I Will Love You Endlessly (Sequel to i dare you to love me)

Part 7

"Dan, dear?" Louise's voice brings Dan out of his thoughts and he looks up from his floral booklet to see her standing in front of the register, smiling widely at him. "So, have you decided on the flowers for the wedding yet?"

Dan's lips curl into a smile and he nods. "I'm going to go with the lilies," he tells her, pointing at a photograph of a beautiful bouquet of lilies in his book - which has been circled numerous times in black pen with doodled hearts all around it.
"Excellent choice," Louise says, and then she squeals a little, clapping her hands. "Oh, I'm so excited, I love weddings!" She walks behind the register so she's standing next to Dan and asks him to see the ring again.

As if she even has to ask; it's not like Dan doesn't go out of his way to make sure everyone and anyone has seen his engagement ring. He brandishes his left hand in front of her, revealing a silver band that wraps around his third finger and comes together in the shape of a rose.

"It's so beautiful," Louise sighs, taking Dan's hand and staring lovingly at his ring.

"It's perfect," Dan says, not taking his eyes off of the ring. "I love it almost as much as the man who gave it to me."

"God, you two are so cute, I'm going to vomit," Louise tells him, releasing his hand.

Dan opens his mouth to say something when the bell above the shop's front door 'dings' loudly, and he turns to look at the door, the smile on his face only growing wider. "Speaking of the man I love," he says as Phil walks up to the register, leaning across it to place a kiss on the younger man's lips.

"Hello, you," the brunet says.

"Hey," Phil grins. "I see you're showing off your ring again."

"Can you blame me?" Dan asks him. "It's perfect."

"You're perfect," Phil replies, kissing his head.

"Vom," is all Louise says, and Dan and Phil laugh as she walks away and leaves them alone for the time being.

Dan reaches over for one of Phil's hands, lacing their fingers together. "So," he says. "I've decided on lilies for the wedding."

"That sounds brilliant," Phil says happily. "I wouldn't want anything else." He leans over and gives Dan another kiss, then pulls away abruptly. "Oh! I almost forgot!" He reveals his other hand to Dan - and Dan realizes that he hadn't even noticed that Phil was hiding it behind his back - to show a bouquet of red and white roses. "These are for you," he says. "I made a pit stop at my favorite flower shop on my way to work this morning - luckily you weren't opening today," he adds with a wink.

Dan takes the roses, speechless, and he looks over at Louise, who just smiles knowingly at him. She always knew that one day, Dan was going to find someone to buy red and white roses for him. And even better, Phil only buys his flowers from Game of Thorns; if you ask her, he's above and beyond the perfect boyfriend - now fiance - for Dan.

"I love you," is all he can say, and he walks around the register to stand before Phil and properly kiss him. He feels like a flower in bloom, like life is coursing through his veins. Phil makes him feel alive. Phil makes him feel like flowers could grow even in the darkest parts of his heart - and he supposes, in a way, they did.

"I love you too," Phil tells him once they've stopped kissing, and Dan will never tire of hearing those words.

Dan smiles at him, then turns his attention back to flower booklet he's been looking at. "Okay so that's one thing on my list of a billion things to do that I can check off," he says with a sigh. Wedding planning is nothing like it is in the movies; there's vigorous work that goes into it and he's already starting to feel the stress. The fun and games part of being engaged is coming to a close, and now he and Phil need to get down to business.

"Don't stress, love," Phil tells him. "We're going to get everything done in time."

Dan turns to look at him. "What does 'in time' even mean?" he asks. "We don't have a date set."

"Then let's pick a date right now!" Phil says, as if absolutely zero thought needs to go into this decision.

"It doesn't work that way, Phil," Dan says, rolling his eyes."We can't just pick any date off of the tops of our heads!"

"Well, we can't wait too long to pick a date; we have to book a place to have the wedding, and we need to make sure they have the date we want available," Phil points out, and Dan just groans loudly, holding his head in his hands.

"Why don't we just elope?" he suggests, and Phil chuckles, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and kissing the top of Dan's head. But Dan wasn't entirely joking. It might be easier if they just went and eloped; who needs a set date for that?

"If I may interrupt," Louise says walking back over to the two of them. "I refuse to let a love as beautiful as yours go unseen by the world, and since I am a bit of a wedding connoisseur -"

"You've only been married once," Phil points out.

"That's because I did it right the first time," she tells them. "The point is, I can help you guys plan this thing, if you would like."

"Yes." Dan says immediately. "Yes, yes please, please help us."

"Well only if you say please," Louise teases him.

"See," Phil wraps his arm around Dan's shoulders. "I told you we'd figure all of this out."

"Never fear, Louise Watson is here," she says, smiling cheekily for the two of them and poses with her arm resting on the broom she had been sweeping the shop floor with - however it slips out from beneath her and she nearly falls over, and Dan can't help but to think 'And this is the woman I've just put in charge of my romantic future.'