Chapter 3 – Lexi
three
Lexi
My phone vibrates by my hand as I look down at the flower arrangement in front of me.
Trent:
On my way back from New York. I’ll be home by six, have dinner ready. I guess I’ll have what you are having since we are watching what we eat.
Who is we? I think to myself since he has never once changed the way he eats.
The pit of my stomach lurches. He hasn’t been home for dinner in three days.
The last time I saw him was at the hospital after he met Kirby.
The memory makes my stomach burn even more.
I close my eyes for a second, trying to erase the words I said, I’m too good for someone like him.
Just thinking about them again, I cringe.
Me:
I took out some salmon and was going to do it grilled with veggies.
Trent:
Shouldn’t you be eating white fish instead? It’s better for you.
Me:
I’ll take out the cod and steam it. Would you like the salmon anyway?
Trent:
Sure, you have the time to do both. Taking off, see you at six.
“Sorry about that,” I say, putting my phone back in my purse now that he’s on his flight and I don’t have to worry about missing his call or message.
“Okay, so this is going to be the flower arrangement on each table.” I look down at the mock-up table Mindy has prepared for me.
There are five gold cylinder vases in front of her, the tallest on the outside and then going shorter to the middle and then working their way back up.
She has calla lilies in two of them and then roses in the other three.
“What if we put only four vases?” I question, taking one off and then start filling the other four vases with more flowers.
“It’s less on the table since there will also be a bucket of champagne, and then using the same amount of flowers, the vases look fuller. ”
“That actually looks better,” she agrees. “We can take off more vases and redistribute the flowers and your cost will go down without the extra vases.”
I smile at her. “Music to my ears,” I tell her. “Now, let’s look at cutlery.”
It takes about two hours to figure out all the little details, with Mindy telling me she’s going to do a mock-up of everything we changed and email me the pictures.
I put on my sunglasses before stepping out into the scorching sun and walking to my car.
The phone rings from my purse and I quickly reach for it and see Cheryl is calling me.
“Hi, Cheryl,” I answer, putting the phone to my ear as I pull open the car door and get in. “Did you get the pictures I sent?”
“I did,” she confirms and I can hear her walking on her end of the phone call with lots of people. “It’s stunning and looks so much better than last year.”
“I think so too,” I agree with her. “She’s going to send me a full mock-up tomorrow.”
“That’s great. Listen, the reason I was calling you was because I have to call Kirby today to discuss what the auction entails, and I got my times mixed up with tomorrow,” she explains breathlessly.
“I have someone coming over to the house to go over the plans for the remodel, and I can’t cancel on him.
It took me a month to get this appointment and Harold will kill me if I push it more. ”
“Oh,” I say, turning on the car and putting the air-conditioning on, “I’m sure you can call Kirby tomorrow.”
“It won’t take you that long,” Cheryl states. “I’ll send you his number.”
“Okay,” I reply, not sure I want to do it, but if I say no, she might think I’m hiding something. The last thing I need is for gossip to get back to Trent about him. “Sounds good.”
I disconnect the phone and pull out of the parking lot, looking down at the center console and seeing I have about three hours until Trent is back.
I stop at the flower shop, ready to pick up my white roses for the week.
Stepping in, I see the pink lilies right away.
“Oh my, those are so pretty,” I compliment, walking to the counter.
“Hi, Rhonda,” I greet to the owner of the flower shop.
“Lexi,” she returns with a smile, “I have your roses in the back to be delivered in an hour.”
“I was out and figured I would just pick them up. Can I also get two dozen of those lilies at the front?” I say to her and she smiles even bigger.
“Aren’t they gorgeous? You know what? Why don’t you let me put those in a vase for you and I’ll send Henry out with them now.”
“Are you sure?” I ask her and she nods her head. “Perfect, I can’t wait.”
I turn and walk out of the flower shop at the same time my phone beeps, and I see Cheryl has sent me Kirby’s number.
I close my eyes and decide I’m going to call him once I get into the house.
Parking my car in the garage, I then walk into the mudroom.
I slip off my beige sandals before walking into the house.
Stopping in my office, I put my purse down on the coffee table in the middle of the seating area before I sit down and call him.
I close my eyes at the same time the phone starts to ring.
“Don’t pick up. Don’t pick up.” I look at the clock and see it’s just after four thirty, so he might be out or practicing or even playing golf.
My leg starts to move up and down as the second ring starts.
“Please don’t pick up,” I whisper, and when the second ring stops and then the third starts, I think I’m in the clear until in the middle of the third ring, he picks up.
“Hello.” He sounds out of breath, as if he ran for the phone.
“Kirby,” I say his name, “it’s Lexi, with the hospital fundraiser.”
“Lexi,” he says my name and I turn my head to look out of the window, the nerves in my body making me get up to my feet.
“Is this a bad time?” I ask him, not sure what else to say. It’s like I’ve never been on the phone before.
“Nope,” he confirms, his voice is tight and he’s not friendly like he was the last couple of times.
“Oh good. I know you were expecting Cheryl to call you to go over the details of the auction, but something came up and she asked me to call you.”
“Is that so?” he retorts. “I would think that you would be too good to call someone like me.” The minute he says the words, I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. The hatred for myself fills in even more. I close my eyes and I want to crawl into the corner, knowing he heard what I said.
“Kirby,” I say his name softly.
“Lexi, why don’t we just talk about what you are calling for?” he suggests. “Cheryl said she was going to call to discuss what the whole auction would be like.”
“Yes, of course,” I agree with him. He obviously wants to get this phone call over with as much as I do.
“So, as she mentioned, we have ten bachelors.” I start at the beginning of the pitch I’ve heard her say.
“There will be a bunch of auction items throughout the night outside of just the bachelors and there are also silent auction prizes.”
“Where do I come in?” he asks me, and I hear the sound of slamming coming from his end of the phone.
“The ten bachelors will be auctioned off at the end of the evening. You will dance with your partner.”
“The partner I’m bringing or the highest bidder?” he asks his question, and I don’t know why I assumed he wasn’t with anyone.
“The highest bidder,” I tell him. “After that, the two of you will have three dates to choose from, and then you go on your date and it’s over…” I trail off. “Unless you want a second date. That is up to you, but not mandatory.”
“Good to know,” he replies and I don’t know if he’s making a joke or not.
“All bachelors are expected to be wearing a tux. I’m assuming you have one. If you don’t, we can recommend a tailor who is working with a couple of the other bachelors.”
“I’m covered.” That’s all he says. “Is that all?”
“Pretty much. There is the dance schedule that should have been emailed to you,” I tell him, getting up. “Did Cheryl take down your email?”
“I don’t think she did, but if you don’t want to be bothered, I can text it to her.”
“Kirby,” I say his name. “I—” I stop talking when the doorbell rings.
“If that is all you need to tell me, Lexi,” he says tightly, “I think we are done with this conversation.”
“Yes, have a good night, Kirby,” I state and he just hangs up on me.
“Well, you deserved that,” I tell myself as I walk to the front door, seeing Henry there with my roses wrapped in brown paper and the vase of lilies in the other hand.
“This is pretty heavy,” he mentions of the lilies. “How about I come in and set it down for you?”
“Of course.” I move out of the way. “If you can just set them on the counter in the kitchen, I’ll take care of the rest.” He does what I tell him and quickly exits with a smile.
I take the vase from the front and cut the stems of the old roses, putting them in another vase since they are still thriving, and place them on the coffee table in the living room.
I finish placing the flowers and decide to put the pink lilies in the middle of the island and smile at them with their pop of color before I start to make dinner.
I’m walking in from outside with the grilled salmon on the plate when the side door opens and Trent walks into the room.
I smile at him. “Hey,” I say as he looks over at me, giving me a glance up and down my body.
Back in the day, this would make my stomach flutter, but now it just makes my stomach clench.
“What are you wearing?” he asks me, putting down his bag by the door.
I look down at my cream-colored pants that are rolled at the bottom to over my ankles and the white high-neck sleeveless T-shirt I’m wearing.
“I’ve been gone three days, and you couldn’t dress up for me a bit?
” He comes over and gives me a chaste kiss on my cheek before moving away from me.
“I’m sorry, I got home and got busy with the fundraiser.” I put the salmon down. “I’ll go change quickly.”
“Don’t bother.” He sighs as he pulls open the fridge and grabs a bottle of his sparkling water. The sound of the bottle opening fills the quiet room. He takes a sip, his eyes going to the flowers. “What the fuck is that?” he asks, motioning to the vase of lilies with his chin.
“I got them today.” I smile. “Thought they would brighten up the room.”
“Take them to your office,” he commands. “They don’t go with anything in this room.”
“I will. Dinner’s ready to eat if you are.”
“Good, I’m starved.” He walks over to the table I set up while the salmon was grilling.
He pulls out his chair, sitting down in his spot, as I walk over with both our plates, placing his grilled salmon with roasted asparagus and peppers in front of him while my baked cod is placed in the middle of my dish with three stalks of asparagus.
I fill up my glass with water and sit down before looking at him.
“It’s good to have you home.” I smile and he nods, picking up his fork and taking a bite of his salmon.
“It’s good to be home,” he replies.
“How was New York?” I ask him as my phone rings from beside me, his eyes flying to it.
“Why do you have your phone at the table?” he asks me, and I look down to see it’s my mother calling. I press the side button to silence the ringing.
“I was setting the table,” I explain softly, taking a bite of my own meal, “and I had the phone next to me in case you called me.” I shrug. “I must have forgotten it was here.”
“Dinners are our time,” he reminds me and I look up at him. “It’s time for us to connect again. Talk about our day.”
“Yes, of course.” I smile. “I want to hear all about New York.”
“You know you’re lucky you have me, right?” he says the words I hear about ten times a day.
“I do,” I agree with him.
“Your focus should be on me tonight, especially since I’ve been gone for the last three days.”
“Of course.” I take another bite. “I’ll turn off the phone,” I say, switching the phone off, my heart feeling very heavy in my chest as I do it.
The screen shows my mother not only called; she also left me a voicemail.
The screen turns black and the back of my neck burns but I fight it, turning to him. “So, tell me all about New York.”