He Put Our Love on Pause, Then Married Her Behind My Back novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Deposit

A stranger from the break room orders every ranunculus in the shop while the bride walks in smiling and hires Jenna for the reception, and Jenna charges exactly what was stolen.

I opened the shop at seven the next morning with a swollen face and no plan.

Roz was already behind the counter, trimming stems with the look she gets when someone owes her money.

"Forty-one missed calls," she said. "All Travis. I let them ring."

"Thank you."

"He also wrote, 'Tell Jen to be reasonable.' I wrote back, 'She's a florist. She has a knife.'"

I laughed, and then I had to hold the edge of the counter.

The bell over the door rang at 7:20.

It was the man from the back of the break room.

Same charcoal jacket, no paper cup.

"Are you open?" he said.

"We open at eight."

"The sign says seven."

"The sign lies on Fridays."

Roz made a small noise into a bucket of eucalyptus.

He looked at the cooler instead of at me.

"I'm Sam Redfield," he said. "I own the building you delivered to."

"You own the company, or the building?"

"Both."

So the man who held the door was the boss of the man who had just married someone else.

"I'm sorry for your trouble in my break room," Sam said. "I didn't know he'd do it there."

"Did you clap?"

"No."

"I noticed."

"I didn't want to," he said. "I also didn't leave. That was a mistake."

I didn't know what to do with a man who admitted his mistakes before nine.

"What do you want, Mr. Redfield?"

"Every ranunculus you have. And a standing order for the lobby, every Monday, for as long as you'll do it."

"You're buying flowers because you feel sorry for me."

"I'm buying flowers because the lobby has a plastic ficus in a Santa hat, and it's November."

Roz gave up on the eucalyptus and laughed out loud.

"It's a good lobby order," she said to me, not quietly. "It's the kind with an invoice."

"I don't take charity," I said.

"It's not charity," Sam said. "Charity wouldn't make you hang them."

He wrote his number on the back of one of our cards and put it on the counter.

He did not smile.

I caught myself looking at his hands, and I made myself stop.

The bell rang again at 8:05.

I knew the perfume before I turned around.

Brooke came in holding two coffees and a smile, in a camel coat, with concealer under her eyes.

"I brought you a latte," she said. "Oat. That's what you drink, right? Travis always said."

She put it on the counter.

I did not touch it.

"Please don't throw me out," she said. "I can't stand this. I want us to be adults."

"You want to be adults."

"I do. Honestly." She picked up the pink Vegas magnet from the counter, turned it over, read the back, and put it down very fast. "Cute."

Then she smiled harder.

"I came to ask you something, and you can say no. My dad's club is hosting the reception. Four weeks from tomorrow. A hundred and forty guests, the ballroom, twenty tables. I want your flowers."

Roz stopped moving.

"You want me to do your wedding flowers."

"You're the best in the city," Brooke said. "Everyone says it. Honestly I'd feel sick if anyone else did them. Whatever you charge. It's Travis's card."

I looked at the latte.

I thought about the bank app on my phone, and the number $8,400.

"Deposit is due at booking," I said. "Half of the first estimate, nonrefundable. For a ballroom that size it's eight thousand four hundred dollars."

Roz made a high, strangled noise.

Brooke didn't blink.

"Done," she said. "Travis can run it right now."

She took out her phone and tapped it.

The shop card reader on my counter lit up, and a few seconds later it said APPROVED.

I looked at the number on the screen.

I had just charged my own stolen savings to the man who stole them.

"You'll do it?" Brooke said. "Truly?"

"I'll do it."

She squeezed my hand across the counter. Her fingers were cold.

"You're an angel," she said, and left.

Roz waited until the bell stopped.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"He took eight thousand four hundred dollars from me," I said. "Now his card has paid it back."

"You're going to be in a ballroom for that wedding."

"I'm going to be in a ballroom with a hundred and forty people watching him."

Roz thought about it.

"I'll bring the knife," she said.

My phone buzzed.

It was Travis, for the forty-second time.

"I saw the charge go through. Thank you for being mature. Just don't make it weird at the reception."

I held the phone out so Roz could read it.

Then I typed back one line.

"I'm not making it weird. I'm making it floral."

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