“Oh! Lincoln Locke, right?”
Jesus. Living in a small town can suck.
“Yeah. You think you can hook me up?”
“Jodie didn’t melt, did she? You know, you might have had better luck if you had ordered her favorite flower.”
“I don’t know it,” I admit sadly.
“That’s not good. A man should always know his girlfriend’s favorite flower,” the woman chastises.
“Can I be honest with you, here?”
“Sure!”
“Jodie doesn’t exactly know she’s my girlfriend yet.”
“Ohhh…”
“I could really use some help here. I’m not exactly experienced when it comes to chasing a woman.”
“You’re really gone for her, then. The girls have been talking about it.”
I push my hand through my hair and close my eyes. Then, I take the plunge.
“Yeah, I think I’m gone for her.”
“Then, I’ll let you know that her favorite flower is Gerbera Daisies.”
“Daisies? Are you sure? I would have figured she loved roses or something classic”
“Nope. Daisies.”
“Okay, so can you hook me up and send her something even more special than what you sent her way yesterday, but this time with daisies?”
“I can do that. You know what you might want to check into?”
“What’s that?”
“Check out Bela’s Bakery. Jodie has a big sweet-tooth.”
“Thanks, I’ll do that,” I tell her. “I’ll be by tomorrow to pay my bill and order another order.”
“Totally gone,” she laughs, hanging up the phone.
Sometimes living in a small town is annoying.
13
Jodie
Three Days Later
“Oh my God! More flowers? He’s totally knotted up in you!”
“Can you keep your voice down?” I hiss, looking around at everyone staring at me. I grab the card off the most gorgeous daisy arrangement I’ve ever seen. That’s saying something since I got a pretty spectacular one yesterday. I reach for the card, but annoying Bella grabs it before I do. “Do you mind?” I growl. Apparently she doesn’t, cause she doesn’t even blink.
“Oh my God, oh my God!” she squeals. “He’s coming by your house tonight to pick you up for dinner!”
“What?” I screech, my heart ceasing to beat as panic floods me.
“Look!” she says, flashing my card in front of my face.
I reach out quickly and grab it from her and that’s when true panic begins to set in. “He can’t come to my house!”
“He’s going to,” Bella singsongs and seriously, she’s freaking annoying. What’s worse is I’m starting to kind of like her. What’s up with that?
“No. This can’t happen. He cannot come to my house.”
“Why? Oh crap, do you live in a shelter or something? You shouldn’t be embarrassed. Linc won’t mind. He’s not the type to judge you. Besides, it’s not like he lives in a mansion,” she says and that’s definitely something we can agree on.
“He can’t come to my house because I don’t want him to meet my parents,” I mutter.
“Why not? Linc’s a great guy—”
“My dad wouldn’t think so,” I literally moan.
“Why not?”
“Because he isn’t a doctor or a lawyer. They might be willing to overlook that if he was an accountant, or had some other respectable nine to five, wear a suit, kind of job.”
“Oh yikes. I mean, that’s kind of harsh, Jodie.”
“I know. I didn’t say I felt like that, but my parents are very straight forward and set in their ways. Everything is pretty much black and white to them, there’s no gray, and Lincoln Locke definitely falls in the gray area.”
“I don’t know, I think of Linc more like a manly fuchsia,” she says thoughtfully.
“Fuchsia can be manly?” I stop and ask.
“Of course. The point is Linc is all color. The world is bright when you’re near him.”
I sigh. “Yeah, except it’s more like aqua. He’s definitely a water color,” I mumble.
“Oh! You mean because he surfs? Yeah, I can see that.”
“More like because he lives wild and free. I kind of envy that.”
“You should,” she says. For the first time, Bella sounds kind of sad. I look up at her and frown.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re like what, thirty? Still living at home and concerned about what your parents are thinking? That’s not good Jo-Jo.”
“I’m not thirty!” I snap, and I’d tell her to quit calling me Jo-Jo but it wouldn’t do any good.
“I figured, but I mean, I wasn’t sure you’d be sensitive or not. I hear some women take it hard when they turn thirty-five,” she says, patting my shoulder.
“I’m not thirty-five either!”
“Older? Well, in that case you totally wear it—”
“For Christ’s sake! I’m only twenty-six!”
“Wow, really?”
“Yes really!”
“Cool. Then, that’s much better. Because if you were staring forty in the eye and still living at home, that’s totally sad. I mean it’s not time to buy cats, but—”
“Can we stop talking about this?” I mutter, realizing that probably living at home at my age isn’t ideal either, even if it is an apartment above the garage. Still, she may have a point. Why do I care what my parents think when it comes to me dating? Or having sex? I mean, I may not want them to know, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of… right?
Oh God, am I as pitiful as Bella made me sound? Am I on the road to being the crazy cat lady? A call comes in and I signal to Bella to take it.
Me? I sit here feeling sorry for myself and wondering what I’m going to do about tonight…
14
Linc
“Do not come to my house! The last thing I need is for my parents to see you. Stay away. I told you we’re too different. And I loved the strawberries from Bela’s, but I’m sending back everything you send me from now on. Stop harassing me!”
I play Jodie’s message one more time and I can’t help but feel even more disgusted. I’ve played it ten times since I got it an hour ago and each time it’s like a kick in the gut.
She’s worried about her parents seeing me. Christ, I know I made a lot of mistakes, but I never thought I’d be Jodie’s dirty little secret. I look around my apartment, which I’ve cleaned. I even bought a real bed and one of those portable dividers to section off a bedroom in the corner. Why did I think that would impress her? How in the hell did I think I could impress her? She was slumming it when she got with me. Everything I’ve learned about Jodie in town tells me her parents are money; she’s always had it and lives a color-in-the-lines kind of life. I want her. She’s under my damn skin, but I couldn’t live like that.