“I can help her decide? I’m sorry, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s me or Aaron marrying Dayton!”
“Have you ever seen a guy pick flowers?”
“No, but if I keep having to plan his wedding, he’ll be picking flowers out of his ass**le.” I shrug off his jacket and storm from the car, spotting Aaron and Dayton inside.
Tyler grabs my hand and tugs me back. “Calm down, feisty. Aaron would likely f**k this crap up. Shit, I don’t know the difference between a daisy and a f**king rose.”
I snatch my hand back and glare at him. “Feisty? You think this is feisty? Do you want a bunch of flowers up your behind, too?”
“No, but if we’re putting things in places they probably shouldn’t be…”
I smack his arm. Hard. “And we’re back to normal.”
He laughs loudly, and I push open the door to the florist. Aaron and Dayton turn, and a grin spreads across my best friend’s face.
“Oh, you found each other!” she says happily. “I was getting bored of waiting.”
I glare at Aaron. “If you can count ‘finding’ as him turning up at my apartment, then yes, we found each other.”
Aaron grins. “Sorry, Liv. We’re on a schedule and we all know what happens with schedules when you’re left to your own devices.”
Would it be childish to poke my tongue out at him?
“Whatever. Although, if this planning-your-wedding thing happens much more, you should know that I’ll be marrying Dayton this summer, not you.” I put my purse on the chair next to hers. “Don’t you know I have a bachelorette party to plan? And a bridal shower? And I still have to find a dress?”
Dayton looks at Tyler. “What did you do to her?”
“Nowhere near as much as I wanted to,” he retorts. I spin to him, fire spitting from my eyes, but he laughs. “The Hello Kitty towel was a real turn-on.”
“Oh, it’ll turn you on when it’s around your damn neck,” I snap. “Now sit down, shut up, and let us get on with this.”
I look at endless flowers with Dayton, and after an hour, the different kinds all seem to blend into one. The different shades of pink and off-white and cream and whatever-the-hell-I’m-looking-at mush into something that looks nothing like any color I’ve ever seen.
And I’m so done here.
“What about the lilies?” I ask desperately, pointing to some bright-pink ones.
“No. You won’t be wearing bright pink. It washes you out.”
“Thanks,” I mutter, although it’s true. “Well, can’t they order in light pink?”
“I don’t think I like the lilies.”
“Okay. Gardenias?”
“Really, Liv?” She looks at me like I’m going nuts. “Do I look like a gardenia-carrying bride?”
I take a deep breath and turn to Aaron. “I suddenly understand why I’m the one seemingly planning your wedding.”
His face breaks into a grin. “She’s fun, correct?”
“About as fun as a nail through my foot.”
“Is this why they get along?” Tyler questions. “Because they’re both as fun as that.”
I chew my bottom lip, deciding on turning away instead of responding to him. I’m already pissed off, and I know he’s baiting me. It’s almost as if pissing me off is his new hobby.
I don’t approve of it.
“Do you think they know what they’re doing?”
“Doubt it. They’re winging it, Aaron. Especially Liv.”
I ignore their quiet talking, giving my attention back to Dayton and her revolving door of flowers. Just when I think she’s made a decision, she changes her mind. At least we’re on a color – light-pink and white flowers. Hers will be accented by dark-pink flowers. Just not the lilies. Or gardenias. Or apparently anything in this store.
I sigh heavily, wondering when I can get out of here. Do I really have to do lunch? Can’t I just, I don’t know…go home and veg on the couch with a big bag of Cheetos or something?
“She’s really had enough,” I hear Aaron mutter.
“Of me or the flowers?” Tyler responds with a chuckle.
“Both.”
“She just can’t get over us. That’s the problem, mate.”
And with that, I snap.
“Excuse me a moment.” I turn on my heel and stalk to the back of the store. That ass**le—I don’t know who the hell he thinks he is. Where does he get off making me look like a fool in front of my best friend and her fiancé?
She can’t get over us. Ha! What bullshit. I think the only person who needs to get over it is him, because he’s the one who keeps bringing it up. And the damn ass**le can take me from turned on to pissed off in the space of twenty minutes. Hell, if I gave him sixty seconds, he could probably do it in that, too.
Of course, the idea that I could go and cool off alone is totally f**king absurd because I can hear the prick behind me.
Tyler grabs my arm and tugs me into what looks like an office. He closes the door behind us and spins me into him. “You really are a feisty little thing, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you, ass**le.” I glare up at him, shaking his hand from my arm and stepping back.
“Damn, Liv. Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” he says with a smirk.
“Why? So it can go right over your egotistically enlarged head?”
“I might consider it for a moment. Actually, on second thought, you’re right. I won’t pay any attention.”
“You are the most arrogant, self-entitled, patronizing bastard I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting in my life,” I hiss anyway. “And before you mention the pleasure, because you inevitably will, you should know the displeasure far outweighs the measly amount of pleasure you’ve given me.”
Tyler’s eyes darken, and he closes in on me, grabbing the back of my head and pulling me into him. His fingers thread through my hair and tug my head back so I’m looking at him. “Measly bit of pleasure? Didn't seem so small when you were screaming my name and begging for more.”
“Clearly you’ve never watched When Harry Met Sally. That movie taught a woman everything she needs to know about faking it.”
He presses his lips to mine in a crash of teeth and a tangle of tongue. He grips my hip and forcefully pulls me toward him, his grasp on my hair never easing as he sweeps his tongue through my mouth. The zinging tension of earlier is back, except this time it’s worse and it’s swirling around us and holding us together. Holding his mouth against mine, our bodies flush together.