"Oh, alright," I grumble.
"Well, you have the SUV. It just makes more sense," he says.
"No. It's alright, man. I told you I would help," I say, slapping him on the back.
Sliding behind the wheel, I turn on the engine and sigh. Soon, this wedding chaos will be over, and I can go back to my solitary bachelor life.
But I guess picking up the wedding flowers isn't so bad because it means I get to see that curvy florist with the wavy, graying auburn hair. She was definitely easy on the eyes.
I putthe car into park and turn off the engine. Grabbing my phone off the passenger seat, I step out onto the gravel driveway. Right as I do, the phone buzzes in my hand, and I look down to see that it is a text from Tricia.
Hey. I'm going to bail on tomorrow night. It was kind of a weird thing for you to ask me, and I met a guy who's taking me to dinner at the Sacred Plate tonight, anyway. Good luck with everything. Bye.
I read it three times before the words truly make sense in my head. When they do, loud curses burst out of my mouth.
4
Joelle
Everywhere I look, colorful tulips surround me. Several vibrate with magic since I just spent the last twenty minutes making a few of them a little livelier. Checking my watch, I see that it's almost time for a Tanner or Alyssa family member to swing by to pick up the flowers. I catch sight of myself in the small mirror by the door and laugh at how crazy my messy bun looks. But before I have a moment to fix it, I hear a man loudly cursing outside.
Swinging open the door, I see Tanner's panty-melting hot brother glaring at his phone.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" I ask, stepping onto the front step.
"I just got some really shitty news," he grumbles, slipping his phone into his back pocket.
"Can I help?" I ask, the gravel crunching beneath my feet as I walk toward him.
"No. Not unless you want to play my fake girlfriend at Tanner's wedding today to make my elderly grandmother happy," he mutters bitterly.
"Sure," I say, and almost laugh out loud at his reaction.
"You're not serious," Evrard says, his blue eyes wide, studying my face.
"No, I am, if you need my help. I love weddings. It's one of the reasons why I got into the florist business."
"It'stoday, though."
This time, I can't help but laugh.
"Yes, I know. Hence why my shop is filled with tulips."
"Oh, yeah. The tulips," he says, smacking his forehead.
"I'll help you put them in the back of your car. I hope they all fit. Tanner seemed to think so since it's an SUV, but I don't know."
Evrard follows me into the shop. We quietly fill the back of his SUV with flowers, but when we are almost finished, he pauses in the middle of my driveway and turns to me.
"Were you serious about being my date today?"
"Yup!"
"Did you hear the part about having to act like you're my girlfriend for my grandmother's sake?" he quickly adds with a cringe.
"Yeah. That's really sweet of you," I say, walking towards the shop to get the last of the flowers.
Returning to the SUV, I quickly say an incantation to make more space in his car to fit the last of the tulips. When I turn back around, I catch Evrard grinning at me, his blue eyes sparkling in the spring sunshine.
