Exactly What I've Been Waiting For

Chapter 22

A bit of a heads up. This chapter is short and it sucks.

--not edited--

The days went by without much thought to anything depressing for Jade. She was making progress on her social life; making plans every other day so she wasn't at home at all times, sulking. And instead of day appointments, she made a couple of  evening dinner appointments with clients.

The next morning, Jade walked into work with a smile on her face. "Good morning, Camila."

"Hey, happy girl. What's with the smile?" Camila followed Jade into the backroom and leaned against the door.

"I can't be happy?"

"You could be happy, but does this have anything to do with a blonde, particularly Perrie?"

Jade paused and gave Camila a sideway glance. "No, it's not because of her. It's because I just landed three clients and four upcoming ones. I actually have dinner with one tonight. And this one, this one's the big one."

"How big?"

"I'm talking raises, revenues, profit, all of the above. If we land this one, you can get your office; something we've been talking about for a long, long time.

"Wow, really?" Camila jumped up and down. "My own office. Maybe we can move locations. Oh! I always wanted my own studio. You know, instead of bumping into each other in this dingy place."

Jade laughed, hanging her coat on the hanger. "Hey, I can just fire you and hire a whole bunch of people with this money." They walked back to the main gallery. "I just can't believe it. We've done huge projects before that paid well, but if we land this event, we can actually take holidays off. And if we pulled this off, we're going to be their official florists for all their events!"

"Jade! I'm so happy for you. You really are doing your father proud."

"I'd like to think so." She smiled. Taking the watering can, Jade filled it with water, snatching a couple of packets of food for the flowers, while Camila sat by the register. It was still early in the morning for people to be thinking about flowers.

"Since you've got the job thing down, maybe you'd like to work on the whole love situation."

As if Camila knew it was about to happen, the door opened with a delivery man walking in. "Good morning, ladies." The two smiled. "I'm looking for uh -- Jade Thirlwall."

Jade put down the watering can and walked to the man. "I'm her."

He gave her the clipboard for her to sign, and walked out to his car. Meanwhile, Jade heard her cellphone ringing in her jacket pocket. "I'll be right back."

Running to the door, Camila opened it wide to see what he was carry in. Actually, to what three men were caryying in. "OH. MY. GOSH."

"Where do you want it?" They asked Jade.

"You could place it in the corner, thank you." Jade watched them with intrigue. It was a tree, she thought.

After the men left, Camila teased, "I guess you've spoken to Perrie. I've gotta say, she has great taste; knowing you work with flowers and probably sick of them. So she gets you a tree."

Jade couldn't help the urge to smile. "She asked my dad for permission to love me." The recollection ignited something inside of her, the same feelings she had when they were inside the hospital closet.

A customer entered the room to browse. Ignoring them completely, Camila nudged Jade to the sides. "She did what?! Asked your father if she could love his daughter. And why are you still single?"

"It's not the right time for me to be in a relationship right now. I even told her that a couple of weeks ago."

"And she's agreeing to wait for you?"

"That's what she said." Jade started watering the flowers again.

"Jade, I could shake you right now!" The Cuban girl said, a little louder than necessary.

The customer turned to face them, looking a little uncomfortable. "Keep it down," Jade warned and gave the customer an apologetic look.

"Let me get this straight. You dated this girl for almost a year -- and have known her for at least two decades; fell in love with her. Your dad passes away and you dumped her like a disease; and now she's doing all these things for you, like asking if it's alright to love you and goes out of her way to buy you a tree; and you have the audacity to say that it's not the right time to be in a relationship?"

"I didn't dump her like a disease, she lied to me."

"She didn't lie to you, Jade. She listened to what your Dad wanted. And honestly, Jade, it's the perfect time to be in a relationship. You're broken and fragile. What's better than to have someone there to glue your heart back to pieces? You've always talked to me about finding the one, and taking chances. So why aren't you taking yours?"

It seemed as if all of Jade's wisdom was passed onto Camila. She was right. Camila was definitely right about that one. Jade was known to be the romantic one, giving everyone love advices. She was even known to be taking it herself; but everything changed after that one night. The night when her entire world was turned upside down. Every single time she had one single drop of hope where she thought she was getting better, a reminder of never having her Dad by her side to share it with would strike her down like lightning.

Her cellphone rang again, seeing who it was by the caller ID, she picked it up, pointing at Camila to help with the customer. "Hello?"

"How'd you like it?"

A smile spread across her face. "It's very tall," she chuckled. "But I love it. Thank you."

"How are you?"

Jade could hear machinery in the background, clueing her that the blonde was at work, possibly taking a break and calling her. Butterflies fizzled in her stomach, just like on their first official date. "I'm good. Better after the delivery. Camila thinks it's very refreshing since all we see are flowers. How about you?" Jade took a  seat on her work table in the back room, trying to imagine the blonde with her yellow helmet, looking gorgeous as ever.

"I miss you. I guess that's why I'm calling."

Jade could sense the blonde smiling, which tugged at her heart. She could just plunge into the deep end and hope that Perrie would keep her from drowning. Or she could wait a little while longer to have some sort of sign from her dad telling her Perrie was 'the one'. "I missed you too. Let's go out tonight." Jade proposed. "I have a dinner meeting at 5, but I'm free at 6. Let's say, Breadstix?"

"I'll be the good-looking one who looks excited to be seeing a beautiful girl. See you then, beautiful."

And then suddenly, the deep end looked more appealing.