Mason hadn’t expected that and watched his mother silently, as she finish the arrangement in front of her, trying to work out what she meant. When he came up with nothing, and his mother didn’t offer anything, he said softly, “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

She turned to face him and walked over to the sunflowers in the corner. “These are hers.” she paused then looked at him with a gentle smile on her face, “She’s been coming to my shop since she was in college. Every Monday night, she orders seven sunflowers.”

Mason didn’t quiet understand what she was telling him. “Why?”

His mother tilted her head and walked over to him. She stopped and reached up to cup his cheek. “It’s not my place to tell you son. She’ll tell you when she’s ready. If she ever is.” she paused smiling at him. “I’ve never met such a focused individual in my life. Maybe she needs someone like you to shake her up a bit.”

Mason reached up to touch his mother’s hand then linked their fingers bringing them down to rest beside them. “She scares me mom.”

“Why?” she asked him softly then added, “She’s just a girl.”

He shook his head, “Maybe when you met her, but she’s so much more now.”

Unlinking their hands his mother rested a hand over his heart and said softly, “Be careful Mason. Tread lightly and fall gracefully.”

He grinned now at her and chuckled, “Have you ever known me to do that?”

She smiled and patted his cheek, “No but it was worth a shot.”


On Friday, Lena walked down the hospital corridor leading to the children’s oncology ward with one person in mind, Robbie Tipton. She’d heard he was responding well to the treatment so far but had just recently come down with a bad infection. She wanted to go down and see the little guy. To reach out and know he was still there, that he was ok and she’d caught the signs early enough to give him a fighting chance. As she pushed through the airtight doors she heard the laughter of children and the muted sounds of a TV in the rec room off to the left. She stopped by the door and peered in noting a nurse sitting in the corner keeping an eye on the children watching the cartoons.

It always amazed Lena when she came down here. Children had such resilience in the face of pain and suffering. It was more often than not that the children were the ones who would say something so wise and profound Lena found herself wondering, who made her think she could tell them the outcome of their lives? Cancer though, it was a fickle friend that didn’t care about your age, gender or race. It would move in take up residence and eventually kick you to the curb, it was a mean landlord and didn’t care who it hurt in order to get what it wanted. Lena waved at the nurse when she looked over to her and smiled, then turned and made her way down the hall to Room 308. Knocking lightly on the door she stepped inside to see Becky Tipton, lying on a cot the nurses had made up for her, holding little Robbie and kissing his head. Behind her was her husband, Lena presumed, stroking a hand through her hair and looking down at them both. They made such a beautiful picture she was almost upset she had interrupted, until Becky looked up at her and smiled.

“Dr O’Donnell.”

Lena stepped forward and watched as Mr. Tipton came around the cot. He reached out offering his hand to her. “I’m Chad, Becky’s husband. She tells me you’re the one to thank for catching Robbie’s cancer early.”

Lena reached out and clasped his hand then smiled when he shook it firmly. “I just ran the right blood tests, that’s all.”

He looked over his shoulder at his wife and child then back at her. “That’s everything. You gave him the chance to fight.”

Lena moved back a step and placed her hands in her lab coat pockets. “I heard he was running a fever last night?”

Becky nodded, “Yeah they said he had a small respiratory infection. Ahh Dr, um Monroe I believe, came and checked him ordered some tests and meds and since this morning his fever has slowly been dropping.”

Lena smiled and nodded, “That’s great news. I just wanted to stop by and check on my favorite little guy.” she turned to leave when she heard Chad say, “Thanks again Dr.”

Lena smiled and made her way back to her floor. She was just stepping off the elevator when she ran into Shelly.

“Hey there stranger.” she walked with her friend toward the cafeteria. She hadn’t seen her since the big date, so she knew she was in for it, and to be honest she was kind of looking forward to it.

“So you know I’m dying over here. How’d it go?”

Lena turned and grinned at her, “Oh it went very well.”

Shelly grabbed her arm and shook it like they were in high school instead of a hospital corridor. “I knew! Didn’t I tell you?”

Lena couldn’t help the smile on her face so she nodded and sighed, “You sure did.”

They finally reached the lunch line and grabbed their food. Heading to a seat in the back Shelly opened her water and took a sip. “So tell me, is he absolutely amazing in bed?”

Lena grinned, “We didn’t go to bed.” she paused then leaned in and whispered, “Unless you mean the next day when he called me, while I was still in bed and told me he wanted me to stroke his naked body all over with my hair.”

Shelly’s mouth dropped open, “Shut the hell up! He did not say that to you.”

Lena bit into her apple and nodded, “Well I’m paraphrasing but that was the g rated version.”

Shelly sat back with a huge sigh, “What’d I tell you huh? Lucky bitch. How was the dinner?”

Lena smiled at her friend. “He made an absolutely mouth watering pasta then we made peach cobbler.”

Shelly cocked her head to the side, “Ah the peach.”

Just that word alone made Lena’s thighs clench so she sat silently.

“He made you cook your own dessert?”

Lena took a sip of her water then, as nonchalantly as she could manage, replied. “Yeah after we peeled and cut them he squeezed it all over me and sucked it off.”

Shelly narrowed her eyes. “Are you making this shit up to play with me?”

Lena stood walked around to Shelly then leaned down to pull her shirt to the side revealing the lighter, but still obvious, hickey. She heard Shelly’s quick gasp, smiled at her friend and raised her eyebrows, then turned on her heel to walk away. Behind her she heard Shelly yell.

“Lucky bitch.”


Mason yawned as he looked over at his sister who was sitting down eating a sandwich talking to Wendy about this evening. Friday night, one of the busiest nights of the weeks for them and he had a food critic from Delicious coming in to see them. He ran a hand over his face and looked around the dining room. His staff had done a great job all day. Moving tables where he wanted them and setting candles, linens, silverware, glassware, lights and music all to get the right feel for one of the most important nights he would ever have. This review would be national and would mean a huge deal to them and their sales. He walked over to Wendy and reached out hugging her to his side.

“We did it you know.” he smiled over at Rachel. “We pulled this off.”

Wendy turned and smacked him lightly in the chest. “Don’t say that you’ll jinx us.”

He grinned at her. “Nah my week has been going to good.” Rachel rolled her eyes and he laughed, “Like you can talk, all we heard about for months was Charlie this and Charlie that.”

Wendy laughed and nodded along with him.

“Yeah but we’re use to me acting like a love sick idiot. On you it seems all wrong.”

“Hey now, who said anything about love?” Mason sputtered.

“Oh please, you dating one woman at a time? That has to be love.”

Mason rolled his eyes at her. “No, she’s complicated. I need all my wits about me to work her out.”

“In other words she’s smart.” Wendy chimed in.

“In other words she has a brain.” Rachel added then grinned at him with the same smile he’d been born with.

“Well of course ladies,” he said and turned to walk into the kitchen, “She’s dating me isn’t she?”


Shelly had talked Lena into going out tonight. After all she’d said, it’s Friday and she was dating a guy who owned the hottest restaurant in Chicago. Lena wasn’t sure it was such a great idea. After all they’d only had one official date where they had actually gotten along and not wanted to kill each other. He may not appreciate her just showing up unannounced. It wasn’t as though they were a serious couple or anything like that. So there she was sitting in Shelly’s car in the parking lot behind Exquisite. It was packed this evening. She’d been here two times and on both occasions it’d been busy, but tonight it was overflowing with people and there was a line around the building.

“We’ll never get in there tonight. Let’s go somewhere else.” Lena suggested hoping her plan for escape would fly. No such luck with Shelly on the case.

“Come on! Stop whining and get out of the car. The minute he sees you he’s going to let you in. Plus you look amazing tonight.”

Rolling her eyes at her friend she got out and tugged her skirt down. Wrapping herself up in her coat she followed Shelly around the side. She went to stand in the back of the crowd when Shelly grabbed her hand and tugged her forward. She could feel people glaring holes in them as they watched her friend stand on tiptoe and say something to the man at the door. He looked at them both and raised an eyebrow then disappeared.

“I told him to go and ask if we could come in. I gave your name. I hope you don’t mind.”

Shaking her head Lena answered sarcastically, “Sure, why would I mind?”