Read Blooming for Free Online Page B

sobbing heartbroken in her sleep.
    ****
    The bell
jangled overhead as Jen came through the door of “Beans” coffee shop. She’d
woken up feeling raw and wrung out to a message on her machine from Lily asking
to meet her.
    She caught
sight of her familiar blond head over the back of one of the booths, but first
she stopped next to Ben who was bent over clearing tables.
    “I’m very sorry
about the scene in here yesterday, honestly I’m not usually like that,” she
muttered.
    Ben looked at
her taking in her appearance and studying her carefully, “Are you kidding, that
was the coolest thing I’ve seen in ages. What regular guy doesn’t enjoy seeing
an uber stud like Todd being taken down like that, it was awesome!”
    Jen laughed
despite herself, “I think he’s probably a good guy, he just aggravates me to
death.”
    “He’s cool,
but it still did my ego some good to see that even the hot guys get kicked in
the nuts now and then.”
    Jen looked
into Ben’s eyes properly for the first time, and saw a flicker of pain there,
so she put a hand on his arm, not something she casually did with strangers.
“It still feels pretty raw for you - doesn’t it?”
    “It does –
but I’ll be ok,” he sighed.
    Lily stood up
and leaned over the back of her booth and shouted across, “Hey Jen come on
over, the coffee’s getting cold already.”
    “Who’s your
friend?” Ben asked.
    “Well friend
is stretching it a bit for me,” she said quietly, “It’s Todd’s sister Lily -
you’ve not met her before? She’s annoyingly positive too.”
    Ben smiled at
her, “you’re funny, you know that?”
    “Trust me I
know – see you later.”
    “Come on,
come on,” Lily yelled again, “we need to talk.”
    “Hi Lily, how
are you?”
    “I am very
very curious that’s what I am.”
    “About?”
    “What’s
happening with you and Todd?”
    “Lily, have
you spoken to Todd since last night?”
    “Not really,
he was out early this morning he had some errands to run.”
    Jen sighed,
obviously she’d not been given the back away talk yet that Todd had promised
her. Sitting looking at the girl she just knew it was going to be pointless
anyway, she was like a real live energizer bunny.”
    “Lily what
happened the other night at dinner?”
    “Ah you don’t
remember, well it was very sweet, before you’d even eaten half your pasta, you
were snoozing on Todd’s arm,” Jen’s mouth opened in alarm.
    “After a bit
he just gave up and put his arm round you while we finished dinner.” Lily
looked at Jen with a smile in her eyes while Jen could feel her face turning
the colour of fresh raspberries.
    “Anyway,
there was no waking you at the end of dinner you were out for the count, so he
just carried you back upstairs and put you to bed.”
    Oh just
bloody marvellous Jen thought.
    “When he came
back downstairs, he looked absolutely smitten, even though he said you’d blown
your nose on his shirt.”
    Jen spat out
the mouthful of coffee she’d just swallowed, barely missing Lily who was
obviously having a whale of a time recounting the details. A second later Jen
realised that if making an idiot of herself under the influence, plus what
she’d told him last night, hadn’t been enough to put Todd off her so far, she
was going to have to work a lot harder at it tomorrow night.
    “Don’t worry
about it Jen, he’s practically buzzing at the moment you must be doing
something right.”
    And what the
hell could that be? Jen thought, the man must be seriously deluded to still be
interested in her.
    She shook the
thought away again and tried to stash it in a compartment to be dealt with at
7pm tomorrow night.
    “Is that the
only reason you asked me here Lily, because I really have work I need to get on
with?”
    “Er no,
although I’m terribly curious about the two of you, I actually had an ulterior
motive and was hoping I could ask a favour of you.”
    “This was
just getting better and better,” Jen