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He was halfway through his room service poached eggs and crispy bacon, when the barrage of knocks on his door erupted. Slowly, he chewed his crispy bacon, waiting for the knocking to stop, which it didn’t.
“I mean it, Grayson. Open up. I know you’re in there.”
At the sound of Annie’s familiar shrill, Grayson sighed. He opened the door, but stayed in place, blocking her from entering. “Is a guy not allowed to enjoy his breakfast in peace?”
She thrust something in his face and waved it around, “This isn’t funny.”
Grayson took a step back to look at what were apparently napkins with... were those eggplants?
“Ok, so...” he scanned her face carefully for some clue as to why she was here with her incorrect napkins. “The coordinator is an incompetent bitch, what else is new?”
Annie’s glare was determined. “I know you did this. Putting these... vegetables instead of the peaches Kyla wanted.”
“And why the hell would I even do that?”
Her eyes narrowed so much they almost looked closed. “You’re not going to make me say it.”
He shrugged, “You’re not going to make me admit to something I didn’t do.”
“You put the eggplant there because of the whole...dick...” Her eyebrows flared. “...connotation. Well, it’s not funny, because now we’re going to have to pay at least two-hundred dollars out of our pocket to get the right ones printed.”
Grayson stepped back. It was official. Kyla’s BFF was actually certifiable.
“First off, I didn’t do shit with your precious napkins. Second off, what kind of fancy-ass napkins cost two-hundred dollars?”
Annie’s expression didn’t budge, “The custom-made kind.”
Grayson shrugged, “Fine, whatever.”
“Don’t pretend that...”
Her phone ringing, Annie answered it. “Hi.”
A pause, then, “My blue carnation delivery came in? Are you sure?” She let out an exasperated breath. “Yep, I’ll be right over to check them out in person.”
As she hung up, Grayson asked, “Do I want to know?”
“The flowers,” Annie said. “Mary-Kate ordered the wrong flowers, too. I’m going over there now.”
She turned away, but Grayson caught her wrist. “Hey, I’ll go too.”
She paused. Her gaze shot to his hand. For his part, he was surprised at how soft her skin felt and how delicate her wrist was. This is unexpected... almost nice...
“See you there, then,” she said, extricating herself with a flurried tug.
—
HE FOUND HER IN THE hotel parking lot, looking about ready to set the place on fire.
“How sweet, you waited for me,” he said.
“My car won’t start,” Annie said the words without looking at him. “It does this sometimes. Just needs a bit of time to cool down.”
“So... I’ll drive?”
Annie responded with a mute nod, then, as she walked over to his driver’s side, an unwilling “thanks”.
Grayson flashed a smile, “Don’t mention it.”
“So, these flowers,” he said, as he puttered along in traffic a few minutes later, “They’re at the banquet center where the wedding is happening?”
Annie nodded, “Kyla figured it was the best place to store them before the big day. Luckily, they’re fake, so they won’t go bad, but still. Kyle and her place is packed to the brim since they’re moving anyway.”
“Those crazy kids,” Grayson said with a little smile. “Who plans a wedding and a move within a few weeks of each other?”
“They’ll pull it off,” Annie asserted.
Silence.
“You’re really loyal to her, aren’t you?” he asked.
Annie responded while looking out the window, “She’s been my best friend since we were kids. We’ve been through a lot with each other.”
“It’s crazy though, isn’t it?” he asked quietly. “Seeing this person you’ve known for so long just... I don’t know, change so much? Like, one minute they are this sole entity, and the next, they’re... joined.”
“I don’t think so,” she said from the window. “Anyway, we’re pretty late.”
Grayson wasn’t sure what help that was supposed to be. If she would look out the front window, then she’d see they had a good ten minutes’ worth of traffic ahead of them, at least. Not to mention, he doubted they had a specific ‘wrong carnation’ appointment at the banquet center, where they were just checking out the mix-up.
When they finally pulled into the elongated parking lot, the sky above was dismal and Grayson was already really hungry. He’d stashed the rest of the breakfast in his mini-fridge, and now his stomach was paying the price. Luckily, this shouldn’t take long.
Now that they’d arrived, though, standing outside, Annie took her sweet time snapping pictures of the hall’s not-even-that-impressive pointy-topped exterior.
“C’mon,” Grayson stepped in front of her photo. “Thought we were late.”
“I’m taking these pictures for my mom,” Annie said, scowling at him.
“Ok, well, your mom can wait, my stomach can’t.”
As it started drizzling, Annie returned to the car.
“What are you doing now?” Grayson asked, flabbergasted. His stomach groaned in agreement.
“My phone gets glitchy in the rain,” Annie said, setting it inside.
Neither of them said anything more until they got inside the banquet center. There, a woman behind the marble countertop bar came out to direct them to the cool storage downstairs. Grayson wondered why they needed cool storage for a wrong order of flowers that never died, but he just wanted to get this shit over with.
Getting to the cool storage required a bit of a journey, down the stairs and then the hallway, in the gloomy, basically abandoned basement, then behind a door on their left.
Once inside, the woman left and Grayson let the door close behind them as Annie snapped on the lights. One dismal look at the very blue carnations, and she sighed, “Looks like that’s another thing to add to the to-do list.”
Walking over to the door, Annie grabbed it and pulled. It caught. Then, pulling it again and realizing it was locked, she directed her glare in Grayson’s way. “Very funny.”
He shrugged, “Don’t look at me.”
Sighing loudly, she stepped aside to let him try the door.
“Damn door,” he muttered, yanking as hard as he could.
Thrusting his hand in both his pant pockets, he came up with nothing. No phone. Grabbing the door handle now, he yanked it with all his angry, hungry might.
The door didn’t budge.
Annie glanced at him, expectantly.
“I left my phone in the car,” Grayson said.
“So...” Annie said.
“We’re stuck in here,” Grayson concluded.
