Page 40 of Dr. Damaged Protector

Turning to the florist, I demanded, "Get me a sunflower. Single stem."

She looked over at me, and I nodded positively.

"I'll be right back," she said.

I bit my lower lip to hold back my laughter as I noticed the scowl on his face. I stood in front of him, and he turned the other way. He kept looking away the more I tried to get in front of him.

"Aww, is someone angry?" I teased, poking at his face.

"I'm not angry," he grumbled. "Are you sure? I grinned. Are youreallysure?"

"Go away," he moved his face away from my fingers and walked toward the other end of the store.

"Here you go," the florist returned with the sunflower and handed it to him.

He paid for the flower, then turned his attention to me. "Here." He handed the flower over to me. "Don't lose it."

"Who loses a sunflower?" I teased as I inhaled deeply. "Thank you. Can you wait for me in the car?"

"Sure," he agreed and went to the car, still sulking about what had happened.

I stared at the flower again, and my heart warmed as bright as the flower I held.

"Husband?" the florist asked.

"No, boss," I responded. "I need something from you, though."

****

He wasn't in the car, but standing outside the store, keeping an eye out.

"You didn't go to the car?" I asked. "You were really worried about me, weren't you?"

"Of course, I was," he said. "What kind of boss will abandon his employee?"

"A terrible one," I said, handing him the rose.

"What's the rose for?" he asked as he accepted it.

"You haven't been given a flower before, have you?" I asked.

His eyes widened with surprise as he went ahead to admire the rose. A smile formed on his face. "Thank you."

For someone who appeared grumpy a few moments ago, the soft expression on his face made me relax.

My heart was pounding thanks to the peace he offered. The “unromantic” date continued. We visited the fast-food restaurant he wanted to see. The food was divine, and customer service was terrific. We talked about our day and laughed about the mistakes some of the staff made.

As we enjoyed a drive around Richmond, we found a drive-in movie theater and decided to watch the movie. We were late and needed help understanding a single thing that was going on in the movie. Lucas went ahead and gave random speculations on what was happening in the movie.

It was fun seeing him let his imagination run wild. Maybe it was just me, but I had a feeling that he had a repressive childhood. There was this sense of him acting like he had just acquired freedom and had no intention of letting the freshly caught gift go to waste.

It was different from the previous dates I had been on.

"What say we go window shopping next?" I suggested.

"What's that?" he asked.

We parked the car somewhere else and decided to take a walk.

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