Page 11 of Beautifully Used
I took a picture of the small vase with my phone and texted it to Lena. Two minutes later, she responded with, Looks perfect!
All we had to do was reserve and pay for the stuff. It would all be delivered on the day of the wedding, so we didn’t have to carry any of it back. I did have the lady bag up one of everything for me to take with us though. I wanted to show it all to Lena in person when we got home.
After reserving twenty of the vases, and at Brodie’s insistence, an equal amount of pearls to lace around them, we headed to the next store on the list. The flower store. At first, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of picking out all the flowers for Lena’s wedding, but after she’d showed me some pictures and told me what type of flowers she wanted, I relented. I did, however, send her another text with the cost along with pictures of everything; everything except her bouquet. That was coming from Jackson, and he wanted to surprise her with it. Brodie took care of it, knowing exactly what Jackson had told him to order. He wouldn’t even let me see the design. He seemed to really get a kick out of that, gently shoving me away when I came too close to the book he was perusing, saying it was a secret. I stood on the other side of the room pouting, and he glanced back at me and grinned. It seemed Brodie Beaumont had a softer side, after all. I knew there must be some major gunk clogging up his brain from his past; wrecking him so badly that it destroyed the way he felt about relationships. That was the only explanation for him using women the way he did. But now, after spending time with him in the flower store, I was beginning to think that maybe there was another side to Brodie, one that he didn’t let out very often. That meant there was still hope for the guy.
After paying and making sure the clerk had everything she needed for the delivery, Brodie turned to me on our way out. “You hungry?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. I know the perfect place. Let’s put all this in the truck and go eat. He reached over and took the bags from me, then grabbed my hand, tugging me along toward the parking lot. After securing the packages in the cab of the truck, he locked the door. “Hope you like burritos,” he said as he grabbed my hand again before waiting for my response. I don’t think he did it to be romantic or anything. I think he held my hand because he was in a hurry to get to wherever he wanted to go eat because there was nothing romantic about the way he pulled me along. My feet had to do double-time just to keep up.
The restaurant, if you could call it that, consisted of a counter just off the sidewalk with six stools in front of it, and one guy behind the counter cooking. Luck must have been with us, because right when we walked up to the place, a guy and a girl stood and left two seats open for us. Just in time too, because after I sat down, I turned to see another couple walk up. They had to stand on the sidewalk and wait for more seats to free up. “This is the best burrito you will ever have,” Brodie whispered in my ear.
The guy cooking handed a plate with one of the largest burritos I had ever seen smothered in red sauce to the guy sitting next to Brodie then turned to us. “What’ll you have?”
Brodie glanced at me. “Um …” I gave a quick look up at the menu above the cook’s head. Feeling a bit under pressure, I blurted out, “A number two,” not taking the time to read all the ingredients except for the word chicken, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong with chicken. Brodie ordered a number one, and I looked to see what was in that one. Carne Asada, but I stopped reading after the words hot green chili sauce.
Chapter 9
Brodie
* * *
“You don’t like spicy food do you?” I asked Gabrielle as she stared at the large flour tortilla smothered in green sauce on the plate in front of her.
She looked at me. “Um, no, I do. I just didn’t expect the green stuff on top. I guess I didn’t read the entire description before I ordered.”
“You don’t like green chili sauce?”
“No. I don’t know. I’ve never had it. It’s more that I don’t like green sauces.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“No. Why?” she asked as she began scraping the sauce off the top of her burrito.
“You mean you won’t even try it just because it’s green?”
“When I was a kid, my mom made me eat brussel sprouts. After I ate them, I puked all over my plate. I haven’t been able to eat any sort of green slimy looking things since.”
“Sorry I asked,” I admitted, sticking the green, slimy chili sauce covered bite into my mouth. I laughed. “I’m going to try to keep that visual out of my head while I eat this.”
“Good idea.” She smiled and took a bite from the inside of her now dry burrito. She ate the entire contents of the inside, never touching the tortilla itself, and was very careful not to let any of it touch any of the green chili sauce.
It didn’t bother me that she didn’t like green sauces. After all, who was I to put someone down for his or her little quirks when I had plenty of my own?
Chapter 10
Gabrielle
* * *
The mattress slumped down as a body crawled onto the bed, waking me from what was probably the most peaceful sleep I’d had in a very long time. I opened my eyes, but quickly shut them as the glare from the morning sun just about scorched them to a crisp; possibly blinding me for life. I’d forgotten to close the blinds again.
“Wake up.” I squinted my eyes open to see Lena hunched on her knees beside me. The grin on her face was astronomically large, and most likely had been there from the time she’d first woken up. “We get to go try on dresses today!” she squealed and jumped on her knees, making the bed and me shake.
“Okay, okay. Calm down a bit. My brain needs to process that it’s morning first, then I can get excited,” I complained with a yawn.
“I can’t wait for you to see the dress I picked out for you. You are going to look spectacular.”
