Crazy Sweet Love: Contemporary Romance Novella, Clean Interracial Romantic Comedy (Flower Shop Romance Book 3) Read Free Page B

the eye.  Instead, he was unpacking spring rolls and samosas from the white paper bag that Chleo had taken from his mouth and put on the edge of the counter.
    “It’s not that something’s wrong…” Arjun said slowly.  He pronounced each word like he was trying to be careful in case any of them broke.  “It’s that something unexpected has come up.”
    “Oh god.  You have a love child,” Chleo said.  She was joking…mostly.  She wanted to read his face to see if she was anywhere near the ballpark.
    “Cute,” he chuckled.  “Wrong, but it does involve family.”
    “You know you can tell me anything right?”
    “I know,” Arjun said.  He let out a sigh that sounded more like a hiss of a kettle that had been taken off of a stove.
    “Ok, brace yourself…but…my mother is here.”

Chapter 4
    “Is he serious?  I can’t believe he hasn’t told his mom about you!” Jessica seemed almost angrier about the situation than Chleo.  It was Petey’s day off and Chleo and Jessica were alone in the store.  They each got a day off during the week, and the day depended on who called what day from the week before.  Chleo was leaning over the counter when she filled Jessica in about the whole morning.
    “I was too speechless to really do anything about it.  When he said his mom was coming, I got kind of excited.  And then he told me that she was nuts…”
    “How nuts is nuts?” Jessica interrupted.  She gesticulated with one hand before resting it under her chin.  Her other arm was in front of her chest and balanced the elbow of the arm that now held her head with curious anger.
    “His words were like the mother from Bend It Like Beckham without the hope of comic relief ,” Chleo said.  She made air quotes when she spoke his part and deepened her voice.  “And then when I asked how long she would be in town for, and if I could meet her.  He said maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea.”
    “Asshole,” Jessica growled and shook her head to show that she was very unimpressed.  Her voice was low, and she was conversing more to the situation than to Chleo herself with that remark.
    “Yeah.  We ended up eating very little, and then stuffing the leftovers in my fridge.  I rushed to take a shower, and when we got in the car, we barely spoke.  I didn’t wanna come off as a nag, but I wanted to know why it was he hadn’t told her about me.  I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he wasn’t ready to tell his mom, but there was this part of me that thinks he’s ashamed of me,” Chleo said.  She bit her lip halfway through her last sentence.  It wasn’t something she was comfortable saying, even to her best friend.
    Jessica’s glassy blue eyes gleamed and softened when she listened to Chleo speak.  She went from upset with Arjun to the consoling best friend that Chleo needed.
    “There’s no way he could be ashamed.  He’s crazy about you.  I’ve seen it myself,” Jessica said.  “He probably just doesn’t want to hurt the two most important women in his life.”
    “That’s a sweet way of looking at it actually,” Chleo said, feeling a bit better.  She didn’t want to mention that Arjun had 2 older sisters, so she was definitely fourth on that list.  It would have made her laugh to say it, but she wasn’t in the mood to make jokes just then.
    “It’s strange though.  He doesn’t want to hurt us, but in a way he’s hurting my feelings by making me feel like I’m not good enough, and he’s hurting his mother by not being honest with her.  And he’s hurting himself because he’s not opening up and saying what needs to be said,” Chleo said.  She looked outside one of the large glass windows, lost in thought.
    “See, that’s good.  Next time you see him…tell him that .”
    “I don’t know when that’ll be.  She’s gonna be in town for two weeks.  He didn’t exactly say that he wasn’t going to see me, but he said he’d be spending a lot of