Fresh As A Daisy Omega: A MPREG Omegaverse Romance (Omegas In Bloom Book 1)

by Ava Beringer

  “Say that three times fast,” Gabe said. “You still ended up with your Prince Charming, even if you did have to slay the federal dragon.”

  “Don’t some of us get the real fairy tale, though?” I asked desperately, hoping someone would tell me yes.

  “Even those of us who aren’t Snow White?” Gabe added.

  “Or Black or Brown?” Miguel asked, winking at Buster.

  “Guys, that was a reference to me being easy.” Gabe threw a wink of his own. Buster flapped his hand like a fluttering brown bird.

  “I don’t believe in fairy tale love. Everything starts off roses, pun intended, then ends with an empty, alpha-shaped wet spot on your mattress.” Clarke did a spit take. “Clarke, if you took those same skills you’re applying to the bottle and used them on an alpha, you’d have your fairy tale by now.”

  “Ha, ha haaaaaa ha ha,” Ginger cackled from the other room.

  “They’re not all like that. They couldn’t be,” I piped up.

  “If you have to say ‘they’re not all like that’ in any situation, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands,” Buster said. Gabe cupped my cheek.

  “I’m so glad you’re not old and bitter like us. Stay innocent and fresh, my sweet little flower.” I pinched Gabe’s arm.

  “You guys are only like six or seven years older than me.”

  “True, but there’s a major difference between your early twenties and late twenties.”

  “I believe you, but I’m not a baby.” I was twenty-two years old, after all. They all exchanged looks and I fought off the urge to pout, because that would just prove their point.

  “Suuuuuuuure you’re not,” Miguel said. Then he waved a hand. “Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with sleeping with someone. Sex is to be enjoyed by all and I don’t believe in slut-shaming. I do believe in heart-protecting. If we confuse sex with love and want to be in love so bad we force it on the wrong people, we’ve got to be aware of that. We’ve got to be more cautious and make sure not to go handing our heart to just anybody. We can be in love, we can be sexual, and we can combine the two, we just need to reserve it for the one who deserves it.” He stuck his hip out and grinned. “If we have some fun along the way, so be it. But we reserve it for who deserves it. Ooh, I like that. Can I put it on a t-shirt?”

  “What about that law-of-attraction stuff?” Clarke said, waving the bottle. “You know, like imagine your perfect alpha, write it down and all that…”

  “Then make a shrine in your room and chant mumbo jumbo while you burn patchouli incense?” Gabe snarked. I held my arms out toward all the bouquets in the shop.

  “I can’t even get an alpha to buy me flowers. Not once has anyone given me flowers. Can I chant that up? That would be my sign I’ve found the right one,” I said. Buster threw an arm around my shoulders and held up a finger.

  “I have heard some of that stuff works, though. They say you need to get your life ready for your significant other. For example, if you’ve been single for a long time you think like a single person, but if you had a mate you’d do different things. They say make space in half your closet for your mate’s clothes. Push your bed out of the corner so they can get in on their side. Make sure their side of the bed isn’t covered in iPads and dirty socks, you know, all that stuff.”

  “Hmm. That’s a great idea, Buster,” I said, feeling encouraged.

  “Thanks. I’m full of ‘em.”

  “You mean full of it?” Gabe said.

  “That, too,” Buster said. My friends made me feel so much better.

  A few hours later, once I was home in my efficiency apartment, I dropped onto my squeaky bed and thought about what happened earlier that day. Could Ralph be my alpha? I had thought while working. Less than a minute later, I got a text from Ralph.

  Hey. I had fun, but I think we should see other people. I was stricken. Ralph, the alpha who just laid in this exact bed with me while we planned our future together? My reply sounded desperate, but I didn’t care.

  What? Why? Was it something I did? The little “read” notification appeared under his text. I waited for the bubble with the three dots, waited with baited breath to see what he’d have to say, to see how I messed up this time.

  There was nothing. Like a fool, I waited. I pulled my phone out and looked at it again, hoping it had magically changing in the last five hours. Not again, not again. I wiped at the hot tear that gathered in the corner of my eye. I’m not gonna cry. I did cry, but only for a minute.

  “No fairy tale for me. I failed again. I’m a fool.” I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, blocking any more tears from falling as the emotions I’d been holding back caught up with me. “Miguel said to reserve my heart for the one who deserves it. Ralph didn’t deserve it. I tried to make him into the one, but he’s not the one. I tried to force a love story when it wasn’t there.” I stood up and paced over my worn brown carpet. “Okay, so I had fun with my body. Nothing wrong with that, but I confused sex with love and intimacy.” Things were much more clear when I thought of them that way. Ralph’s rejection hurt, but it lessened now that I wasn’t trying to force him to be the one.

  I looked over my tired but cozy little apartment. What if Buster’s idea wasn’t so ridiculous? What if I needed to make room for my mate in my home, as well as keep a protected space for him in my heart?

  I nodded and got down to business.

  My bed was smashed into a corner, but only because I barely had enough space to turn around in my bedroom area. I shimmied the heavy old bed away from the wall, just enough so an alpha could comfortably walk back and forth but I still had room to do a downward dog in my postage-stamp living area. I cleared off the dirty laundry and a stack of old DVDs. How did Buster know?

  I targeted old clothes I hadn’t worn in a year and threw out of my closet in bright streaks of rainbow colors. I pulled picture frames down from high on the shelves; some were gifts from family, some were “new” ones I’d picked out from the thrift store, just waiting for pictures of a family. I cradled a frame outlined in blue with yellow ducklings on it. Perfect for the baby I wanted so badly.

  Dusty boxes perched high in my closet; my hands were flying through them before I knew it. I never wanted to pull it out before, but now seemed like the right time. In a zippered plastic bag, protected and preserved, was the blanket passed down to me by my grandmother. It was a small quilt, made of patches of red and blue gingham. I gently, reverently removed it from the bag, holding it in my hands and feeling the smooth fabric on my fingers. The quilt was built Ford tough, made to last, but I treated it as a delicate thing because it was all I had left from a person who truly loved me.

  “You’re a sweet, gentle soul,” she told me when I was seven. “The world can be a cold place, but don’t ever let it change you. Don’t ever lose the loving kindness that makes you who you are. Let your light shine bright.” I didn’t understand at the time, but I promised I would. Fifteen years later, I got it. The world could be a cruel, mean place, and it would steal your joy, make you mean and hard and angry if you let it. I hugged the quilt, picking up the faint whiffs of my grandma’s scent that still remained.

  “For your little one,” she said when she laid it in my little arms. “I may never get a chance to see them, but they need to know they’re loved. This will just have to substitute for Great-Grandma’s hugs.” I heard her chuckling in my memory. Less than a six months later, she was gone.

  “I made up my mind, Grandma,” I said out loud as I folded her gift and laid it on my pillow. “I’m reserving my heart for the alpha who deserves me, the one who appreciates my sweet, gentle soul. Ralph’s not going to ruin my night. He did me a favor by letting me go. Tomorrow’s going to be a brand new day, a brand new chapter in my life, and I’ve already decided it’s going to be great.”

  I folded myself under my covers and turned my light off. I lay there in the darkness, drifting off to thoughts of my perfect mate and the baby I wanted so badly. I had no idea wh
at the storm was about to blow in.

  2

  Preston

  The second I stepped onto the forty-fourth floor of the downtown Chicago high-rise, I sensed the panic.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, straightening the lapels on my navy silk suit, already preparing to put out a fire. Interns and assistants scurried past. I grabbed one by the shoulder and repeated the question. The young woman’s eyes rolled in her head like a wild horse and she couldn’t catch her breath.

  “Look at me, look at me. Deep breath. Now, tell me what’s going on.”

  “It’s the Kaplan account, Mr. Reid. They’re threatening to walk. Mr. Kaplan is here in the building.” Her last words came squeaking out.

  “Alright, kiddo, don’t panic. I’m gonna handle it.” She wasn’t much younger than me, maybe eighteen, but I was twenty-seven and doing business with people twice my age so she seemed like a kid to me. I patted her shoulder and sent her on her way, my brain processors firing up.

  “This is worse than I thought. If Kaplan is in the building, he isn’t threatening anything. He’s walking.” Kaplan was the type of old-school businessman who liked to do things face-to-face. If he came all the way to Chicago from Primrose Keep in person, he’d already made his mind up that he was no longer in need of our services.

  I crossed the fresh, blue and gold-checkered carpet on the way to my corner office. I needed a second to gather myself before everyone dumped their panic on me. I worked for mutual fund company Portland, Co. I was Vice President of Marketing, which made me the fixer. I had to find a way. I brought Kaplan’s account in, and I was going to keep him.

  Our CEO Jane Martin was in the conference room with Mr. Kaplan, both alphas sitting informally and making simple gestures. The seeming casual nature of the conversation was unnerving. Almost like a heart-to-heart. A “let me help you understand why I’m firing you.” Our COO Patricia and CFO Skip looked on from the opposite side of the massive lacquered wood table, keeping their poker faces on as best as they could. I took a deep breath, straightened my Hermes tie, and squared my shoulders. I strode into the conference room with a big confident smile on my face, as if Mr. Kaplan came to give us a personal pat on the back.

  The glass door opened silently, but both alphas looked up at the rush of the wind.

  “Mr. Kaplan, you’re here in Chicago. To what do we owe the pleasure?” I extended my hand and gave the man a firm handshake. Jane kept her business face on, but I saw the line of her shoulders go less rigid when I arrived.

  Kaplan chuckled light-heartedly.

  “Young man, I know you’re under no illusions why I’m here.” He wasn’t unkind. He smiled and the wrinkles gathered around his eyes. I laughed and nodded slowly.

  “You got me. No sir, I am not. I’d love to hear why you’ve decided to leave us.”

  “Let me guess. You’re going to figure out a way to keep me.”

  “Yes sir, that’s right.” A cocky play, but that was the game.

  “I like your spirit, Reid, and that’s how you convinced me to let this company handle my assets in the first place, but I’m afraid we’ve gone as far as we can go. Your company simply isn’t capable of fulfilling my needs anymore.”

  “Why don’t you explain the situation to me and let us be the judge of that.” I took a seat on the edge of the table, one hip cocked, my leg bent and dangling with the other foot on the floor. I leaned forward and rested my forearm on my knee. “I’m all ears. I care about you,” the pose said, while still saying, “I’m a businessman who’s in total control here.”

  “Your company isn’t big enough to handle my assets anymore. I need more power and more resources, which you just don’t have access to with your medium-sized firm.” I dropped my chin into my hand and furrowed my brow.

  “Hmm. You’re right about that, Mr. Kaplan. We don’t have the power or size, visibility or convenience of a large firm. We can’t compete with them as far as pure muscle.” My eyes scanned the carpet as I thought of how to play this. Ask questions, a little voice in my head said.

  “What exactly is it you’re looking for from the big firms that you can’t get from us?”

  “First of all, they have cutting edge management software. Faster trades, quicker stock updates, better calculation capabilities, etc.”

  “Okay, what else?” I asked, stroking my chin as I thought of how we could counter that. Kaplan went on to list his reasons for changing to a larger firm. I nodded along, calculating the whole time. Finally, the light bulb went off.

  “Mr. Kaplan, as I said before, we don’t have the capabilities the larger firms do. We’re at a disadvantage there. We’re at a disadvantage in another area as well, but that puts all the power in your hands.” Kaplan sat up at that.

  “Oh? How so?” I grinned.

  “You’re aware that you’re our biggest client by far.”

  “Yes, I’m well aware.”

  “Then you’re aware that we can’t afford to lose you.” Kaplan caught my drift immediately. His face broke out in a grin that mirrored my own.

  “Showing all your cards there, aren’t you, son?” He said with a twinkle in his eye. I shrugged.

  “It’s either bare my heart or watch you walk out of my life forever,” I said, batting my eyes and folding my hands over my chest. Kaplan laughed, a deep guffaw sound that filled the office.

  “This. This is why you hooked me the first time, young man. Lay your solution out for me.” Jane had been sitting silently the whole time, faking nonchalance with an elbow propped up on the table. At those words, she let her eyes fall closed for just a moment. We were in the home stretch, almost safe at home plate. Letting a client get the upper hand was never ideal, but in this case, it was better than letting a full forty percent of our revenue walk out the door.

  “First, we’ve got our upper management team and the whole board of directors to put at your disposal. I’ll bring the technology idea to them. They’ll say yes to implementing a smaller version of your preferred software that’s not as advanced but will have all the features you need to bring you, and us, up to date. Thanks for that, by the way. It’ll help us play with the big boys.”

  “As you can see, in a larger firm you’d become just a number. Here, you rule the roost. We can give you personal care and responsiveness. We can tweak things to make them to your liking.” I held my arms out to indicate the conference room and the snazzy floor of Portland Co. “We’re going to push for rapid growth so we can handle even bigger accounts, but hey, at this point you might not want that.” I shrugged, smug now that I knew I had him. “Besides, the big guys are overrated. Did you see what happened with Certified?”

  “Alright, Reid, I’ll consider sticking around a little longer as long as you get those changes implemented right away. You’d change all your tech around for us, eh?”

  “If it gets you to stay, absolutely. I want this to be a mutually beneficial partnership, but if you get too bratty, we’ll cut our losses and move on, but we’re more than happy to pivot.” Kaplan laughed out loud again.

  “I love this kid!” He said to Jane, who chuckled along. Business types loved when you were in their face.

  “I’ll need you to fly out to Primrose Keep. Convince my team, give them this little speech.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow.” I didn’t blink an eye.

  “Done. Send me the flight details and I’ll be there.” I held my hand out, confident and sure. Kaplan took it and gave me a hearty, satisfied shake.

  When we came out, the whole office was as still and silent as a shootout at OK Corral. Everyone was hiding in their cubicles, ears open, waiting for the bombs to drop.

  “You can tell your staff to come out now. The apocalypse is not upon them,” Kaplan said. I laughed out loud and thumped him on the back.

  “They’ll be doing a waltz once they hear how well everything went and all their jobs are secure.” A few heads were already popping up, like soldiers out of a fox hole after
a raid, as the elevator doors slid closed.

  I went down to the ground floor and through the lobby with Kaplan, and even our security guard eyed us nervously. Kaplan’s car was waiting for him, an alert doorman with perfect posture waiting to hustle him away.

  “I’ll be seeing you and your team tomorrow, Mr. Kaplan.”

  “As always, it’s a pleasure doing business with you, Preston.”

  I came back to a standing ovation. Skip clapped me on my arm and Patricia punched me in the chest.

  “You put on a clinic in there, Reid,” Skip said. “You saved our sorry asses.” I straightened my lapels again, this time with satisfaction instead of nerves.

  “How many times am I gonna have to bail you suckers out?” I said with a grin.

  “As many times as you’ll stay for,” Jane said from behind me. She held up a hand and everybody fell silent. She addressed our whole office. “As the lot of you could tell, our asses were in a sling just now. Our largest account was about to walk away and almost half of my company with him. It would have devastated us.” The room was silent, imagining what might have happened. Jane thumped me solidly on the back, the sound reverberating through the whole open floor plan. “Lucky for us we’ve got this guy. I hate to puff his ego up even bigger than it already is, ‘cause it’s liable to suffocate us all.” Everybody laughed. “He deserves it. At the very least, I think I owe him a shiny new toy. Drinks and apps in his honor tonight at the Met. Everybody come on down, it’s on Portland, Co.” The whole office cheered.

  “Hear that, Preston? You’re the hero,” Pat said.

  “Where the hell’s my cape, Patso?” She rolled her eyes playfully.

  “Aw hell, we’re never gonna hear the end of this one, are we?”

  “Nope,” I said.

  “You deserve it, brother.” Inwardly, I was flying. I was the king, the top dog, the genius, the savior. I ate it up, and I couldn’t wait to get celebrated tonight. I’d fly out to Primrose Keep for a few days, knock Kaplan’s team dead, and have a proposal for a raise ready to go by the time I touched back down in Chicago. I couldn’t wait to pick up, either. As I had the thought something nagged at me, buzzing in my ear like a mosquito. You don’t wanna pick up, it said. I ignored it because that was ridiculous. I was young, handsome, and successful. Of course I wanted to pick up. I ignored the buzzing and got ready to have some fun.