Page 26 of Crazy In Love
“I’m fine. Your future father-in-law has a big swing,” I said, keeping my voice light as my gaze moved to the woman standing a few feet behind them.
Emilia Taylor.
She was everywhere I fucking turned.
eight
. . .
Emilia
I’d stoppedin every shop downtown this morning and passed out my new business cards to let everyone know that Vintage Interiors was up and running. Then I headed back to the flower shop.
“Hey, I’m back,” I said as Beatrice looked up from the arrangement she was putting together. “That looks gorgeous.”
“Yeah? It’s for Oscar and Edith. They said they wanted an arrangement that would turn heads,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know what turns heads, so I’m just trying to figure it out as I go.”
“That definitely turned my head.” I came around the counter to stand beside her. She had a gift for floral arranging, which was why I’d hired her.
“Good. Did you pass your cards out to everyone?”
“I did. So now I’ll wait and see if anyone calls. I know it’ll take time, so I’ll just have to be patient.” I reached for the stack of floral orders that we still needed to fill. It was the end of November, so everyone would focus on Christmas soon. We would get very busy over the next month. December was the busiest time of the year for us.
“You’ve totally got this. You’re so talented. And you know I’m happy to pick up the slack here when things get busy.”
“Thank you,” I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “I appreciate it. But seeing as I don’t have one single client, I think we’re okay for now.”
She chuckled, and we both got to work putting together several orders.
The day went by in a blur, as we received a large shipment of florals and supplies that we needed to unpack.
I hurried out to meet my parents at the Honey Biscuit Café after work. I wanted to fill them in on Vintage Interiors, as I’d only briefly told them about filing for my business license.
“Your parents beat you here,” Oscar said. He and his wife owned the café. “I gave your dad an earful about the snarky comments about our menu that were in ‘The Taylor Tea,’ and he laughed.”
“Sounds about right.” I shrugged. “‘The Taylor Tea’ has brought sales up for the paper, so I don’t think they’re upset about it.”
“I heard you took a polygraph to get that grumpy Chadwick out of your hair.” A loud, boisterous laugh filled the space around me.
“How’d you hear about that?” I asked as I shook my head and smiled.
“Doug was telling us when he came in to eat here yesterday.”
Doug was the police officer who had administered the lie detector test. He and I grew up together, and he was a good guy. I was grateful he was the one to do it, and I certainly didn’t mind him telling people about it.
“Well, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” I chuckled.
“Will you let the poor girl go see her parents?” Edith said, swatting Oscar with a dish towel.
“Hey, I’m on her side. I feel bad she’s getting the brunt of all of this, while her parents hang her out to dry and let her deal with the fallout,” he said.
Wow. Tell me how you really feel, Oscar.
“Ignore him, sweetheart,” Edith said. “We all know it’s not you writing it now. Doug made that perfectly clear, and I believe word is spreading quickly. You go and enjoy your dinner.”
“Her parents could have put an end to this harassment a long time ago,” Oscar hissed as I walked away.
He was right. I’d asked them numerous times to make a statement, but they seemed to enjoy all the speculation about the column. Even when it was at my expense.
