“Well it’s more than that. I got hurt, and I’m really mad about it.’
“He hurt you?”
“Not physically; my heart and my pride. I slept with this guy. I thought he was so amazing and, well, I found out he was engaged. I knew I shouldn’t have let it go that far.”
“You knew?”
“He came to the flower shop to get her an arrangement of flowers. Which, by the way, I can’t ever look at an orchid or a daisy again. I should have just let him have his boring red roses.”
“We love having you home, you know that, not just so you can take care of me, but because we miss you. However, you can’t run away from your problems, and you can’t avoid orchids for the rest of your life. You own a flower shop, and orchids are your favorite flower. You can’t let some guy change that for you.”
“I’m taking Dixon for a run; do you need anything from the store or anything?”
“No. No, I’m good. Go enjoy your run with Dixon.”
She took off running. Dixon kept pace with her. There was a beautiful park not far from her old house, so she took him there. They ran around the park till she reached the length of the marathon run and clocked it. She was off her time by five minutes. By the time she reached the last lap, she was out of breath and her legs were killing her. She decided she just needed to push herself. When she got back to the house, after chugging a glass of water and mixing a protein shake, she got out her old jump rope. She jumped rope in the driveway, just like she used to do as a kid. She looked up and could see her mom looking out the window at her. She waved even though she knew her mom couldn’t wave back. Still, she smiled at her.
Her cell phone kept ringing, but she let it go to voicemail even though she knew her mailbox was full. When was he going to get the hint? She was never going to answer his phone call. Maybe she should date someone and bring her date to the gym. Yeah, that would make it clear. On second thought, she didn’t really want to go through the whole dating thing. She didn’t think she could ever trust another guy again. They were all liars. Maybe her moms had the right idea; skip the men all together. She couldn’t really see herself with a woman, in fact, the only person she could really see herself with was Alistair. He was an asshole and when she pictured them together, it put her in a foul mood, and she didn’t want to be in a foul mood while visiting her moms. They needed her chipper, happy self to brighten the place up. She had forgotten to bring flowers, so after her workout, she went to the store to get her moms a beautiful bouquet. She found Calla lilies and tulips and decided to make a beautiful display together with some bright pink Gerber daisies.
She took the flowers home, found their biggest vase, set up in the kitchen, and started making the arrangement. Her mom came in from the grocery store.
“Oh, how beautiful!”
“I thought it might cheer the place up a bit.”
“Having you here cheers this place up.” She kissed her cheek “Go put that beside your mom’s bed; she loves having flowers there. Then you can come back down and help me make dinner. I’m thinking comfort food. Garlic bread and macaroni and cheese. I thought I’d throw some chopped meatballs into the macaroni.”
“That sounds great, but I’m trying to train for the marathon. Can we just have a nice chicken Caesar salad?”
“You don’t want the macaroni or garlic bread? You love garlic bread.”
“Yeah, I do, but my gut doesn’t.”
“Oh, stop that right now.”
“I was off my pace by five minutes.”
“You don’t have to win the marathon to make a difference.”
“The more laps I can run, the more money I can make. Believe me, Mom, five minutes makes a big difference.”
“We love you for doing this, we do, but you have got to pace yourself.”
“I don’t have time. Ok, I can eat a small piece of garlic bread if I run around the block after dinner. And I run in place until dinner,” she said, running in place as she dumped the contents of the bag salad into a salad spinner.
Sarai stayed with her parents for the weekend, but they sent her packing after that. She promised to come back after the marathon. They wished her luck.
The day of the marathon came at last, and she was finally starting to feel good again. She threw herself into the marathon, earning a lot of money for the charity.
Chapter 14
Alistair
Alistair threw himself into his work at the gym. He took on two new human clients, two guys who wanted to get back in shape before they started dating again. They were both obese, and Alistair had them on a strict routine and diet. One of them goofed off and flirted with all the females, but his friend took it seriously and over a couple weeks his results were showing. That whipped his friend into shape. Soon their guts were shrinking, and their muscles were getting toned. He was no longer plagued with thoughts of Sarai and he had stopped calling her phone just to hear her voice. He hadn’t started dating yet. He would wait till Phoebe and Teagan were married before he did. Maybe he would find a dragon he liked enough to accept his responsibilities. That made him chuckle to himself.
“Alistair, the game’s about to start,” Tibs said.
“I’ll be right down.” Alistair finished paying the bills and doing other paperwork, then he shut his office door and headed down to the shifter room for poker night. The room was already smoky from cigar smoke. Tibs passed him a handful and he breathed fire to light them.
