of her personal information; his too.”

“True,” I concede, “but how about I promise to use this florist for every wedding, Christening, apology, funeral, whatever.”

“How are you ever going to have most of those things when the only person you buy for is your mother?” she scoffs.

“Yes, but once I start marrying, I figure I’ll probably be on a roll. I think I’ll have at least four or five weddings. I’m extremely annoying to live with, ask my sister.”

“And the right to privacy?” she counters.

“I can be discrete,” I promise, seeing the crack in her resolve to remain professional.

“Hmmm…”

“Go on, Carol, the bastard deserves it,” Gabby pipes in from the side while still making up the order of roses.

“Yes, come on, Carol,” I tease, making her laugh over my schoolboy cheekiness.

“Oh, you wicked boy!” she relents. “But I will hold you to all those promises. I mean it,” she says, pointing her finger at me as a mother would.

“I swear, every single wedding,” I declare with my hand over my chest.

Today is shaping up to be more interesting than I thought it would be.

Chapter 2

Ellie

“You’re pacing!” Nate, my older cousin, chuckles at me while resting easily inside of my desk chair. His confidence knows no bounds, much like his older brother and my boss, Cameron. Nate has only recently agreed to lift a finger and work for his wealth instead of accepting handouts to feed his party-boy lifestyle. To see him in a suit still looks a little out of place.

“I know,” I gasp in a panicked voice, “I’m pathetic, aren’t I?”

“Ahhh, Ellie,” he chuckles wickedly “I’ve never believed anything otherwise when it comes to you and men.”

I merely flip him the bird, for sadly, I am a little much when a man is on the scene. I can’t help it. My parents found love from an early age and frequently subjected me to their PDA. Not to mention the saucy bastard standing before me has never been short of a woman or three. In fact, everyone in the family seems either happily in love or lust. All but his older sister, Helena. Truth be told, I don’t know Helena all that well; she was pregnant, then married before we’d had a chance to bond. According to Nate, she was a reclusive squat before that.

As I begin to tear myself to pieces over the fact that I appear to be unlovable, my desk phone springs to life, prompting me to enter into a state of near insanity.

“Shit! My phone is ringing!” I gasp at Nate, pointing at it as though the fact that it’s carrying out its main purpose in life is the most shocking thing in the world.

“You know they’re designed to do that, Ellie,” Nate laughs at me, still with his hands resting at the back of his head. “Youare then supposed to pick it up.”

“What if it’s him?” I flap, demonstrating my pitifulness in all its humiliating glory.

“Then you say, ‘Hello, I’m a crazy nut job; run for the hills before it’s too late!’” the asshole teases, all the while watching Lucinda, the office party girl, walk past with her skirt hitched up to her butt.

“I’m telling Cameron you’ve been bunking off for the past hour,” I threaten at the same time as I pick up the phone with a trembling hand.

“Do it,” he huffs as he finally gets to his feet, taking a leisurely stretch for good measure. “I’ve still got dirt on him from childhood.”

“H-Hi?” I stutter.

“Sounding professional there, Ellie,” he whispers as he leans in to eavesdrop without shame. “Nothing says confidence like a shaky ‘h-hello’” he mocks me in a theatrically girly voice. I try to push him away, but the guy is almost twice the size of my miniature frame. The damn men in our family always grow tall and broad, whereas the ladies have to work extra hard to stay trim and are usually shopping in the petite section.

“Hi, Ellie,” Helena says meekly from the reception desk, “someone is here to see you; he has flowers. Shall I show him up?”

“No, no, I’ll come down,” I tell her with a strange mixture of fear, relief, and excitement in my voice. Jonathan and I haven’t seen one another in over two weeks, and tonight is the night I ask him where this might all be heading. I had thought he would have made his intentions known by now, but after not seeing him for this long, I’m now afraid of where that conversation might go. I’ve already fallen for his charm or at least the idea of a relationship that won’t end with me ingesting a bucket of ice cream for one. He smothers me with fancy gifts, but that doesn’t mean a lot if you have the means to do so, does it? Is he really going out of his way for a girl he likes, or am I easily pleased? I need him to break the curse, the one that always has me finding out I was never a man’s one and only.

---