“Excellent.” Beryl said to the manager, “A pleasure to meet you, Frederick. Hope to see you soon.”
Frederick smiled. “Indeed, it was my pleasure to meet you as well, Beryl.” His gaze shot over her shoulder to Jake when he added, “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again very soon.”
Beryl slowly walked toward the exit. Jake took a few longs strides to reach it first, opening the door for her. No. He did not usually do that for customers, but Beryl was special. Even his gut agreed.
She left with a wave, saying, “See you at one, Jake.”
As soon as the door closed, Frederick said, “She is perfect for you, Jake. I think the two of you will be very happy together.”
“What makes you say so?”
“Ancient Chinese secret,” he said with a laugh.
“Oh? I thought your ancestors came from South Korea,” Jake said with a smirk.
“My great-grandparents did, but it is clear to me that your new friend Beryl likes you, likes your artistry in this shop, but mostly, she really likes you. And I think that is great.”
Jake shrugged. “I was going to ask her out, but she beat me to it.”
Frederick nodded. “Exactly. Makes me like her even more. She’s a smart one.”
Jake didn’t disagree.
Chapter Nine
Beryl practically skipped back to the Supernova Supermarket. She installed the bracket herself, which gave her a sense of pride. It fit perfectly, as she knew it would.
She hadn’t planned on asking Jake out, but she was so worried that he wouldn’t ask her that her mouth opened and she spoke before reason or worry could cloud her judgment in the matter. The transaction was done. They were no longer business owner and client. Therefore, the relationship could begin. Beryl wanted to make sure it did. She didn’t want to miss out.
It didn’t even occur to her until she was walking—skipping—back to the supermarket that if she had been mistaken about his possible feelings for her, he could have turned down her picnic idea.
But he hadn’t.
She’d seen by the look in his eye the instant her mouth opened that he had been about to ask her out. That made her smile again. She wondered where they would be going if she let him speak first. Honestly, it didn’t matter. Next time, he could ask her out and they could go someplace that he chose.
Beryl had been thinking about a picnic before Ashleigh had forced a conversation on her.
Once again, Beryl smiled in giddy recollection of how Jake stood up for her against her nemesis. The terrible memory that Ashleigh had brought up circled her brain before Beryl shoved it to the back of her mind. She didn’t need to go there.
Now she had Jake. Well, she would have him for a little while, anyway. A part of her wondered at the foolish idea of starting a relationship with a human, knowing it could never result in matrimony. Still, Beryl had to live her life. No relationship was going to be perfect. She had certainly learned that the hard way.
Beryl’s new goal in life was to take things as they came, one day at a time. She couldn’t predict what would happen with Jake, except that she knew she couldn’t marry him and go back to Alpha-Prime.
She wouldn’t.
In the meantime, she would pretend that she was a human simply having a whirlwind relationship with another human for as long as it worked out.
Beryl spent a couple of moments trying to convince herself that being with Jake would work out, someway, somehow, but she knew she was lying to herself.
Still, she liked him a lot and promised herself to take things very slowly and to bail if he got too serious too fast.
That was going to test her willpower to the nth degree. Merely being within sensory range of him had made her feel like a gushing teenage girl. The sight of him. The smell of him. The way he’d stood up for her.
Yes, Jake was special, but she wasn’t going to let this relationship get out of hand. She understood her boundaries and vowed not to cross any of them.
Jake could hardly concentrate on anything after Beryl left his shop. Frederick was visibly amused by his lack of focus and by the fact that he spent quite a bit of time out in the retailpart of the shop instead of in his workshop, where he should be working.
