Burning Flowers (6 page)

“You know, I’m going to a dinner party on
Friday evening. I was going to have you be there because the
Colemans said their son is coming with them, but it couldn’t hurt
to give him a taste of what he’s missing, right? Why don’t you come
and bring Vince with you? I’d just love to get to know him better.”
Clarke couldn’t tell if she was being conniving or if she was
actually flirting with Vince, but either way it made her stomach
churn. She needed to put a stop to this now before Vince felt the
need to go jump in front of a bus for ever meeting her.

“You know, Mother, I don’t think Vince is
really into that sort of thing.” Vince put out his hand to stop
her.

“You know what? I think maybe it’s a good
idea. It’s about time I get to know more about Clarke and her
family.” Vince let his dimples indent in a half smile, and Clarke
fought the urge to put her head in her hands and scream. Now she
was just being ganged up on.

“Well, great then. See you there.” Her
mother waved like she was Miss America and then left the shop,
leaving Clarke feeling even less confident about her shop and her
life for that matter than she already did.

“So, she seems pleasant,” Vince commented,
leaning against the counter.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Clarke busted
out, distressed. “She is the least pleasant person on the
planet.”

“I was being sarcastic, Clarke. Now I know
where a lot of your issues stem from. It must have been tough,
growing up with her,” he said softly, working his way closer to
her.

She sighed, and looked up from under hooded
eyes at him. “You don’t have to go. In fact, you don’t have to go
along with this at all. It was just the first thing that came to
mind. I didn’t want her to know about what happened to the shop.
She doesn’t believe in it.” Clarke looked at the ground, and Vince
approached, daring to pull her chin up with one finger.

“Look, I know you’re not that into me or
whatever you girls say, but I can see you really struggle with her.
I’d be happy to help you out for a little bit. Besides, you could
always pay me for it and then I don’t have to go look for another
job,” he joked, causing her to smile just a little.

“Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s do this.”

Chapter Eleven

Clarke crossed her arms and
stood back, looking around at her shop. It was a bit of
de ja vu
considering
about a week or so earlier she was doing the exact same thing
before everything happened. Over the period of the last two days,
they’d managed to get in enough flowers so that the place didn’t
look empty. There wasn’t an Easter section any longer, but she had
the Easter look book on display at the front counter for ordering
purposes. They had plenty ready on back log that Katie had set up
for about a week or two out.

The prom section was back and in some ways
better than before, and there was a wide array of simple roses as
well as bright spring colors in the right hand corner that were
really good for making Clarke feel better.

“It looks pretty good,” Vince commented,
coming in from the office. He’d been finishing the back part of the
shop up so that everything would be ready for their reopening on
Thursday.

Clarke looked at him nervously, thinking
about their date later. It really wasn’t a date, but just in case
her mother showed up again they were being careful to stick with
the plan, and she had told him she needed to talk with him about
what to expect. That dinner was going to be a lot of pressure on
the both of them, and he needed to be prepared.

“It does look nice,” she agreed with a sigh.
“I’m just afraid it’s never going to be perfect again.”

“Clarke, nothing is ever going to be perfect
for you. Just enjoy the fact that our shop is back up and running,”
scolded Katie as she came in from the back as well. She had been
calling the other staff members to let them know when they would be
reopening so that they could come back to work. Vince chuckled, and
Clarke shot him a look, so he stopped.

Katie glanced between them suspiciously and
walked over to Clarke, giving her a side hug. Clarke quickly pulled
away. “Why don’t you go ahead and take a load off. It’s been a
rough week for you. I can handle everything. It’s not like we’re
open yet anyway,” Katie offered. Normally Clarke wouldn’t go for
such an offer, but she was really anxious to get things over with
Vince.

Clarke nodded and looked to Vince. “I think
I’ll head over and get a coffee and a sandwich maybe. I’ll see you
Thursday, Katie.” Katie nodded with a surprised smile. She was
probably freaked out that Clarke finally too her advice to leave
the shop; something she’d never done before. Clarke walked into the
office to get her small black clutch and caught herself looking in
the small mirror and fixing her hair. This was the one time she
didn’t want to care how she looked. Vince was just some guy who was
pretending to date her so that her mother would leave her alone
about the shop. She didn’t even like him that much as a person; he
was annoying. All that whistling gave her the creeps. But she still
needed to look her best if she was going out in public.

She sighed at her blonde curls and tucked
them behind her ear before picking off some eyeliner that had gone
astray. Smoothing down her grey half sleeve sweater and navy
pleated skirt, she stepped back out into the shop and kept her head
down as she headed over to the coffee shop.

When she went to pull open the door, she
found it to be way too easy. Clarke looked behind her and jumped as
she realized Vince was already there behind her, reaching above her
to hold open the door. He gave her a crooked smile. “After you,” he
said with his eyebrow raised before she turned her head back around
and headed inside.

Yet again, she let him pick the seat and was
surprised as he came up behind her and pulled out her chair for
her. Did this guy step out of some novel? “What would you like?”
Vince asked nodding over to the counter.

“Oh, I can get it myself. You don’t need to
do that,” Clarke insisted, trying to scoot her chair out so she
could go up there herself, but Vince stood his ground. She slinked
back down in her chair. “I guess I’ll take a soy chai latte and a
turkey panini,” she said quietly. He nodded down at her with a
smile and headed towards the counter.

Clarke looked down at her manicured nails
and tapped them on the table, feeling weird sitting there and
waiting for some man to bring her food and coffee. This was why she
avoided being with a guy between the hours of seven a.m. and ten
p.m. She looked up to see Joe staring at her while wiping up one of
the tables across from her.

“You know, if you keep scrubbing the same
table like that, you’ll have to repaint it,” she commented, feeling
more annoyed with him than usual.

“Someone is in a bad mood. Trouble in
paradise?” Joe asked with an irksome grin, walking over to her and
sitting down in the chair next to her. He nodded over to Vince who
was waiting on the order at the other end of the counter.

“We’re not really…” She stopped herself,
realizing that she was about to let the cat out of the bag. “We’re
fine, Joe,” she said harshly.

“Well, you know I’m always here if you
realize you made the wrong choice.” Suddenly, he didn’t seem so
cute or funny anymore. Joe was officially annoying her. It was
feeling almost like harassment.

Luckily, Vince showed back up, standing in
front of Joe and clearing his throat. Joe jumped up and went back
behind the counter without another word. “What was that all about?”
Vince asked, setting her coffee and sandwich down in front of
her.

Clarke ran her finger through her hair and
let out a long breath. She tried to loosen up her shoulders and
failed. “He’s hit on me every day for the last six months or so.
It’s now gotten to the point of feeling harassed.” She said the
last word loud enough so that others could hear. She saw Vince get
a nervous look for a second before digging into some peanut butter
crackers he got.

“Shouldn’t you be flattered? I wouldn’t make
such a big deal about it.” Vince shrugged and popped another
cracker in his mouth. “So, what is it that I need to know about
this dinner or your mother or whatever it is we’re meeting
about?”

As if she wasn’t already upset and annoyed
enough, how casual he was being about the whole thing just made her
feel like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. “Look, I gave
you an out, and you’re still welcome to take it if you can’t take
this seriously.”

“Clarke, I can tell this is a source of a
lot of negative feelings for you, but if we’re going to be
pretending to date, then you’re going to have to learn to relax and
let go just a little and do something a little more care free and
less planned once in a while.”

She was about to snap at him again, but it
wasn’t really him she was mad at. He was almost a stranger, and
he’d come to her rescue. The least she could do is give him the
benefit of the doubt. “Fine. I’m sorry. It’s just that for the last
33 years she’s been making me feel inadequate, and she’ll tear you
down just the same if we aren’t ready for this.”

“She’s really hurt you, hasn’t she? And yet
you still care what she thinks. It’s funny how that works, isn’t
it?” She nodded at his statement. It was her harsh reality. “So,
what’s so bad about her?”

“Nothing’s good enough, and she doesn’t
believe I’m truly capable of anything. I thought the shop would
prove her wrong, but it hasn’t so far.” Clarke shrugged. “Anyway,
she’s a lawyer and is all about perfection and arguing the winning
side and all that. She has made a lot of really high society
friends over the years, but don’t ask me how. She goes to these
parties with them. They’re really formal and stuffy with lots of
weird and expensive food and banter about money and vacation homes.
Sometimes they talk about their children, bragging about their
accomplishments. She tends to compensate for the fact that I don’t
have any by having some thinly veiled insults passed across the
table. Anyway, I think she invited you because she was calling my
bluff. She knows I don’t really date like that. She wants to expose
us in front of everyone somehow; make one of us break and tell the
truth maybe.”

“We have two choices, the
way I see it. Either we prove her wrong and make our dating for
real,
or
at the
end of all this we can declare ourselves Best Actor and Actress at
this year’s Academy Award,” Vince said while looking at her in a
strange way and continued,  “
What
exactly do you mean by you
don’t really date like that?” Vince asked curiously.

“That’s not important,” she shot back,
feeling too vulnerable already.

“If I know nothing about you, especially
about your dating history, then that is really going to make it
obvious that we’re lying. I’d say it’s very important.” She knew he
was right, but explaining her love life to someone else suddenly
made it sound worse than it had always seemed to her.

“I don’t date at all, okay? I find a certain
comfort of having the occasional, sometimes more than occasional,
man in my bed, but that’s where it ends. I generally never see the
person again unless I need something.”

“That actually sounds kind of sad, Clarke.
You’re really missing out.”

“You’re crazy,” she scoffed. “Most men dream
of finding a woman that can give them what they want without any
attachment. The only thing I’m missing out on is being stuck with
someone; being tied down or being heart broken.” She leaned back in
her seat and crossed her arms.

“Those are not men; they are boys. And they
are liars. Deep down, we all want more but are too afraid to go for
it. Guys are bad at failing. You’re missing out on the adventure of
being in love. That is a tragedy, Clarke.” Clarke glanced up into
his eyes for a moment and then looked away.

“Love is a joke; something made up. It
doesn’t last,” she responded, matter-of-factly.

“How do you know? Have you ever been in
love?”

“No, but I know someone who was.” Her mind
drifted back to the picture of the blonde man with the pretty eyes
who had his arm around her mother. Love had turned her mother into
a bitter perfectionist when she used to be this beautiful care free
young woman.

“Well, I know that if love came along for
me, I wouldn’t want to miss it even if I knew I’d only lose them in
the end. But I’ve always wanted to experience everything out there,
you know?” But back to this dinner party. What should I wear? I
don’t know if my wardrobe is that up to par with what all these
rich people are going to be wearing.”

She looked Vince up and down and made a face
at his dirty torn jeans. Hopefully he owned something else because
he was right. “Think Sunday best or nicer if you have it.”

“What’s nicer than my Sunday best?” he
asked, sitting forward in his seat and pulling up one eyebrow
questioningly.

“You’ll find out Friday,” she answered with
a grin. If nothing else it was going to be fun seeing him try and
interact with her mother’s snooty friends.

Chapter Twelve

Clarke looked at herself in the mirror that
stretched the length of her closet door. She had opted for a
flowing, Grecian style indigo dress with a split up the right side.
It was sleeveless and made her look like she had bigger breasts
than she actually did. She had placed a silver clip in her hair to
hold it back from her face. She looked a lot like an old Hollywood
star, ready to attend a red carpet event. At least she looked the
part even if she couldn’t play it very well. Though, she was sure
as usual her beauty would drive her mother nuts.

A knock came at her door, and she grabbed
her clutch and walked out, locking the door. She wanted to get it
over with. Vince looked taken aback by her rush as he struggled to
keep up with her pace as she led the way towards her car. They had
compromised on how they were getting there. She’d wanted to go
separately, but Vince had pointed out that wouldn’t look good. So,
they were taking her car. Clarke knew that a white pickup wasn’t
going to get them very many points at the party.