“You’re too involved with this case,” Cecilia pointed out. I promptly ignored her and continued to spray our selection of roses with water. “You didn’t even want it to begin with.”
“I still don’t want it,” I assured. “Someone got me so deeply involved into that I can’t help it now.”
“You could’ve given it up after the first meeting,” my best friend mumbled quietly.
“To who exactly?” I asked refusing to look over at her. I moved on from the roses to the tulips. “You said no one was equipped to take this job.”
“You are definitely the best qualified to have it,” Cecilia agreed. “You could’ve passed it on though if you really didn’t want it.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you really do like this case and you’re getting really into it and I mean really! Telling a guy that you’ll come after him if he breaks your heart? That’s a bit drastic, don’t you think?”
“Look Cece, I needed something to keep him attached.”
“Isn’t that what the bet is for?”
I nodded. “That obviously wasn’t going to work though. He was planning on backing out but then I challenged his pride and that was something no bet could ever settle. I know what I’m doing.”
“I just think it’s risky,” Cecilia murmured. “You shouldn’t have so much contact with him outside of being Maggie.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” I stated calmly setting down the squirt bottle. I turned to her and gave her a hard stare. “I can handle it.”
Cecilia held up her hands in surrender and sighed. She shifted her gaze to look around the greenhouse at all the wondrous flowers. I took back my spray bottle and continued with my work.
“How’s your case then Miss Know-It-All?”
Cecilia didn’t act as childishly as I did when she replied with, “It’s going good. John Doe is staying strong and he almost slipped out the “L” word the other day.”
“Whoa,” I marveled. “That’s impressive. How long has it been?”
“Almost three months.”
“Even better. You’ve got that guy on a string now all you have to do is pull it loose from underneath him. Do you think he’s in deep enough?” I asked.
Cecilia actually seemed unsure of herself. “I don’t know. I think I need to meet his family but then I don’t want to because that’s a big step and I’ll feel bad about being all smiles yet knowing I’m going to break his heart.”
“Hey, hey,” I warned. “No real feelings remember? Not even just liking him as a friend is acceptable because that causes a connection that is hard to break. You will meet his family, be smiles, and then break him when he’s at his weakest.”
Cecilia bit her lip but she nodded after a moment of thought. “Yeah I know. I’ll get close just to cut ties, as usual.”
Jane knocked on the glass of the greenhouse and entered inside. I raised my eyebrows to question her sudden appearance.
“What’s up, newbie?”
Jane coughed uncomfortably. “I talked to Preston.”
Cecilia crossed her arms over her chest and studied her for a moment. “Did he call off the bet? He kind of had to if he broke up with Maggie.”
“No, he didn’t,” Jane said. “He didn’t even tell me about the break up. I had to bring it up.”
“Did he explain it?” I asked curiously.
“Not really,” Jane mumbled. “He said that it was all part of his plan. That Maggie will be putty in his hands before I can even blink”
“So the bet isn’t off?” I clarified while cutting off some dead leaves from various flowers.
Jane nodded. “He upped the stakes too. He said that if he can get Maggie to fall for him within just one month instead of three, then the prize is three times the amount of cash I promised.”
I scoffed. How cocky was that? He was getting a little too comfortable with himself it seemed.
“Can you afford that?” Cecilia asked.
I gave her a hard stare. “She won’t have to. I won’t fall in love with him by the end of the month. Be realistic.”
Cecilia seemed unsure.
Jane sighed. “As far as he knows, if you fall for him by the end of the month, then he gets three times his amount which isn’t a concern for you girls. If you don’t-”
“Which I won’t,” I cut in.
“If you don’t,” Jane began again. “Then the original bet is still on. He’s got two more additional months after the first one.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I stated with a nod. “He’ll be broken by then.”
“We hope,” Cecilia mumbled under her breath. I glared at her and her doubt in me. I was about to comment on it but found that I didn’t have time.
Holly suddenly burst through the door of the greenhouse. She was breathing hard and her eyes widened when she saw me.
“You need to get downstairs,” she practically yelled out.
I exchanged a look with Cecilia before cautiously asking, “Why?”
“Preston’s downstairs in the shop and he’s asking for you!”
“Me?” I asked surprised. “Which me?”
“You you! He doesn’t want to see Maggie, he wants to see you!”
I made eye contact with my best friend once again and the newbie before I dropped everything in my hands and raced down the stairs.
“This is what I was talking about,” Cecilia yelled after me. I chose to not listen to her though as I reached the store level. We had two or three customers inside checking out what we had displayed and Preston was standing by the cashier counter waiting for someone’s arrival. That someone was me. Charlie me. So this had to be good.
“Hey,” I greeted as casually as I could. I had to admit that my suspicions were definitely up. “I heard that you were asking for me.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled seeming to shy away from me now that I was here. He almost seemed… bashful. “I wanted to ask for your help.”
“My help?” I asked raising my eyebrows. “With what?”
Preston’s eyes remained glued to the floor. I spotted Holly and Cecilia emerging from the stairway that led to the roof. Jane had to stay out of sight because Preston didn’t know she worked here. I gave them a glare to stay put before turning my attention back to Preston. He was too occupied feeling embarrassed to notice my actions though.
“You told me to take Maggie out on a real date but I don’t know anything about her. I need a suggestion or something. I mean, what does she like or what would she enjoy doing? You think you can help me out a bit? I want to do this right this time, you know?” Preston could’ve been considered cute. He was acting like a puppy who didn’t know if they should go right or left. It was, dare I say, adorable of him.
I was just about to open my mouth to reply when I felt an arm sneak around my shoulder.
“Preston needs help with a girl? No problem! I can help!”
I looked in horror at the face of my so-called best friend.
“Great,” Preston said looking up at the two of us. “What do you have in mind then?”
“Well for starters,” Cecilia rattled on. “She loves white roses. I don’t know who told you black but that was a bunch of baloney.”
At that Holly, shrunk away into the darkness of the back hallways. I smirked after her before glaring back at Cecilia. What was she doing?
“Then I think you should take her roller skating.”
“Roller skating?” Both Preston and I asked at the same time. I hadn’t been roller skating since I was a little girl and I was sure to fall flat on my bottom if I tried it again especially with twenty pounds extra on my body. I had just barely gotten used to the sensation of walking in that awful suit, I couldn’t imagine what adding wheels would do for me.
Cecilia nodded though bringing me back down from my thoughts. “Yeah, she hasn’t been for a while but if you make it fun, then it will be fun. Just make sure to take it slow and maybe actually help her out if she has difficulties. You can be her teacher. Oh, how romantic!”
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and scoff. I took in a deep breath and put on a wide smile. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Preston seemed unsure about everything but he looked over at me to make sure. His honey golden eyes held my blue ones for a long time before he nodded and seemed pleased. “Alright then, it’s a date. I should probably go call her then and apologize.”
“A nice bouquet wouldn’t be a bad touch,” Cecilia added quietly.
I jabbed her ribs with my elbow. “That’s not necessary though. You don’t even have to call her. Why don’t I just deliver the message? Just give me a date and time.”
“No,” Preston denied. For the millionth time, I was astonished by this boy’s actions. He just continued to surprise me. “I need to talk to her myself and explain some things. Is she here by chance?”
“No,” I answered before anyone else could. I didn’t need some more people signing me up for things I didn’t agree to. This was how I got into this whole mess in the first place. “Calling her would be best as of right now. She doesn’t work here much, just visits.”
Preston accepted that information but didn’t comment. “Well thanks for the advice girls. I’ll be sure to think about it.”
Then he turned his back on us and left the store without a single glance back. I stared after him a while in wonder.
“Don’t stare too long or else you might drool,” Cecilia mumbled into my ear. I shooed her away and told her to get back to work.
“You owe me some skating lessons,” I yelled toward her. She only laughed in response.
I sighed as I turned back to face the few customers that were in the store. They paid no attention to anything that didn’t concern them thankfully. I wiped my face and felt a large layer of dirt and sweat on my face. It was from hanging out in the greenhouse. The humid air and constant messing around with the pots and plants always created a mess. I groaned and pulled off my apron that I had used to keep my clothes from gaining any dirt on them. It really wasn’t of any use since the dirt just always found a way to attach itself to me.
It was only a second later that my cell phone rang. I pulled it out from my pocket and escaped from the store to go into the hallway. I went into my office and quickly made sure that my door was shut and that I was alone. I cleared my throat and deepened my voice as I answered my phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Maggie,” Preston’s deep voice mumbled on the other side of the line.
“Oh,” I answered in a bored tone. “What do you want?”
“Listen I know we didn’t part on the best of terms but I want you to know that I was wrong. I shouldn’t have said those things to you in the hall. I didn’t know what I was talking about. I was just confused and had a lot on my mind. Everything was just starting to freak me out about our relationship. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“What do you want, Preston?” I asked again.
“I want to take you out on a real date. I don’t want to take you to the movies or to some stupid diner where everything is ruined by one stupid person. I want to take you on an enjoyable date where I can take you home feeling like you actually had fun.”
“Okay? Why should I accept a date after you told me to go away?”
“I didn’t want you to go away,” he argued quickly. “I just needed to get away. Not from you! But I needed to get away from everyone and everything. I’m better now though. I want to get to know you. I want to know what your favorite color is and what you like to watch on TV and stuff like that. Do you think we could start over?”
I didn’t answer him right away and just let a silent air of static fill in for our conversation. I could tell Preston began to grow edgy when he asked if I was still on the line.
“I’m here,” I mumbled. “Just give me a minute to think, please?”
“I really do want to take you out and get to know you. I don’t know how to prove it to you but I will do anything you want me to.”
“Anything?” I asked quickly.
“Yes, anything!”
“If you take me out now, can I get a rein check on that anything promise?” I asked mischievously.
It was Preston’s turn to be silent but then he stuttered out an answer. “Yeah, that’s a deal. I’ll owe you one favor in exchange for starting over. How does that sound?”
A smirk grew on my face. “Just tell me when and where?”
Preston was relieved and so was I honestly. I was worried that this whole case could’ve been messed up because of whatever was going on in his head. I wrote down the time and day that he wanted our next and first official re-do date to be. He said he wanted the actual place to be a surprise but I only rolled my eyes at his cheesiness. I hung up a few moments later with a large smile on my face.
I made sure to make a note of this favor I had stored now. It would most certainly only come in handy for me later on in the game. I didn’t have any ideas what to do with it, but it was sure nice to have.
“Oh poor Preston,” I whispered to myself as I underlined his name on a sticky note. “You have no idea what’s about to hit you.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
SURPRISE! Early morning Wednesday update! And yes, there will still be a Friday update just because I like all of you! :)
So, the date is in the next chapter… in case that wasn’t clear. I do love Charlie/Preston moments. They are quite fun to write. Not that Maggie/Preston isn’t fun either but well… I really like Charlie. I think it’s really funny how most of you assume Preston likes Charlie rather than Maggie… because I had never thought of it that way. Just kind of funny…
Also the whole Cecilia is Brenda stuff, well, I’m just going to say that we’ll meet Brenda later on and then you all can decide.
Anywho, Cecilia is just taking control over Charlie’s dates. Seems that Maggie is in for a fun surprise. And Preston’s moods will be explained more in the next chapter. Yay! We get to learn about the mysterious boy! ^_^
Hope you enjoyed the surprise! Don’t get too used to these updates! See you all on Friday!
~GermanSam