Asher King's life has revolved around putting up an involuntary mask to hide his true self. With successful parents boasting about his 'pretend' success, Asher feels as though the life he is living was never his to begin with, and a home of happines...
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Day 1
I can't focus.
I just have a terrible feeling about Ash.
I'm sure he has plans for the day, but there is an empty feeling in my stomach.
"Hey, Leo." My mom snaps a finger in front of my face. "Focus, how many vases were in the back?"
"Almost thirty..." I say distractedly.
I gaze back out of the store window as my mom takes inventory of the shop. It's something that you would usually do twice a year, but since the shop isn't too busy most of the time, she does it often.
I hope she gets distracted before she actually gets to the Lisianthus flowers because then she is going to know how many are missing.
I may have gone a little overboard this past month with gifting Ash the flowers, but what can I say? I just want to spoil my baby. Nothing can ever match the way Asher's face lights up when I gift him yet another flower.
I'm scared that one day he will grow tired of it, but since I've seen no sign of that, I won't be letting up anytime soon.
"Did you check how many candles were left?" Mom questions.
I grab the sticky note out of my pocket and look over all of the notes I made.
"There are eighteen candles on display: six pumpkin, six vanilla, three coconut, two lemon, and one strawberry cheesecake. Then there are twenty-four still in the back."
"Okay, got it," she says, checking off each item on the list.
I look back out the window and see a girl in a light blue dress running down the street. The closer she gets to the shop, the more I realize that this is the location she is frantically running to.
The girl enters the flower shop in a panic.
"Leo!" she shrieks, stopping in front of me on the customer side of the flower shop.
The girl has puffy eyes and dried tear stains on her cheeks. She has disheveled hair, dirt stains all the way down her short dress, and is breathing heavily. She is also barefoot.
The closer I look at her, the more I realize who it is.
"Cecilia?" I question and walk around the counter. Her appearance is very alarming. I can tell she is shaken up by something. "What's wrong?"
"L-Leo..." she cries and grabs my wrist, pulling me toward the exit.
I look over at my mom. She's looking at me with a confused expression.
"Woah, woah, woah, wait," I say and stand in my place, preventing her from pulling me any further. "What's going on? Why do you look like this and where are you taking me?"
"I don't have any time to explain!" she cries out, trying to pull me out of the shop once again, but I don't budge.
"Listen, Cecilia, just explain what's wrong and I can go with you, but you are seriously freaking me out."
