Any Blooming Thing: Contemporary Second Chance Romance Novella (Clean Romantic Comedy) (Flower Shop Romance Book 1)

by Marisa Logan

  “I’m not going to ask you to go. But he’s supposed to leave in the next few weeks. I’m only going to ask you to think about it,” Chleo said. She stood up from Jessica’s bed, and pat her hand before letting it go. Chleo was on her way out the door.

  “And for the love of god, come into work tomorrow!”

  Chapter 9

  Jessica couldn’t hide forever. She knew that. She did go back to work the next day, and kept as busy as she possibly could in the hopes that she wouldn’t keep looking out the door. She never saw him though. Alfie never went by the window. He had even stopped calling.

  Jessica read all the messages he sent, and deleted them as she went. Some she read again. Some moved her to tears. But she deleted every one. She was being petty and stubborn, but she also kept telling herself that it was for the best.

  Jessica had been back at work for two days, agreeing to make up for her absence by giving Chleo three days off in return. It was hard for her to be in the store by herself with the way her mind was working, but things needed to be done, and she wasn’t going to let her business suffer because of what was happening in her personal life.

  She pruned some of the flowers she had; pausing by the large display of sunflowers. She frowned at them and sighed. She was thinking of Alfie and his butter colored hair. He loved sunflowers too, she remembered him saying. She decided she was going to associate the flowers with smiling, and not about being sad that she would miss him when he leaves.

  The door jingled and it brought Jessica back to the present. She looked to see who had just walked in. It was a little girl with a purple coat and black boots that looked like ugg boots.

  “Well hello,” Jessica said. She looked around and behind her to see if the little girl’s parents were with her, but she appeared to be alone.

  “Hi,” the little girl squeaked. She had long brown wavy hair, freckles, and a missing tooth. She seemed really shy, and she walked slowly forward and into the store.

  “I need to get a flower for somebody,” she said, looking up at Jessica. She had big, not quite green, not quite blue, and not quite grey eyes.

  “Sure sweetheart. What can I get you?”

  The little girl pointed to the sunflower in Jessica’s hand.

  “This?” she asked to make sure, and the little girl nodded.

  “I need a card too, please,” she fidgeted and shuffled from foot to foot. She was so cute and friendly that Jessica couldn’t help but smile back at her.

  Jessica went behind the counter and took out a card. The little girl asked her to write for her.

  “Ok, so the card should say…” the girl paused. She was trying to remember what to put on the card. Jessica laughed and patiently waited.

  “Ok, say ‘For my Lady Macbeth’…”

  Jessica’s heart stopped, and she didn’t write any of the words down. She looked at the little girl and her eyes widened slowly. The little girl’s not quite green, blue, or grey eyes stared back up at Jessica.

  “Hey! You’re supposed to be writing this down!” the little girl said.

  Jessica’s mouth widened in a knowing smile. There was a lump in her throat, but she started writing.

  “For my Lady Macbeth minus the crazy.”

  “Is that it?” Jessica said, now trying to hide her tears.

  “That’s all my dad told me,” the little girl shrugged.

  “And who is this flower for?” Jessica asked.

  “It’s for you!”

  “Well, thank you Lydia,” Jessica said when she took up the flower.

  “You know my name,” Lydia looked like she had just witnessed something magical. Jessica nodded.

  “Dad says he’s coming, but he wanted me to give you the flower first. Hold on,” Lydia said. She held up her hand to tell Jessica to wait where she was and she ran to the door. She opened it, looked to her left, and made frantic beckoning motions with her hands.

  Jessica looked up, feeling really silly that she was still crying, and that’s when she saw him; the black jacket and the butter blonde hair that she knew all too well. He had on his glasses today, and he looked more like the Alfie she had fallen in love with all those years ago.

  “Hey,” he said sheepishly when he stepped into the store.

  “Hey,” Jessica said, wiping away tears.

  “Jess…I…”

  “I know,” she stopped him. “I’m sorry too.”

  “I’m not leaving,” he blurted out.

  “You’re not?”

  “I called Kelly. She liked the idea of being upstate, and offered to take care of that branch of my store.”

  “So she picked up and moved her whole life huh?” Jessica asked.

  “Not exactly. Kelly’s husband got a job about 30 minutes away from my new store. They were gonna come this way anyway,” Alfie explained. “When Kelly found out that I needed someone to be a manager, she accepted as long as I paid her almost twice what I was going to offer another manager. She’s good like that. Plus, Lydia has a baby sister on the way, and I thought it would be nice for her to be closer to her mom.”

  “How do you do it?” Jessica breathed.

  “Do what?”

  “You find this rational and peaceful way to work things out with everyone.”

  Alfie laughed at that.

  “I like seeing the people I care about happy,” he replied with a shrug. “And apparently I like seeing you laugh. So I wanted to stay so that I could see that more.”

  Lydia was looking back and forth between the two of them and giggling.

  “And what are you laughing about, sunflower?” Alfie looked down at her.

  “Daddy’s got a girlfriend,” Lydia said and covered her mouth to continue giggling.

  “Yeah, he does. I mean, I think he does,” he looked at Jessica.

  She rolled her eyes in response.

  “It’s so hard to find Lady Macbeth romantic though. I mean, you almost had me…with the cute kid, and bringing me the sunflower, but trying to bring up old memories about the least romantic play in order to be romantic was just too m-“

  Jessica didn’t get to finish her sentence. Alfie had wrapped his arms around her and stopped her with a gentle kiss.

  “Which would you prefer then?” Alfie asked when he pulled away. He still had her in his arms. Lydia was giggling and covering her eyes.

  “I don’t know. A play where no one goes crazy and the couple gets together in the end?”

  “Like As You Like It?”

  “Is there a happy ending?” Jessica asked and gave Alfie a quick kiss on his lips.

  “I have no idea. But I’m pretty sure someone gets together in the end. I guess we’re gonna have to read it together and find out,” he said, returning the kiss.

  “Oh yeah? Well…I guess I can live with that.”

  THE END

  Keep reading for bonus books after excerpt.

  ***

  Want to read new Kindle romance books as they become available? Sign up here to receive email notifications:

  Impassioned Book Promotions

  http://eepurl.com/bQwzX9

  Excerpt -- Wherever Love Takes Me

  A Sweet Contemporary Romance Novella

  2nd book in the

  Flower Shop Romance Series

  MARISA LOGAN

  Book Description

  You might think Chleo Antonia Matthews has it all. She's beautiful, smart, hilarious, with skin the color of rich coffee, and the friendliest face.

  She's also the successful young co-owner of Any Blooming Thing, a flower shop in the city.

  When she catches the bouquet at her best friend's wedding she realizes that something is missing. She has no one to share her life with. That is, until shop manager Petey convinces her to take a little ragamuffin with bright yellow eyes.

  Chapter One

  ‘I caught the bouquet. Of course I caught the damn bouquet,’ Chleo thought to herself. She was grinning like an idiot. There was genuine happiness wit
hin her, but now she was on the spot because she had a bouquet of coral roses, white lilies, and a single large sunflower in her hand. Everyone was cheering around her.

  She glared through her smile at her best friend, Jessica. Jessica’s curly red hair was tied in a beautiful bun, with 2 curls floating by her face. She had on a small tiara, a long mermaid gown with long sleeves made from lace, and a devilish grin of her own. She pointed at Chleo with both pointers and gave her a silly look. She had meant for Chleo to catch the bouquet.

  Jessica’s husband, Alfred Reynolds, shimmied over to Chleo and snickered in her ear.

  “Looks like you have to at least entertain the thought of going out on a date,” Alfie said. He nudged her with his elbow and she rolled her eyes at him.

  “I don’t talk to conspirators or their new wives,” Chleo giggled through gritted teeth. Alfie laughed and walked back over to Jessica. He passed his daughter on the way and ruffled her hair.

  Chleo had been having an amazing day. Her best friend had gotten married to someone she had loved from afar since their high school days. They met again just 2 years prior, and rekindled something that never really started when they were teenagers. Alfie and Jessica fell in love with each other instantly, and Jessica loved Alfie’s daughter Lydia.

  Chleo was happy that her best friend was happy. She knew she was the maid of honor, she knew that she would have a hilarious toast to make later on in the evening, and then she’d watch the two love birds [and their baby bird] leave for their 3 week long honeymoon in the Hamptons.

  It wasn’t until she saw Alfie play with Lydia’s hair did Chleo feel that strange pang in her heart. It was the feeling that something was missing. She didn’t really acknowledge that feeling until that very moment when there was a bouquet in her hand and people were clapping around her and throwing rice at the happy couple. The world seemed to move in slow motion at that very moment, and through all of her happiness, Chleo felt alone.

  ***

  “Are you sure you can handle everything?” it was 2 days after the wedding. Jessica, Alfie, and Lydia were heading out of town. It was a pretty far drive away from the Hamptons, and Jessica liked to worry. Chleo was usually the mama bear, but since Jessica was now a step mom, she spent her time worrying about everybody and everything.

  “It’s 3 weeks, and there’s no nuclear war that I’m aware of, so I think I’ll be fine,” Chleo said. She had a can of diet Dr. Pepper in her hand. She brought the straw she had in the can closer to her with her lips and took a sip.

  “Well, Donald Trump is running for president…so that nuclear war might come sooner than you think,” Jessica pointed out.

  Chleo was still taking a sip of her drink when her eyes widened. She would have laughed, but that would have made her choke.

  “Good point,” she said when she finally came up for air. “Why are you still here?!”

  “I just wanted to make sure that you and Petey would be ok without me.”

  “I know we’ve been best friends for like 17 years, but have a little more faith in me,” Chleo said, feigning being hurt. She pouted.

  “I have complete faith in you. But Petey is…” Jessica’s voice trailed off when she looked behind Chleo and into their flower shop, Any Blooming Thing. Petey was their only employee. He started working for them when Jessica got engaged. He meant well, he loved his job, but he was pretty scatter-brained and boy-crazy when he was ready.

  Chleo waved her hands behind her, and then flapped at Jessica to leave. They had known each other long enough for them to have developed their own kind of communication that didn’t involve words. When they were in school together, they looked a lot alike but they had different skin tones. Jessica was pale with freckles and curly ginger hair. She had the iciest blue eyes. She and Chleo were plump in high school, but in their early 20s, Jessica grew taller and lost a lot of her weight. She pierced her nose and straightened her hair and dyed it black. When Alfie came back into the picture, she let her hair grow back out with its natural texture and natural color.

  Chleo was still relatively short with a gorgeous curvy body. Her hair, long and wild, she usually wore out or pulled back with a headband. Her skin was the color of rich coffee. Chleo had the friendliest face, the cutest dimples, and she was one of those people who you couldn’t tell that she could accomplish something. She was the valedictorian at her college, a member of an elite math group, the debate team, and a jazz and tap dancer. She was someone who wanted to try everything at least once in her life, and she had succeeded in everything she had tried thus far.

  “Jess!” Lydia whined from the backseat of the black Rav4 that her father was driving. She looked a lot like her father, with unusual eyes that seemed to dance between grey, green, and blue depending on what she wore, and a friendly smile. The only thing that was different was the fact that Alfie had very light blonde hair and Lydia’s hair was long and brown. It wasn’t quite curly, but it wasn’t straight either. She had hair like her mother, who was still very close with Alfie and had a 2 year old son with her new husband. They lived upstate and Lydia’s mother Kelly was the manager of the second branch of Alfie’s coffee franchise, The Coffee Cup.

  “Ok ok, I’m going,” Jessica said. She gave Chleo a kiss on the cheek and hopped into the passenger side of the Rav4. She wound down the window and pretended to cry dramatically. She waved at Chleo.

  Chleo’s face fell and she pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket. There were people watching, but they didn’t care.

  Chleo wiped fake tears with the handkerchief and began to jog alongside the slow moving SUV.

  “Promise to write to me every day,” Chleo wailed as she reached for Jessica’s hand.

  “Every day, and twice on Sunday,” Jessica wept. She took ahold of Chleo and stared dreamily at her.

  “Oh my god,” Lydia grumbled. She just turned 11 and was getting to that age where everything that adults did around her had the potential to be extremely embarrassing. Two grown women play acting beside her was definitely one of those things.

  Lydia sank down into her seat and held up her tablet over her face. Chleo laughed at that and held up her hand. Lydia tried to hide a smile, but she couldn’t. She put up her hand and high-fived Chleo.

  Chleo watched the new family drive down the road and turn the corner. The dull ache of longing seemed to follow her back down the street, and into her flower shop.

  “You guys are so weird, you know?” Petey said when Chleo got back into the store and shut the large red Dutch door behind her.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Chleo chuckled.

  “Oh honey, if I do that, it’ll open up a whole can of worms that I’m not sure you’re ready for.”

  Petey looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. He put a stock of hydrangeas in front of his face and bat his lashes. The minute Chleo and Jessica met him they knew he would fit right into their weird little flower family.

  Petey was an oddball, but always managed to bring his drama and his emotions to work with him. His head was shaved at the back and the sides, and the remainder at the top was a bright turquoise and usually tied in a bun. He had thick rimmed glasses [even though his eyesight was perfectly fine], and it was impossible for him to go a day without wearing something black.

  “Did I tell you that Brian called? You know he’s having an affair with our friend Dave, and Dave is married to this girl Connie, and…”

  “Wait, who or what is a Brian, or a Dave, or a Connie?”

  “Remember my ex-boyfriend Tim?” Petey asked patiently. Chleo lied and slowly nodded her head.

  “Well those are all Tim’s friends from college. Brian doesn’t know that Tim knows…but Tim knows everything,” Petey went on and on while arranging flowers and dancing about the store trying to get everything to look perfect. Chleo drowned him out most of the time. She didn’t really like gossip. She much preferred joking around, or learning something.

  “Anyway,” Petey sang when he was finished with the fl
oral arrangements. He moved over to the large windows at the front of Any Blooming Thing and readjusted the large flower pots. They had ferns and overgrown aloe vera in them. “Jess tells me you were the one who caught her bouquet on Saturday.”

  “Ugh, she did that on purpose. She practically aimed it at me,” Chleo whined. Petey shrugged and heaved at another large pot until he thought it was perfectly centered.

  “You know it would be so nice if we actually put pretty flowers in the front instead of just all this green everywhere,” he mumbled half to himself and half to Chleo. “Anyway, I think she did that for a reason! When was the last time you’ve been on a date?”

  “You sound like me from like 3 years ago.”

  Chleo didn’t talk about dating. She had been single for the last two months. She had been dating a saxophonist and wannabe rapper from some trip hop group. She had a weakness for people who could play instruments. It was the one thing she hadn’t been able to master, and it always fascinated her when people could do things that she couldn’t.

  The saxophonist turned out to be a big waste of time. He would always ask her for money or a place to stay, and would emotionally manipulate her into helping him out when he was in trouble. The truth was, Chleo was too nice to the men she dated, and didn’t extend that same kindness and respect to herself. Jessica told her all of that when the relationship with the saxophonist went south. Jessica was also convinced that he had been cheating on Chleo, and that proved to be right when just two weeks after their break up, the saxophonist had moved in with some random bubble blonde.

  Chleo had had enough of shallow one-sided relationships. She wanted to focus on Any Blooming Thing and where she was going in life.

  “Earth to Chleo Antonia Matthews,” Petey said. He had this habit of saying people’s full names when he was exasperated or trying to get their attention.