Addicted (Addicted Trilogy Book 1) Read Free

of his head, styled to
perfection each and every time. His physique resembled one of a male model; he
even had the wardrobe to boot. His eyes were a brilliant blue color, and he had
one of the most genuine, endearing smiles I’d ever seen.
    I was aware of the reaction he obtained from women
when we went out together, but he never paid any attention to it. Sometimes, I
thought I caught him sneaking a peek at other guys. Deep down, I knew he was
attracted to men, but I never brought it up. If he wanted to tell me, then he
would, in his own time. Needless to say, our relationship had never been
anything more than a platonic friendship, which I was completely happy with,
especially considering my little crush had dissolved and was replaced with
genuine friendship.
    I was in the front of the shop working on the
computer, when Katherine’s voice startled me.
    “Thank goodness
you’re good with that computer, honey,” she said over my shoulder as she passed
by with a huge display of beautiful white and pink lilies. Even though the
particular display was more on the simple side, she really was an artist in her
own right. A customer could point to a variety of different flowers and she
would somehow know the right way to arrange them. What
to put where, plucking out anything which didn’t belong. Every single arrangement
she made was a pure masterpiece, which was probably why she did very well for
herself.
    I just hoped I could do my part to continue the legacy
she’d spent forty-six years building.
    Lost in thought, I nearly jumped out of my skin
when the phone rang.
    “Hello, thank you for calling Full Bloom. How may I
help you today?” I went on autopilot taking all of the information for the
order, from the date and time of delivery to the type of arrangement needed.
    “Do you want the card to say anything in
particular?” I asked the man on the other end of phone. “Okay, let me read that
back to you. ‘Sorry for missing our anniversary last week. I love you. Tom.’”
      I shook my
head and grinned. Typical . But it was
good for business, so I couldn’t complain.
    Once the order was complete, I put it in the pile
for the following day’s deliveries, first giving Katherine a heads-up I needed
a mixed dozen of red and white roses. Thankfully, it wasn’t for that day, because
I didn’t think we would be able to accommodate on such short notice. Roses were
a very popular go-to flower for a lot of people, and I thought I’d seen the
last of them in the back room being wrapped up for one of the current orders.
    For the next couple hours, I answered the phone,
entered invoices and double-checked Katherine had all of the order slips so she
could make sure she had the flowers to make up each and every presentation.
    We didn’t typically get a ton of walk-ins. I
deduced people preferred to look up our website, pick out what they wanted, and
simply call it in. But I guessed it was the digital age, after all. One could simply give you their credit card information
over the phone and get on with life.
    I found it odd sometimes most people didn’t even
want to write out their own cards, especially the really personal ones. Some of
them were quite deplorable. One time, I had a guy tell me he wanted me to
write, ‘Sorry I slept with your sister’.   I actually made him repeat himself to ensure I’d heard him right. Suffice
it to say, he didn’t spend any unnecessary time on the phone with me.
    I was in the middle of pounding away on the
keyboard when I heard the bell above the door. Knowing most customers browsed
the ready-made displays, I kept my head down and continued working.
    All of a sudden, I felt a presence across the
counter from me, instantly making me feel strange.
    Then I heard his voice. Deep and gravelly. “Excuse
me, Miss. Can you help me?” he serenely asked.
    The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, goose
bumps breaking out all over my body.
    All of this and I still hadn’t even looked up