“If you didn’t come to bring me coffee, then what are you doing here? It’s past five on a Friday. Shouldn’t you be out TGIF’ing it somewhere?”
“Sam DeLuca is here.”
“Here? Now?” Her hand automatically flew up to smooth down her hair.
“I thought that would perk you up. He’s here to pick up his car. Or so he says.”
Calm down, girl. He isn’t here to see you. She fought the urge to run out the door and tell him that she’d changed her mind. That she’d find a job in Dallas. That she’d give their relationship a shot. Even at the expense of a potentially better job somewhere else.
But she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t run after a man again. She’d learned that mistake with Russell. If the universe wanted her and Sam together, things would naturally work out on their own. Right?
“It makes complete sense that Sam is here,” Annie said. “After all, he did buy a car from us.”
“Are you going to talk to him?”
“I don’t normally interact with the customers. Is there a reason I should talk to him?”
“I give up,” Bridget snapped. “You can bring the mule to water, but you can’t make the stubborn ass drink.”
“You’re—”
“Fantastic? Wonderful? One of a kind?” she quipped.
“Definitely the last one.”
Bridget smiled ruefully. “I’m going to miss you when you leave.”
“How do you know I’m leaving?” Annie had contacted a headhunter this morning, but the only people she’d told were her parents and Frank Jr. This was Old Explorer’s Bay, however, where the only thing that flowed freer than the iced tea was the gossip. She sighed. “Does everyone else at the dealership know too?”
“Don’t worry. They’ve all promised to keep their mouths shut until after you and Walter have the talk.”
“Which happens in forty-five minutes, by the way.”
“Let me guess? Six o’clock on the nose at The Miramar Café? The usual booth?”
Annie nodded. “After today’s episode of Good Morning, USA, I would have preferred meeting for breakfast, but Walter wouldn’t hear of it.”
“No worries. I doubt he or anyone else at that stuffy law firm of his watches any of the morning shows.”
“Let’s hope not.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Bridget said diplomatically.
“Sure it wasn’t. Doesn’t every guy want to see his almost fiancé kissing another guy on national television?” To prove her point, Annie hit the play button on her computer keyboard.
An image of Kelly Seacrest smiling gleefully into the camera lit up the screen. “For those of you who’ve been inundating the network asking for an update on Gas Station Sam, today’s your lucky day! Producers caught up with him outside an undisclosed bar somewhere in Florida. And ladies, I’m sorry to say, he wasn’t alone.”
She gritted her teeth as she watched the most embarrassing eighty-five seconds of her life unfold on national television. Bridget hung over Annie’s shoulder to look at the screen. “My fav part is when Sam threatens to sue them. He’s practically growling. I know we’re not supposed to like the whole caveman routine, but Sam DeLuca could make a nun rethink her vows. ”
“If you say so.” Although secretly, Annie liked that part too.
“How many times have you watched it?” asked Bridget.
“Eight.”
“Masochist.”
“If that’s supposed to make me smile, you’ve failed miserably. My mother, my father, the rest of my family, all my parents’ friends, and the majority of this town have seen it multiple times. The only good thing is that I’ll be leaving town as soon as I get another job. Otherwise, I’ll never live this down.”
“Okay, so maybe it is kind of bad. But the real question is, is Sam as good a kisser as he comes across in that film? Because that would totally make the humiliation worthwhile.”
“He’s better,” she admitted. “As for the humiliation, it’s not me I’m worried about right now.”
“What are you going to say to Walter?”
“What I should have said to him three nights ago. That our relationship is over.”
Bridget peeked out the window into the dealership parking lot. “Looks like Sam DeLuca is all ready to go.”
“Oh?” Annie said, trying to sound uninterested.
“You should go talk to him.”
“And say what?”
“I don’t know. Goodbye. Good luck. Can I ride off into the sunset with you and make babies?”
Annie couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m going to miss you too, Bridget.”
“I know.”
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Manage to make everything into a joke?”
“Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?” Bridget’s smile faded. “Life is too short to worry about what other people think. If you want something, go after it. Otherwise, you’ll never be happy.”
Instead of buckets of daisies gracing the sidewalk along Main Street, today’s special was tulips. Fat, bright red and yellow tulips everywhere. They didn’t grow locally, and they’d never been Annie’s favorite, but they looked so charming and upbeat that she couldn’t help but head into the flower shop. Paula and Celeste were hunched over a computer screen. The tingling bell above the door made them both look up.
“Annie!” Paula quickly shut her laptop. “What brings you into the shop this evening?”
“Those gorgeous tulips out there. Can you wrap some up for me?”
“Of course.” Paula nudged Celeste, prompting the girl into action.
Annie waited until Celeste left to get the flowers before she pointed to the closed laptop. “What were you two looking at? You seemed practically enthralled.”
“Oh, um, we were just checking out some Pinterest sites.” Sweat glistened on Paula’s upper lip. “With … flowers.”
Pinterest sites with flowers. It made sense. But the guilty look on Paula’s face told another story. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they’d been watching. She should pretend to go along with it. After all, the older woman was just trying to spare her feelings. Annie could almost hear Gram’s voice now. This new chapter in her life would be called Annie’s Unfortunate Incident 2.0.
Laughter bubbled up inside her.
If the whole thing wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.
Bridget was right. If you couldn’t laugh at yourself, then who could you laugh at?
“Pinterest sites, huh?”
Paula blinked nervously.
Celeste came back carrying a mixed bunch of red and yellow tulips.
“Perfect,” said Annie, admiring the flowers. “By the way, did either of you catch today’s Good Morning, USA show?”
Paula and Celeste exchanged a guilty look. “Um …” Paula began.
Annie handed over her credit card. “If you haven’t seen it, then you should. There’s like a twenty-second makeout session between me and Sam DeLuca. You know, the guy from Single Gal that you two were all gaga about? Of course, right after that, things start to go downhill fast, but those twenty seconds? Totally worth it.”