Elly in Love (The Elly Series) (7 page)

“You like the dog more than me.”

He ran his hand down her chin. “Only a little bit. And also, you have cable. Although, I can think of some other things we could do.” His dark-azure eyes sparked mischievously and then he blushed. “Like take Cadbury for a walk. You know, things like that.”

Elly kissed him softly on the lips, feeling the blush rise up in his face as her hand trailed down his rough cheek. “I love that you love my dog.”

“Elly?”

She kissed him harder. “Mmm … yes?”

“Who is watching your store right now?”

“No one!” groaned Elly. “A certain high-maintenance worker stomped out while screaming at me first thing this morning. Would you like to guess which one? Two hints: it isn’t Kim or Anthony.”

Keith grimaced. “You are having quite the day.”

She bit her lip and looked to the side. Pulling herself away from Keith was getting harder each time. “And it just barely started. I should get back to work. At least Anthony will be in at noon. What am I going to do with these flowers?”

Keith grabbed the bunch. “I can always use them on the counter. These are pretty—what are these alien-pod-looking things?”

Elly smiled. “Chocolate artichokes. Don’t try and cook them.”

Keith smiled. “Actually, you should probably put them back in the cooler, so that when he remembers, you can give them back to him and get him out.”

The thought of being in the store alone with him made Elly ill at ease. “I might call you if he does show up. Is that ridiculous?”

“I’ll be there in half a second. And if he does anything weird, I’ll tackle him.”

The thought of Keith tackling a teenager made Elly snicker. “I would pay to see that.”

Keith stood up and retied his apron around his waist. “I played college ball, you know. Almost went professional bench warmer. I’ll have to tell you about it sometime.” He leaned in and gave her a slow, lingering kiss. With a groan, he pulled back. “Work. We have to go to work.”

Elly smiled. “My place, tonight? Six?”

Keith gave her a thumbs-up. “I’ll be there. And call me if your stalker shows up.”

Elly nodded and practically floated back to her shop. Her thoughts lingered on Keith—his eyes, so kind and smart, the kind of eyes that gave you confidence from just a single, focused gaze, his adorable bald head, and how he always wanted his apartment spotless for her. Or house. Did he have an apartment or a house? Either way,
he was the man she had been waiting for all this time.
Elly shut the shop door behind her and started setting the table for her afternoon consultation. She began thinking back on the strange teenage kid, admonishing herself for being so paranoid.
He was just a weird kid, that’s all.
Still, she felt an urge to lock the shop door. She ignored that urge because she didn’t want to go out of business. Bending over, wedding floral books in hand, she heard the clank of the door bells, and felt a shove from behind her knees. Elly gave a shriek.

“Oops, sorry dear!” The two older ladies that she had seen with Keith on the street stood in front of her, their Coach bags clasped in hand, Yorkshire puppies sleeping inside their cozy leather homes. “Oh, lovely! I’m so sorry, we must have scared you. Are you alright? That door clipped you pretty hard.”

Elly gave a sigh of relief. “Sorry about that. I’m unnecessarily jumpy today. Welcome to Posies! What can I help you with?”

The women smiled and looked around. “Well, we came in because of your delightful window display. That was so interesting and modern, but I’m glad to see that the inside is more our style, don’t you agree, Gladys?”

“Why, it reminds me of my dear Aunt Sylvia’s house, you know, the one outside of Provence?”

Elly felt a twinge of annoyance. This store was for middle-age women. She was a middle-aged woman. Snarky Teenager had been right, and if that was true, nothing would ever be right in the world again.

The idea of a new shop was still bouncing around Elly’s head the next afternoon as she put together a blooming azalea plant for delivery. Anthony, her other head designer was grilling her for details on the fallout with Snarky Teenager. “And then she just stormed out? Just like that?”

“Are you surprised? She’s a flipping banshee.”

He looked confused.

Elly clarified, “Something with a lot of feelings and a very shrill voice.”

He gave her a bemused look. “I’m going to guess by that retelling that you did not
win
the argument.”

“Well, she left screaming about how my store was old ladyish and that she would not be working today, so I’m not sure that there was a clear winner.”

Anthony perched on a wooden stool and rubbed his thin hair thoughtfully. “I know that she upset you, but you have to remember, she’s only eighteen and she’s not going to think through all her decisions wisely. She’s ruled by hormones.”

“
Psycho
teenage hormones,” muttered Elly, scribbling a message on a client’s card: “
Congrats on your great new BOOBS!”
She held up the plant in the sunlight, looking for browning leaves. If this plant was for great new boobs, it had better be flawless.

Anthony cleared his throat. “She looks up to you and Kim. You know she doesn’t have a great home life. Her parents are more worried about their next European vacation than their daughter.”

“That doesn’t excuse rudeness,” replied Elly quietly. “She didn’t even
ask
to take down my display.”

Anthony nodded, obviously trying to stay neutral, maintaining his role as the wise advisor. “That was very rude, I agree. But do you think she has a point? About opening another store?”

Elly sat down next to Anthony, balancing the heavy pot on her wide thigh. “Maybe. I just … I really don’t know if we could afford it. It would throw Posies’ finances for a loop, that’s for sure. We are perfectly comfortable in the black right now. And do I really want to make my life more complicated?”
No
, she thought,
everything is perfect. For once, everything is good. She didn’t want to rock the boat. Last year had been so emotional, so tangled. Posies was doing great. Elly was doing great. For once, her life was a calm sea. Did she really want to invite chaos in?
But a new store … targeted at a younger generation … the thought was becoming more and more appealing the longer she considered it. The fax machine gave a beep, gently jostling Elly out of her train of thought. She gave a shrug and walked over to the machine, glancing at the order. “Romantic arrangement for sixty-five—do you want it?”

Anthony nodded and pulled it out of her hand. “Just give it some thought. And know that you’ll probably have to call her before the day is over. If you don’t act, she’ll be working at Hot Topic within a week, selling fishnet stockings to twelve-year-olds.”

“Right?” Elly was laughing at the thought when the phone rang loudly. “Hey, make sure you use up those fuchsia snapdragons.”

Anthony saluted. “You got it, boss.”

At least someone remembered she was the boss.
Elly pulled her hair back into a messy bun as she ran to the phone. She coughed awkwardly as she answered. “Posies, this is Elly speaking.”

“Hello, Elly. My name is Gemma Reynolds, and I’m an associate producer with the television show
BlissBride.
”

Elly felt as though she received a swift punch to the stomach and suddenly she was very, very hot. Sweat blossomed out from her forehead.

“Um, yes, are you there?”

“Yes. Yes, Jemima, I’m here.”

There was a beat of intense silence. “It’s Gemma, actually.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, sorry.” Elly gave a high, hyena laugh and stopped short.
Oh my
gosh,
Why did I do that? Calm down.

“Right. Elly, we are calling some highly recommended St. Louis vendors to see if your shop would be interested in appearing in a
very
special St. Louis episode of
BlissBride
. Are you familiar with the show?”

Are you kidding me?
Wednesday nights, after she got back from bible study, she drove up the private driveway to Kim’s house, a bottle of Tintero Moscato D’Asti on the passenger seat. Kim would let Elly put Hadley to bed—the highlight of her week—and then they would curl up on Kim’s couch to watch the most recent episode of
BlissBride
. The show focused on B-list celebrity weddings, and covered everything from the planning to the big day. The weddings were almost always enormous, and the semifamous brides brought their enormous egos to match. The show reveled in the ridiculous, extravagant details of the wedding (“I just don’t see why it is so hard to get
fresh
pears covered in gold!” cried a bride on last week’s episode), the vendor meltdowns, and the temper tantrums that were thrown along the way. It was delicious and sinful reality TV, a true guilty pleasure, something that Elly looked forward to every week.
So yeah, she was familiar with the show
. “Er, yes, I think I might have seen it a couple of times,” Elly lied. She didn’t want to sound desperate.
Or did she?

Gemma cleared her throat. “Well, we have a celebrity that, for some reason beyond me, has decided to get married in St. Louis instead of LA or New York, and we are interviewing local vendors to see if they would be interested in participating.”

Elly turned to Anthony, who was standing by her side, snapdragons in hand. She mouthed
“BlissBride!”
and he began silently freaking out. She forced herself to be calm and in control. “I’ll have to consult with my team first, but I think we would definitely be interested. What would our next step be?” She congratulated herself on staying so professional.

“Well, we interview about three vendors in each category and the vendor that our bride likes best is the one that gets the wedding and the chance to be on national television. We have a viewership of around 1.7 million.”

This is an incredible opportunity
, thought Elly, excitedly tapping her hand on the desk.
This could be the wedding that puts me on the national map.
She cleared her throat. “Well, Jimma, that sounds very interesting. When can we set up an interview? I have Monday open….”

The shrill British voice interrupted her. “We will be doing all our florist interviews next Tuesday. The time is not up for negotiation. We will be there at three p.m. You should have a mock-up of the flowers ready when we arrive and make sure the area is photo-ready. The picture of the mock-up will be used for our bride to make her decision. Her colors are hot pink and navy, with an emphasis on pinstripes.”

Elly rolled her eyes.
Holy
hideous.
“Wow, that sounds really inspired,” Elly lied. “We’re pretty busy this week, but we can definitely come up with something incredible. What is her budget?”

Elly heard a hard laugh, a sound like screeching fingernails. “Are you kidding me? This is….” Then there was a silence and Elly heard the shuffling of papers. “Never mind. We can’t reveal the celebrity until she has officially chosen you as her vendor. Let’s just say that there are some interesting taste levels at work here.” Gemma cleared her throat. “Okay, Elly, well, I will be there on Tuesday around three p.m. for the interview. Please dress appropriately.”

What is that
, thought Elly
. A track suit? A dress? Work clothing?
“Thank you SO much for your time,” Elly said.

“Uh-huh,” tartly replied Gemma, and Elly heard a soft click.

She dropped the receiver onto the desk and turned to Anthony and let out a loud scream. “
Ohmygosh
!
Ohmygosh!
” She grabbed his hands, crushing the snapdragon stems. “That was
BlissBride
and they might want us to be on their
show
!”

Anthony let out a squeal. “Whose wedding is it?”

“
I don’t know
!” screamed Elly, and suddenly they were jumping up and down. Elly stopped. “You have
really
soft hands! What kind of lotion do you use?”

“Apricot!” he yelled back. They jumped and screeched some more. Anthony threw his arms around Elly. “We can do this, right?”

“Heck, yes, of course we can! We are awesome! I wonder who it is.”

Anthony stepped back. “I hope it’s Lisel Jones. She’s all kinds of crazy.
Oh my gawd
, I love when she throws chairs at people.”

Elly nodded. “I hope we get a soap star. They are so glamorous.” Elly sighed happily. “Or maybe we’ll get a sports star! The Olympics are on soon! Did you know that it was always my dream to be in the Olympics? A figure skater.”

Anthony gave her a sad look. “Darling, I don’t see that being in the cards for you. I think that ship has sailed.”

Elly danced in a small circle. “I can’t believe this is happening! That
BlissBride
chose our little store! That Posies might be on TV!”

Anthony sat down at the consultation table. “Honestly, I’m not surprised; your designs have no competition in this city and you have such a good way with your brides. It’s a no-brainer in my opinion. What was she like, the lady on the phone?”

“She had the weirdest name … it was like Jima or something, and she was kind of, I don’t know,
mean
and British.”

“You poor thing. Want me to treat you to an apple indso from Ada’s?”

Elly turned her head. “Hold on—I mean yes, but—what is that noise?” There was a tiny voice echoing through the store. Elly could hear random sharp beeps. “What
is
that? Is that an alarm somewhere?” She paused. “Oh, no.” She picked up the phone, which was halfway off the receiver. Fearing the worst, she tentatively lifted it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Yes, hello, dear. You didn’t quite hang up the phone,” said Gemma Reynolds.

Elly felt her throat close up. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “Did you hear everything?”

“How could I not listen to such stimulating conversation? Of course I heard,” replied Gemma. “It’s not Lisel Jones. But that’s not a bad guess. And you spell my name G-E-M-M-A. It’s really not that hard to say.” She paused. “Good luck on Tuesday.” And then she hung up the phone.

Anthony and Elly sat in silence. “Are they still coming?” he asked.

She gave a silent nod and buried her head in her hands.