Page 64 of Flowers Near Me

She laughed softly. “I’ll wait to see.”

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

THE PROBLEM WITH PRETENDING

PERSEPHONE

Lounging on one of the leather chairs in the main living room, Persephone thumbed through photos of Hades and her from their late lunch the day before. Cerberus curled up on the floor nearby. A few news outlets had published articles with the photos, linking them to other social accounts with even more photos. She and Hades looked convincing as a couple—almost endearingly so. There were a few pictures where she was watching the chef, but Hades was smiling and watching her.

She didn’t trust her intuition with him. Whether he was immersed in this role of her fake boyfriend or what he claimed he felt about her was true, he looked smitten. Even worse, she wanted him to adore her because she was enjoying their time together.

Soon, an ugly, unwelcome question formed in her mind.How did he look when he was with other women?Unable to distract herself with meditation and unwilling to set her phone down, she stared at photos of Hades at different events with immaculate dates on his arm.

She couldn’t discern the type he seemed to prefer. His companions spanned the spectrum of beauty—slender, sumptuous, athletic, willowy, tall, short, dark or fair skinned and everything in between. Cascading hair to buzzed pixie cuts. Did he look happy? Smitten? Proud? In love?

Who knows?

The chime of the doorbell caused her to drop the phone on the woven rug, barely missing a now awake Cerberus. The dog popped up and trotted towards the hallway.

“Good morning,” Charon greeted as she placed canvas tote bags filled with groceries onto the marble counter. She tossed Cerberus a treat and he carried it off into another room.

“Hi! I didn’t realize you were stopping by.” Persephone grabbed her phone off the floor and made her way towards the coffee pot. “What can I get you to drink?”

Plucking items from the bags and setting them into the fridge drawers, Charon replied, “Coffee if there’s some left.”

“There is. Hades left early and only had one cup.” She poured the steaming liquid and grabbed a creamer she had seen Charon use in the office. “But I’m sure you already knew he’d be out this morning.”

Charon laughed and began folding the empty totes. “You give me too much credit. Between the two of you, I tend to memorize your schedule and not his.”

Persephone handed her the mug. “Do you have somewhere you need to be soon, or can you stay for a bit?”

“Actually, I’d like to stay because I have a few things I wanted to run by you if that’s okay. I know it’s your day off, but I’d like to get your dress fitting scheduled now that the gala’s date has been set.”

Did Charon help all those other women pick out their outfits too?Charon probably did and did so with the same professionalism and respect she showed everyone.Don’t be an idiot.

With a hand raised in surrender, Charon said, “I’m sorry. We don’t have to do this right now. I thought?—”

Shaking her head, embarrassed that her emotions were so clearly written on her face and that Charon had mistaken her insecurity for disliking her suggestion, Persephone cut in, “No, it’s fine. Of course we can pick the dress.”

They each sat in a chair and reclined with their coffees.

“I have a few I want you to take a look at,” said Charon.

“Let’s see them.”

Charon nodded as she scrolled on her phone then Persephone’s pinged with a message. There were five different dresses. All floor length but vastly different from one another in color, fabric, and style.

“These are all very pretty, but the black silk one is my favorite. I was thinking something black but didn’t know if that would be strange for the launch of a flower market app,” Persephone remarked.

Charon hummed in agreement. “The bodice is covered in petals, and I think the black is a nice nod to Underworld Unlimited. Plus, you look great in black.”

Persephone blushed. Why the affirmation from Charon affected her, she had no clue.

“I’ll ask the shop to pull more black silk gowns, and we can set your fitting as soon as they have an opening.” Charon typed on her phone.

“Sounds good to me.” It wasn’t a workday but Persephone couldn’t help talking about the app. “Did you hear the latest news?” Persephone asked.

Setting her phone down on her lap and picking up her coffee, Charon replied, “Yes. I was surprised to hear it was one of the beta testers who introduced a virus.”

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