Page 140 of Perfect Mess

Well, that and the fact he asked me to drive - “Since your car has all wheel drive.”

After taking my house off the market, things were pretty tight. But once I repurposed my renovation time into finding new clients and making more sales, my real estate career was revived.

I could have kept Charlotte if I wanted to, but I traded her in for a Subaru instead. Better gas mileage, more affordable, and it didn’t break down on I4 in the middle of an afternoon thunderstorm.

Charlotte was a fun ride while she lasted, but after she was gone, I didn’t miss her one bit.

The surprise date was a surprise all right, but not the good kind of surprise. He took me to the nature center, using the annual passes we had won.

Yay.

He told me he had planned a special hike.

Double yay.

“Oh look,” Gary said. There was an information kiosk just outside the nature center. A sign read, “Today’s Trivia - All About Trees!” “We should play!” Clearly, it was my lucky day.

Different trees were planted all along the boardwalk. Pines. Oaks. Cedars. Signs listed the tree names and various facts and figures. Gary filled out the trivia sheet as we walked. It was my job to stop at each sign, look for clues, and then answer the questions.

The answer to the first question was Willow. As in the willow tree.

The answer to the second question was Yew. As in the yew tree.

Gary and I had been happily dating for almost six months by then. Six months longer than I had happily dated anyone else in my entire life.

As agreed at the beginning, we had taken it slow. But it didn’t take me very long to realize that he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And every day we were together, I fell in love with him a little bit more.

It was a shame I was going to have to dump him now because he was forcing me to learn about trees.

“Here’s the next question.” I wondered if Gary had a secret double life as a closet arborist. “And this one is super easy. Write your name.”

“My name?”

“That’s what it says.” Gary shrugged his shoulders.

“My name or your name?”

Gary considered carefully, even rubbing his chin. “I’ll just put yours down.”

“Fine. Whatever.” I didn’t really care what Gary wrote, as long as he hurried up and got the stupid trivia game over with. “How many questions are left on this thing, anyway?”

“This next one is the final one.”

“There’s only four questions?”

Gary shrugged again. “I guess.”

I assumed the trivia game was designed for three-year-olds. Or extremely bored, lonely adults who had the patience of a saint, and had nothing better to do than learn about trees.

When I looked back over at Gary, he was biting his lower lip and fiddling with something in his pocket. His face was flushed, and I could see little beads of sweat on his forehead, even though it wasn’t even that hot since all the boring trees created a lot of shade.

“Everything okay?”

“Hmm? What?”

“I asked you if everything was okay. You’re acting funny.”

Actually, Gary was acting like he had just bonged a gallon sized jug of espresso. Maybe all the oxygen the God damn trees were pumping out into the troposphere had made him lightheaded.

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