“Welcome to a small town,” Rowan said. “People are in our shit whether we want them to be or not.”
“I don’t know how you deal with that.”
“Says the person who blasts their boyfriend to their 20K followers.”
“That’s different,” I said. “It was on my own terms, you know? And now you’re going to be on my page, too. Anyway, say what you will about influencers—at least we have tough skin.”
He ran his hand over my bare arm while looking at the road. “Tough, but very, very soft, too.”
His touch gave me goose bumps. This summer fling was a great idea. What could go wrong? “Okay. Let’s do this. You and me are officially dating.”
I was busy with a capitalBfor the next week. I was at the store almost every day, and I was writing a piece for the town newspaper on Lilybuds’ new “younger” line. I posted pictures of the photo shoot with Rowan on my own Instagram page and was delighted with the fan reaction to my stunning new model.
I barely saw Gia. She’d even missed our Bloom meeting on Wednesday because she had plans with Cameron. It was fine, though, because we spent the whole time trying to figure out how we’d make the frame for the sculpture, and that wasn’t really Gia’s area of expertise. And I understood. I spent all my spare time with my boyfriend, too.
True to my expectation, everyone knew Rowan and I were dating practically before we even got home from our photo shoot at the nursery. Juniper squealed with utter delight and hugged me like I was marrying her brother instead of dating him. Gia smiled knowingly because, of course, she knew.
Shar was mostly happy—I mean she loved Rowan probably more than me, but she was still a Muslim Indian Aunty, so she was required to be overprotective and a little bit judgmental. And she unfortunately told my parents about this fling before I had the chance to figure out how toavoid a replay of the safe sex and “remember your focus” talk again. So I did have to hear the lecture over FaceTime (thankfully no pantomime this time), but at least Shar was able to reassure them that Rowan was honestly everything any parent could want for their daughter. Smart. Polite. Driven. Eventually, after I reassured Mom and Dad that I would keep my priorities straight and my career goals would always come first, they said they were looking forward to meeting Rowan. They sounded sincere.
On Saturday evening, June, Rowan, Gia, and I were in the backyard with a big stack of copper tubing Rowan had found, some new rolls of chicken wire, and a large pizza. We’d already been working for an hour on the frame for the Bloom. It was progressing. Sort of.
Basically, we were using lengths of copper tubing to make the outline of the narrow lily petals, which we would then fill in with chicken wire. Then we’d attached several of the petals together to make the lily shape, and we’d use floral wire later to attach the flowers and moss to the chicken wire.
But it wasn’t going as well as we’d hoped. The biggest issue was how to get the lengths of copper tubing attached at the tips of the petals. When we wired the ends together, it all looked clumsy instead of clean and sleek like I’d imagined.
“What if we used copper wire?” June asked. She’d changed into loose jeans and a teal T-shirt after work, and her hair was pulled into a high bun. She was standing behind Rowan and me at the workbench, eating a slice of pizza.
“The frame won’t show in the finished sculpture,” I said. “I’m more concerned with the bulk added by the wire, not the color of the wire.”
“Have y’all tried gluing it?” Gia asked. She had pulled one of the lounge chairs closer to the workbench to sit on. I didn’t mind that she was more moral support and brainstorming at this meeting. Only so many hands would fit on the actual sculpture frame, anyway. Especially now, when we were working on the fiddly bits.
I looked at Rowan. Today’s shirt had two little plant pots waving to each other. One said,ALOE, HOW ARE YOU?The other responded with,LONG THYME, NO SEE!It was adorable.
“I think we have some Gorilla Glue somewhere; should we try that?” he asked.
“It’s worth a shot,” I said. After digging out the heavy-duty glue from his garage, we glued the tips of the tubes together and then taped them so they’d hold until the glue dried.
“It’s fast dry,” Rowan said, reading the back of the tube. “We have half an hour.”
We sat on the patio drinking iced tea while we waited. Rowan and I were on one couch, Juniper on the one across from us, and Gia had turned her lounge chair to face us.
“You know those pictures Cameron took of me downtown a few days ago?” Gia asked. “You have to see how many likes they got. And the comments!” She started listing some of the names of style influencers we’d connected with in the past. “My followers have been loving my flower content.”
I smiled, reclining a bit onto Rowan. His arm wrapped around my shoulder. Week one of my and Rowan’s summer fling had been very good. We’d lain out in the garden stargazing a few nights, but we’d also had some quality time alone in the tiny house up on my loft bed. Kissing until our mouths were numb or snuggling close, watching movies on my iPad.
I couldn’t get enough of him. I loved talking to him. I loved kissing him. I loved that I’d agreed to this summer fling.
“That’s awesome, Gia,” I said. “I’m so happy for you.” And I was. Maybe it was thanks to my shiny new relationship, but I was almost euphorically happy about just about everything this week.
“I saw those pictures,” June said. “They were amazing. Ooh, you know what would be cool? To do, like, outfit shots that match book covers! There’s this new release with flowers on the cover that looked alot like that dress you were wearing. Tahira, are there fashion and book Instagram accounts?”
“I mean, probably? You could start one.”
“I don’t think I have enough clothes. I have the books, though.”
“Tahira,” Gia said, “seriously, though. You’re doing yourself a big disservice by not posting flowers on your page. My engagement has tripled.”
“I had flowers on my page last week.” I’d posted the shots of Rowan and me in the greenhouse that same day we took them. They’d been well received, of course. Who wouldn’t heart a picture of Rowan’s face? “I’m trying to keep my brand consistent. I want to stick to the urban, industrial influence in my designs.”
