Page 82 of Petals and Plot Twists
I frown. “I don’t understand why the flower bloomed for the wrong man. I really wanted it to work for me, and I believed that it would. But I’m a grown woman, with a heart and mind of my own. I know what I want.WhoI want. I don’t have any doubts about that.”
Willa smiles. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“I’m absolutely sure.”
“Good,” she says. “That means I can tell you the flower didn’t actually bloom for you and David.”
I freeze. “What?”
Willa bites her lip. “Don’t be mad, all right? I had no idea until you just now told me what happened, or I would have cleared this up the minute it did.”
“Willa,” I say, suddenly desperate to understand. “What are you saying right now?”
“Saturday afternoon, when the big hailstorm hit? Archer and I were on the roof.”
“No you weren’t,” I say. “I was the only one up there until David showed up. I would have seen you.”
Willa rolls her eyes. “We were, and you didn’t see us because we were hiding behind the rose trellis.”
“Doing what?” I ask, still struggling to wrap my head around what she’s telling me.
“Nothing! Just?—”
“Willa,” I say, my voice firmer this time.
“Fine! We were making out. Is that what you want me to admit? We saw you coming, and we didn’t feel like stopping, so we snuck behind the trellis and then David showed up, and it felt totally silly to just emerge from the bushes in front of a complete stranger, so we stayed hidden until the storm started.”
“But I would have seen you leave,” I say. “I stood in the rain and stared at the flower long enough to get totally soaked.”
Willa’s cheeks heat the slightest bit. “We kissed in the rain long enough toalsoget thoroughly soaked,” she says. “We only ran once the hail started.”
“When I was already in the storage closet,” I say. I drop my head into my hands. “All this time!” I groan. “All this time, I’ve been absolutely miserable because I thought I was supposed to be with some rando, and it’s your fault! Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“I didn’t know there was anything to tell!”
“No, I mean, why didn’t you tell me earliertonight? When I first told the story?”
Her expression clears. “Ohhh, I see what you’re asking.” She shifts on her stool to face me. “I just wanted to make sure you had your feelings sorted out. You’ve never been particularly good at trusting yourself, Sophie. You doubt your judgement, your ability to maintain relationships, your worthiness of friendship. It’s big that you decided to love Peter even without the flower’s approval. I wanted you to hear yourself say it out loud.”
“Because I don’t need a flower to tell me how to feel,” I say, remembering Peter’s words the first night we kissed.
Willa nods. “I mean, it’s pretty fun when the flower agrees with you. But it’s even more fun that you get to choose.”
Emotion wells up in my chest. “Idoget to choose.”
“Yeah. You do.” She reaches over and grips my arm. “Honey, does this mean you’re moving to Charlotte?”
I choke out a laugh with a sob caught somewhere in the middle, and suddenly I’m crying into what’s left of my dinner.
Willa stands and retrieves a paper towel, handing it to me to wipe my nose. “It’s too soon to actually think that, right? I mean, we’re not even together. And it might not even come to that. He might not like the job. He might decide to stay here instead.”
“He might. But if he doesn’t—would you move to be with him?”
I think about my job. About my boring bosses and the life they strip out of every single one of my designs. I love Serendipity Springs. It’s been my home for a decade. But I’m not sure how much it would still feel like home if Peter wasn’t in it. “Yeah, I think I would. Is that totally bonkers?”
“Maybe a little. But it’s not like you just met the guy. He’s been in love with you for a long time. Your history matters here.”
I look at her and frown. “He’s been in love with me? Is that something you know for a fact?”
