5
flowers…again
Niklas opened the door from the house to the garage and squeezed my shoulder.
“Are you ready?”
I smiled up at him. “I’m not sure I’m ready, but I’m definitely more relaxed now.”
Niklas chuckled.
“Me, too,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Let’s hope it lasts.”
Niklas pressed the button to open the garage door, and light flooded in, bringing two cars into view. My gaze skimmed over a rather nondescript silver car and landed on the shiny, black, two-seater convertible. My eyes widened. That one looked like fun.
I smiled up at Niklas. “Have I entered the bat cave?”
Niklas snorted.
“Let’s take that one, top down,” I said, pointing.
I looked up at Niklas again, and he frowned. “I think it’s a little flashy for meeting your parents, don’t you?”
I sighed. He was right. Flashy wasn’t the right tone for my parents, especially if they were still holding out for dependable Brad.
He read the disappointment on my face and added, “We can take it out, just the two of us.”
I nodded and walked over to the boring silver car. I opened the passenger door, and my eyes widened. However unexceptional the outside of this car looked, the inside made up for it. The dark interior felt private as I ducked in, and I could almost feel how soft the seats would be before I even sat down. The car felt sensual in a way that I didn’t know cars could.
“Like it?” he asked, slipping into the driver’s seat. “It actually costs more than the other one, but you’d never know from the outside. Which is why I bought it.”
I understood. As fun as the black two-seater looked, this was much more Niklas’s style. This was the guy who helped me find a quirky, homey hotel when we moved on to Greece but quietly bumped my ticket to first class, “So we can sit together.”
The car provided some distraction as we glided through his neighborhood, but as we turned onto more familiar roads, a tense silence settled. My attention drifted to the impending dinner with my parents. Except I couldn’t picture Niklas in the scene at all. Our relationship existed outside the world of my hometown, and the more familiar the roads became, the more I wondered if this was a mistake.
At least Niklas had the sense to leave the convertible behind. Even the luxury of this understated car managed to make me feel out of place on my own territory. The rift between us grew in the silence.
One glance at Niklas suggested his thoughts were about the same. The muscles of his jaw tensed and worked, and there was no hint of his teasing smile for reassurance. I closed my eyes.
“I should have told them about you first, before we came,” I blurted out. “I’m sorry.”
Niklas didn’t take his eyes off the road, but he unclenched one hand from the steering wheel and rested it on my thigh.
“It’ll be fine,” Niklas said, stroking me gently.
“This’ll be rough on my father,” I continued, speaking faster. “He’s not much for staying together before marriage—it’s the Catholic thing. He was really upset when I moved in with Brad, and at the time he thought we were getting married. He still thinks it might happen, in fact. He loves Brad. Staying with someone who I practically just met, who doesn’t even want to get married—”
“I didn’t say that,” he interrupted. “I said I never imagined getting married before.”
I frowned.
Niklas glanced over at me. “Next time, maybe we should talk about this kind of thing a little further ahead?”
“Yep,” I mumbled.
“I thought you were the one with more relationship experience,” he said, his mouth hinting at a smile.
I rolled my eyes. “Clearly not the good, healthy kind.”
