“What’s up, Cy?” Peter greeted me. “Thanks for calling me back so soon.”
“Yeah, sure.” I moved my hand to the back of my neck and squeezed, weaving my way through the crowd of people in the lobby of the skyscraper. “I just got out of a meeting. What do you need?”
“Like I said on the text, Jenny found a floral company online she might want to use. A place called The Watering Can. I’ll text you the address. Do you think you’ll be able to check it out for us sometime this week?”
“Yeah.” I sighed and pushed my way through the double doors leading out onto the street. The humidity level was starting to rise, and soon, the city would be stuffy and sweltering once more. “I’ll go tomorrow. Anything else?”
“That’s it for now.”
Thank God. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Thank you again for doing this for us. We really do appreciate it.”
And that right there, the genuine thank you and appreciation in his tone, was why I couldn’t back out of our agreement. No matter how much doing all this wedding shit was going to suck, my brother needed me to do this properly and there was no way I could let him down. Not after everything he’d done for me.
Chapter 5
Luna
“Before I had Adi, I had all these fantastic ideas about how to raise children,” April said as she pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and collapsed into the chair across from mine. “It’s amazing how much those ideas have changed over the years.”
We were meeting for lunch at an outdoor cafe near both our apartments and I’d managed to snag us a table underneath a large umbrella. Whiffs of melting butter, bitter coffee and the occasional hint of garlic drifted out from inside, drawing more and more people in like moths to a flame.
Maybe I should do something like this with my shop, start frying bacon in the office or making toasted sandwiches at the counter.
April’s voice broke into my thoughts as she slumped back in her chair, letting her purse drop to the ground next to her feet.
“I mean, I swore to anyone who would listen that my kid would never eat fries for breakfast. Guess what Adi had for breakfast this morning, Luna? Fucking fries.”
“At least she ate,” I said, offering my friend a smile as I pushed a menu over to her. “Now it’s your turn to do the same. In case you don’t feel it today, let me remind you that you are an amazing mother and you’re doing your best.”
“Thanks,” she said, her voice calmer now. “I guess being a mother is just nothing like how I thought it was going to be. For starters, I never thought I’d be doing it alone.”
“Your ex is an ape. As far as I’m concerned, you’re both better off without him.”
“Don’t insult apes that way.” Her eyes sparkled with laughter despite the seriousness of the topic. It was one of the things I loved most about April, her ability to smile through anything life threw at her and to make others laugh about it too. “At least when they fling shit at you, they’re letting you know honestly that they want you to fuck off. They don’t keep lying about it until they finish their studies.”
“True. He’s a real class act to follow. I’m sorry to say this, but it’s a good thing your marriage to him didn’t work out. I shudder to think about the damage he would have caused you both if he was still in your lives.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re right. Divorcing him was the best damn thing I’ve ever done. I should have thrown myself a fucking party.” She snapped her fingers before waving one at me. “You should look into that, flower arrangements for divorce parties instead of for weddings. Doing flowers for weddings only fuels the idea of marriage. You should do re-bachelorette parties, divorce-iversaries. All those kinds of parties instead. It’s a way more realistic industry to be supporting.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea. I know all those things are, well, a thing, but I’ve never really thought about catering to that market.” The romantic inside me kicked and screamed against the idea, but at this point, I had to take whatever I could get.
Hope flickered in April’s eyes. “So you’re going to stop doing weddings?”
I snorted out a laugh. “No way. Weddings are still the best way for me to make money. The other functions and day-to-day sales help, but weddings are what keeps the doors open and the lights on.”
“Damn right,” she said. “It’s a well-known fact that anyone who works in the wedding industry charges at least double what they normally do when they’re doing it for a wedding. If I had the ten thousand dollars back I spent on my wedding, I’d go on vacation for a month.”
“I don’t charge more,” I protested, but then I remembered that I had done it once or twice. “I’ve only ever charged more when it’s taken me forever to source something special the bride insisted on or something like that. But then I’ve put in a lot of time to track it down and I’ve used my own phone to make all those calls.”
“Fair enough, but I wasn’t talking about you anyway. You have to be the only honest person in the entire industry, I swear. If you look at my pictures and I tell you what I was charged for things, you’d faint.”
“If it’s for your wedding, though, I figure it’s worth it. Didn’t you feel that way at the time?” I couldn’t help it. That romantic who lived deep down in the depths of my soul just wouldn’t quit.
As much as I hadn’t been in a serious relationship since Landon and wasn’t looking for one, I still desperately believed in love. I figured I’d get back on the proverbial horse eventually and start looking for my own Prince Charming, but I wasn’t ready yet.
April rolled her eyes so hard, I thought they’d get stuck in the back of her head. “It doesn’t matter if I felt that way at the time. I was wrong. I learned my lesson. Now I just have to pass it onto you so you don’t have to learn it for yourself.”
I propped my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my palm, noticing that despite the laughter still in her eyes, she was also deadly serious. “Do you honestly believe there’s no one else out there for you? You’re such a loving, radiant person. There has to be someone out there you were meant to be with.”
“If there is, he’s going to be alone for the rest of his life.” Her tone was resolute, her chin tilting up in determination. “I mean it, Luna. I don’t care if I meet the hottest guy on the planet when I get back to work this very afternoon. I don’t care if he’s every dream I’ve ever had come true and I don’t even care if he’s desperate to be the father of a six-year-old. All I’d do is fuck him. I’m never getting married again.”
My heart felt like it’d been whacked by a skillet at her words and the absoluteness of them. April deserved only the very best in life, and yet she’d been dealt a pretty crappy hand in love. I wondered if that was how it worked, though. If someone got burned that badly once, was it impossible for them to ever really move on?
I wanted to believe it was, but I just didn’t know. Landon hadn’t burned me that badly. He’d stung me enough to leave a scar, and I definitely wasn’t the same happy-go-lucky, trusting girl I was before, but he also definitely hadn’t taken me out of the game for good. I was merely recovering.