2. I’m Being Set up by Prince Charming
CHAPTER 2
I’M BEING SET UP BY PRINCE CHARMING
DAISY
A fter I say goodbye to my co-workers, I toss my apron into the bin, sling my bag onto my shoulder, and head outside. My apartment is one-third of a mile from the Coffee Loft , and there are three different paths I could take when walking home. I like to let fate (a.k.a. my phone) decide which one I take. I activate voice control, then say, “ Pick a number between one and three.”
It picks three. Meandering path, it is! It doesn’t have sidewalks for half of it but goes past some cool homes with interesting landscaping. I’m walking past one with a stone bench and some purple and yellow asters when my phone sounds with my sister’s ringtone, so I pull it out of my bag and answer.
“ Are you on your way home from work? Make sure you stop by the store to pick up milk! ”
“ Thanks , Laurel ,” I say, trying to make my voice sound appreciative. I love my sister. I miss my sister. I do not love or miss her bossing me around. Mostly because I really do need milk, yet I know I won’t get it because, well, she’s not the boss of me.
There’s a pause, and then she says, “ You’re not going to stop and get it, are you?”
“ Nope !” I say, and this time my voice does come out cheerful.
She sighs. “ Because you’re an adult and you don’t need your sister parenting you anymore?”
“ And ?” I prod.
“ And you’ve lived without me for six months now, and you’ve been getting milk just fine on your own.”
“ Exactly .”
Okay , truth be told, I forget more often than not. But I’m a twenty-four-year-old woman. Whether or not I have to eat my cereal dry should be squarely on my mental list, not cluttering up my sister’s.
“ But hey,” I say, “ I think you’re making progress. This is only the second time this week you’ve bossed me around.” She’s only a year and two days older than me, but she’s been acting like she’s my mom more than my sister since we were little.
“ Wow —only twice? I think I should get a gold star for that!”
I laugh. I like change. Adore it. A surprise change of plans? Sign me up. An unplanned detour? Right up my alley. A leap into the unknown? Sounds exciting. But I’m not a fan of the person I’m closest to moving a three-hour drive away.
“ Thanks for looking out for me, sis.”
We chat as I walk past a home with an elaborate rock garden—complete with a miniature replica of Stonehenge , with garden gnomes arranged like they’re having a birthday party in the middle—clear up until I’m walking up the stairs to the second floor of my apartment building.
Six months ago, my sister and I were sitting on my bed in our apartment, chatting about everything under the sun, and I said, “ I want someone to share my space with.”
Laurel just raised an eyebrow, so I continued. “ You know, someone to go do things with. Someone who is always up to go with me wherever anywhere at any time. Someone who will be there for me. Who’ll be happy to see me. Who will miss me while I’m at work.”
Laurel had crossed her arms and said in a flat tone, “ You mean someone who’s not going to go off and get married in two days and move out, like I am?”
“ Yep .” I could tell by the look on her face that she’d thought I was talking about the roommate who would replace her. But instead, I said, “ So I decided I either need to get myself a man or a dog.”
She , the blissfully-in-love sister, voted for me to get a man .
I knock on Ruthie Beisinger’s apartment, which is right across the hall from mine, and the moment the white-haired woman opens her door, Prince Charming barks his happy-to-see-me yips as he runs to me as fast as he can with his little corgi legs. I scoop him up into my arms, and he licks my face like we’ve finally been reunited after a year apart.
I think the dog was the correct choice.
Also a correct choice: letting Prince Charming spend the day while I’m working with Ruthie . The older woman was lonely during the day; my adorable dog was lonely while I was at work. The two of them spending the days together has been a match made in heaven.
“ This little guy,” Ruthie says as she leans in and grabs hold of my dog’s cheeks, giving them a rub, “was such a gentleman today. We had a tea party, and he was the perfect guest. He let me dress him up in a cute little suit and he sat straight up in the chair I had for him at the table. He even waited to drink his little teacup of water until I started drinking mine.”
Prince Charming knows that Ruthie is telling me what a good boy he is, and he’s sitting tall in my arms, an open-mouth smile on his face.
“ Then we ate biscuits together—well, his was a dog biscuit. Mine was a cookie. He was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen in his suit. Oh , let me send you pictures of it. ”
The elderly woman pulls out her phone as I set Prince Charming back on the ground and scratch him along the sides of his neck, just as he likes.
“ My son told me that I can share pictures through the Googler right from my phone! I know, I know. He’s always saying I should call it Google or Google Drive , but it’s not a person, so it doesn’t care if I call it the right name or not. And why in the world would you call something by its normal name when the more fun-to-say name is right there waiting for you to use it? Okay , bam! They’re uploaded to the Googler and shared with you.”
I pull out my phone and see the notification. “ Ruthie , you go ahead and call it whatever you want. And I will call you Master of Technology .”
“ I do like being up on things. Someday , I’ll have to impress you with my knowledge of the slang that’s popular this month. I have the TiketyTok to thank for that. It keeps me young and in the know.”
I pull up the pictures she took of Prince Charming dressed all fancy, and we fawn over them like Prince Charming is our baby. Well , my baby, her grandbaby. Then I give her a hug, thank her for giving Prince Charming such a fun day, and he and I head across the hall to my apartment as I pull the bands out of my hair and let my somewhat curls fall loose.
My apartment is small and filled with dog toys and a plethora of craft projects in various stages of completion. I might not like my sister bossing me around, but I have to admit that my life feels more… adrift since she moved.
I had thought about staying in the same apartment she and I shared and getting a new roommate, but that felt like a big commitment, and I’m not committed to staying here in Cipher Springs . I keep thinking about moving somewhere random and seeing what is there for me. So instead, I got this one-bedroom place with a month-to-month contract. It feels freeing.
But at the same time, I somehow still feel stifled. I keep thinking of opening my own business, but I don’t do it. I love crafting things and chatting with people, so I think I could make cute things, sell them at craft fairs, and do well at it. But I worry that I would get bored of making the same things all the time and want to constantly be switching it up. And that makes me wonder if my desire to do it is because of the side of me that’s like my parents, who went off to chase every fantasy and every thought of a career that sounded interesting.
Or maybe that’s not even why. Maybe I just don’t know what direction to take. Maybe I got so used to Laurel making decisions for me that I never practiced making my own. Maybe I need to start over someplace fresh. Someplace where I didn’t live with my sister, where I could start a new path. I don’t know. All I know is that I’ve been holding off moving forward in any direction that excites me. That’s probably why I’ve been feeling unfulfilled and the need to move.
Laurel being gone has definitely added to the adrift feeling. Laurel is a tent and I am a kite. I used to be tethered to one of her tent pegs, but now that she’s gone, nothing is tethering me here. Not even my apartment. I don’t like the feeling. So instead of dwelling on it, I turn my attention to Prince Charming .
“ Who’s a good boy?” I say as I rub his neck. Then , as I’m getting him some dinner, I ask him, “ Did you have fun at Ruthie’s today?” He lets out a quick bark and looks so happy. While he’s eating, I grab the other half of the salad I got for dinner yesterday and sit down to eat it. If you judged my age by the time I eat dinner, you’d guess I am at least Ruthie’s age. But I go to work early, and I get hungry early. And a hungry Daisy is, well, a Daisy I prefer not to be.
When I finish, I say to Charm , “ Do you want to help me pick what we’re going to do today?” He barks again, his fluffy little tail wagging a million miles an hour.
So I grab a piece of paper from the printer that’s next to my laptop on a teeny desk and grab a Sharpie from my mug of pens. Then I say things out loud as I write them in random spots on the paper.
“ Okay , our choices are… Go on a walk. Finish that cactus garden made out of painted rocks that I started the other night. Oh ! I got an idea for some earrings that each look like a miniature potted plant in a macramé plant hanger, so working on making those. Let’s see… Going to the dog park,” which gets another happy bark from Prince Charming . “ Researching what new city might be fun to live in. I’m thinking maybe Charleston , South Carolina . It has great food, an arts community, and nearby beaches. Okay , and the last thing… Cook something fancy. Maybe a dessert.”
The paper has six things written on it with each in its own little bubble of space. I place the paper on the floor, and Prince Charming walks around it, studying it. He knows the drill. He even makes a show of really considering the options. Then he reaches out a paw, places it right on Dog Park , and looks up at me, his mouth open in his signature grin.
And , I’m pretty sure he knows that he chose to go to the dog park because he has chosen the dog park a lot lately. I knew before getting Prince Charming that Corgis are smart, but I didn’t think he’d be able to pick specific words from a paper! Maybe he watches to see where I write on the paper when I say “ Dog park” and then makes sure to put his paw on that one. I’m going to have to stop saying the choices out loud.
We live right downtown in Cipher Springs , and we’ve got two parks that are very close. A few minutes later, we’ve both drank a good amount of water, I’ve grabbed my jacket, Prince Charming is on his leash, and we are walking the two blocks to the dog park. I breathe in deeply as we walk. It’s the perfect fall temperature. Cool enough for a jacket but not cold. The air is crisp and clean and leaves are changing in all the trees to the prettiest colors.
As we round a corner, I see someone else at the other end of the block coming toward me who’s also walking a pet and I squint. “ Is that a cat on their leash?” I say to Prince Charming . “ How did they get a cat to be on a leash?”
As we get nearer, I realize the person walking the cat is Ollie . The guy who comes into the Coffee Loft every morning carrying a laptop, book, or a stack of folders and gets a chai latte before sitting down to work or read. I like Ollie . He works at the accounting firm a block away from the Coffee Loft , although I’ve never seen him there when I do deliveries.
I don’t know him super well because he’s not a big talker, but I like him. He’s got sweet eyes and a great smile, and he always puts a tip in the tip jar. Every day when he comes in, I hope he’ll hang out at the counter to chat even after I finish making his drink because I would love to get to know him even better, but he doesn’t.
We get close enough to see each other’s faces near one of the tall trees lining the space between the sidewalk and the street, and I grin and say, “ Hi , Ollie .”
His eyebrows rise in surprise at seeing me. “ Daisy ! I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Hi .” Gosh , he’s got a good smile. He has a shyness about him, but also a genuineness that can’t be faked. It’s one of my favorite things about him. “ Where are you headed?”
“ The dog park. You ?”
“ Just … around. We thought it might be fun to walk in a different part of town today.”
Prince Charming has been slowly scooting closer to Ollie’s wary cat, and I realize he’s looking rather mischievous right about the time that Ollie’s cat hisses. Instead of backing up, like he should’ve after a warning hiss like that, Prince Charming summons his inner herder and pounces forward, like he’s going to nip at the cat.
Which , of course, freaks out the cat, and she scales the tree in about one second flat. She’s gotten far enough up it that Ollie is holding his hand up in the air to keep hold of the leash. I am opening my mouth to apologize to Ollie just as Prince Charming runs around me, wrapping his leash around my legs. Then he bolts for the tree, tugging me forward.
Because my feet are now tied together, I can’t take a step to catch myself, so I fall right into Ollie , taking us both down. We land on the sidewalk, me on top of him, so I’ve got an up-close view of his shocked face. I turn to look at my dog and say, “ Charm ! I can’t believe you did that!”
“ Charm ?” Ollie says. “ As in lucky charm ?”
“ No , as in Prince Charming ,” I flash a look at my dog, “which is what he’s not being right now. I named him that because when I first saw him, he swept me off my feet. I didn’t expect him to also literally do it. I am so sorry. He’s not usually like this.”
I put my hands on the cement on either side of Ollie to push myself up, but my legs are still tangled in the leash so I can’t exactly get up. Instead , I flop over onto the ground beside Ollie and work on freeing my ankles as I turn to Prince Charming . “ That was not a nice thing to do.”
Instead of Charm looking remorseful or rebuked, he’s grinning at me. Then he walks over and licks Ollie on the face. Licks him! Like he’s giving him kisses or a seal of approval or something.
“ Is that your way of apologizing?” I ask my dog. “ Because it doesn’t work if you don’t also look like you’re sorry about what you did.” But he just keeps looking happy.
I get untangled and to my feet at about the same time that Ollie does, and our eyes almost simultaneously go to the tree. Its leaves are a beautiful golden color, and Ollie’s cat is now high enough that reaching her leash is impossible. “ I’m going to have to go up after her,” Ollie says.
I shake my head. “ I will. It’s the least I can do since it was my dog that sent her up there. Give me a boost?”
Ollie interlocks his hands and crouches down, so I step into his hand cradle, and he lifts me high enough that I can scramble onto the lowest branch. I glance back down to see that Ollie has picked up Prince Charming’s leash and is holding it, even though Charm is now acting like a perfect gentleman who would never even think of doing anything mischievous.
“ Here , kitty,” I say as I climb up toward the cat. But she doesn’t come—she just matches my ascent up the tree. Before long, the cat is up high enough and on skinny enough branches that logic—and a bit of fear—stop me. So do much-too-vivid visions of me stepping onto a branch, it breaking, and me falling and crashing, once again, onto Ollie , knocking us both back to the ground.
“ Don’t climb any higher,” Ollie says. “ We’ll figure something else out.”
So I start climbing down. Which is much more difficult than climbing up was and makes me feel like I should’ve spent more time in the gym on the… what equipment exercises your tree climbing muscles?
I get back to the lowest branch, sit on it, and brace my hands on the branches at the sides, hoping to support myself a bit as I gracefully lower myself to the ground. But it doesn’t work like I had hoped, and it’s anything but graceful as I slide/tumble/crash into Ollie .
So now we’re face to face again, as close as when we were on the ground, his arms are around me, keeping me from falling, and I can’t help but feel a little spark of something .
“ Hey ,” Ollie says, “we’re making progress. We both stayed standing this time.”
I laugh, and Ollie releases me, which is too bad because it is actually rather nice. I could stay like that for the rest of the night, especially since those sweet eyes of his are even better up close. But he has a pet to rescue.
He hands me Prince Charming’s leash, and as I turn to assess exactly how much trouble his cat is in, the feline hops gracefully out of the tree like she’s trying to demonstrate how it’s done. Showoff . Then she goes right up to Ollie and rubs against his leg like she’s bringing her leash to him.
He picks up her leash, and says, “ Daisy , I’d like you to meet Roi .”
“ Oh , she is beautiful,” I say as I crouch down to let the long-haired beauty smell my hand.
“ Say ‘ Hi ,’ Roi !” Ollie says.
The cat meows at me, which I’ve rarely seen a cat do on command, so I say, “ Well , hello, Roi ” as I pet her silky white and reddish orange coat. She purrs while somehow also maintaining a glare she’s sending in Charm’s direction that seems to be saying, “ I’m the one in charge.” Charm is still grinning like a fool, so apparently he’s okay with that.
Then I stand, and Ollie says, “ It’s nice seeing you a second time in one day.”
“ Out in daylight, even. And without my Coffee Loft apron. ”
“ But with your Prince Charming . And with your hair…” He makes a motion with his hand on top of his head and I think he’s trying to describe without words my lack of the usual messy bun. “ It looks nice.”
I shrug. “ It probably looks a little chaotic from all the action, but I’ll take the compliment. It’s nice seeing you, too— I hadn’t expected to run into you. Especially not so… violently.”
He chuckles softly, and we have a moment when we’re just looking at each other. The air between us feels charged. There have been so many times over the past year where I’ve thought he’s going to ask me out when I hand him his chai latte. Or at least ask for my number so we can start texting and getting to know each other better. And as we look at each other, I think this is it. This is when he’s finally going to ask me out.
But after a moment, he clears his throat, takes a step back to put some space between us, and then says, “ I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the Coffee Loft , right?”
I nod and say, “ I’ll be there with bells on.”
Then , he turns and walks away.