Heartsville 05 - Bloom Box (Cate Ashwood) (3 page)

“We’re all done for the day if you want to head home,” Will said, ignoring the pang in his gut at the thought of Milo walking out the door.

“Thanks, boss.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Bright and early.”

“I’ll be here with bells on,” Milo said before he turned and walked out the door.

Chapter Three

Milo arrived right on time, his truck rumbling as he pulled up outside the shop. Will was waiting for him on the sidewalk and jogged into the street where Milo had double-parked.

“Morning,” Milo chirped as Will climbed in.

“Good morning,” Will said, stifling a yawn.

“Tired?”

Will nodded. “Yeah, it was a late night last night.”

“Too excited to sleep at the thought of assembling IKEA furniture, were you?” Milo asked as he pulled out into traffic and steered them toward the highway.

That earned a laugh from Will. “No. The company I work for sent me a new translation to get done last night, and they need it as soon as possible. I was up late trying to get the bulk of it finished.”

“Is that what you do?”

“Yeah. German and French. I mostly do books, but I work on a contract basis, so sometimes other projects come along.”

“That’s so cool. How did you get into that?”

“I fell into it, actually. My grandmother is French, and she spoke French with me at home when I was little. I was fluent early on and then began taking German classes in college. One of my profs told me about an opportunity to work for a publisher, and it kind of took off from there. I liked it so much that I never stopped. For the most part I make my own hours, and I take on as many or as few projects as I want. It’s flexible and I enjoy it. I guess not a lot of people can say that about their jobs.”

“No, it sounds like you’re lucky,” Milo said.

“In some ways, definitely.”

Quiet fell in the truck then. Will stared out the window and counted his blessings. He had quite a few. As dark as things had become after losing his boyfriend, he really couldn’t complain. Everyone went through breakups. Everyone experienced loss. He’d wallowed for long enough. Running Bloom Box wasn’t what Will had planned, but it was exciting nonetheless, and having Milo to help him made the prospect seem so much less daunting.

It wasn’t long before they were pulling into the crowded parking lot. Milo navigated the truck up and down the rows until he finally found a spot about a hundred and thirty-seven miles from the entrance.

“Busy today, I guess,” Milo said, his eyes scrunching a bit as he smiled at Will.

“You could say that,” Will groaned. He seldom ventured out of Heartsville. He liked the quiet little bubble he lived in.

“Ready to shop?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

They got out of the truck and walked into the giant store, taking the escalator up two floors to start in the showroom. Most of the furniture Will could see was different from the last time he’d been there, but it all had that familiar feeling to it. They began their quest, following the arrows on the floor through the maze of staged living spaces until they came to the section they were looking for.

“What do you think?” Milo asked.

A variety of different bookcases and shelving units were assembled and displayed. Will shifted his gaze between them, trying to figure out what would work best in the space.

“If I’m being honest, they all kind of look the same to me. I know there’s some subtle differences, but really any of them would work. They just have to hold stuff.”

Milo laughed. “Yeah, generally that’s the purpose of a shelf. Why don’t you look at what will fit your budget, then, and we can go from there. We should look at the display cases too. It might be good to have a couple of the ones with the glass doors for some of the smaller stuff.”

Will did some mental calculations and found a few things that he felt would work well for them. Milo wrote down the information on where to find the boxes, and off they went, winding their way through the rest of the store. It took a while, but as crowded as it was, Will found that he wasn’t in a rush to leave. The pangs of regret he’d expected as soon as he walked into the showroom never materialized. He found that he felt surprisingly… okay.

Watching Milo exploring the place probably had a lot to do with it. He darted around from living space to living space, flopping on sofas and spinning in office chairs. There wasn’t a single area he didn’t investigate in some way, touching things and trying everything out. At one point, he stepped into the shower and shut the glass enclosure, singing a few bars of a song Will didn’t recognize, but it didn’t stop his stomach from flipping at the melodious sound of Milo’s rich voice, amplified in the confined space.

Milo dissolved into laughter and tumbled out, off once more, Will trailing behind.

They made their way down to the marketplace to look for items that could be used in their displays. They found the gardening section, which had quite a few interesting pots and containers.

“What about these?” Milo asked, pulling a large pot out from one of the shelves. As he turned, he bumped into a display behind him, sending towers of metal flowerpots crashing to the ground and skittering across the floor.

Will watched the scene unfold before him, Milo’s cheeks staining a bright pink as everyone nearby turned to see what the commotion was. Two employees rushed over to help clean up the mess as Milo muttered apology after apology.

Will bent, grabbing a few of the stray pots that had rolled near him and placing them back on the shelf. It hadn’t been as bad as Milo probably thought, but the metal had made quite the crashing noise as it collided with the cement floors.

“I can’t believe I did that,” Milo said once all the pots had been set to rights.

“It’s not a big deal,” Will assured him. “I’m sure barely anyone noticed. No one shops in this section anyway.”

Milo laughed, the blush still shadowing his cheeks. “That’s a lie, but thank you for saying so. I should be used to causing scenes by now. It happens often enough. But every time I mess something up, it’s always at the worst possible moment or in front of a crowd of people. I’m far less klutzy when I’m alone. And every time it happens, my face turns beet red.”

“It’s cute,” Will said before he could stop the words from flying out. He wanted to clamp his hand down over his dumb mouth, but Milo just shrugged one shoulder and smiled, his eyes crinkling in the corners.

“Should we get outta here?”

“Definitely. I think I’m done with IKEA for today.”

They grabbed one of the flatbed carts and found the boxes that contained the shelves and displays they had picked out upstairs. Milo helped Will load them on, and then they found their way to the checkouts. With practiced efficiency, the cashier scanned all the barcodes and tallied up their total. Will suppressed a cringe at the final amount and handed over his credit card.

Three hours later they were back at the shop and elbow deep in flat-packed furniture. The room that had been empty the day before was now filled with painting supplies, cardboard, and MDF. Will tried to imagine how it would look once it was finished, but he had a difficult time seeing beyond the pieces.

They worked together, assembling the shelves until the dimming light in the room alerted Will to how late it had gotten.

“You were off an hour ago,” Will said, glancing at his watch.

“Let’s get this last one finished. We’re almost done with the assembly. We could start on painting tomorrow, maybe. In hindsight, we probably should have painted first.”

“No, it’s okay. We’ll just move everything to the center of the room. It’ll be fine. We don’t have that much stuff.” Will yawned. “I don’t think I’m going to have the energy to get much more done today, though. I still have hours of work ahead of me once we’re done here.”

Milo frowned. “Is there anything I can help with?”

Will shook his head. “No. You’ve helped me so much already. And unless you forgot to mention your fluency in German, I’m on my own for this.”

“Let me know if that changes. I don’t mind helping out with other things if you need something that goes beyond the scope of strictly flower-shop business.”

Gratitude bloomed in Will’s chest. How long had it been since someone had provided support, or even just the offer of it? After Spencer left, most of Will’s social circle had faded into the background, unsure of how to be around him now that he was half of the couple they’d been friends with. It was his own fault too. He’d receded into himself after the breakup, not wanting to be around anyone.

He stared at Milo, not sure how to react. His gut told him to grab him and pull him close. He wanted to bury his face in Milo’s shoulder and feel the warmth and comfort of his body. Instead, he rocked back on his heels.

“Go on upstairs. I’ll finish this last one and I’ll lock up when I’m done.” Milo reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys, jingling them in the air. “I have keys now, you know.”

“Are you sure?” Will asked.

“Positive. I’ve done this so many times now, I think I have it down.”

“Okay, just call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

“Thank you,” Will said, meaning it more than Milo could ever possibly realize.

Will walked up the stairs to his small apartment, guilt shadowing him for leaving Milo to finish up. He didn’t know where Milo got all his energy; he seemed to have an unlimited reserve. Had Will been that chaotic when he’d been Milo’s age? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t think so. But Milo never seemed to stop moving, and even as the day wore on, as Will’s liveliness began to flag, Milo never slowed.

He stepped into his space and made his way across to his desk. Collapsing into his chair, his breath whooshed from his lungs. He couldn’t remember being so tired. His eyelids were already heavy, his muscles sore, as he clicked open the file on his computer screen. Hours of work still lay before him. If he wanted to get any sleep at all, he needed to get to work.

Chapter Four

Will awoke to a splitting headache. He sat up, rubbing the side of his face. He could feel the imprints in his skin from the keys of his laptop. He wondered how he’d managed to fall asleep on his computer. He glanced at the screen and felt lucky the manuscript he’d been working on wasn’t open. If it had been, there likely would have been hours of random letters typed into the middle of it—a mess he didn’t particularly want to clean up.

Then he glanced at the clock.

“Holy shit,” he muttered. Two o’clock in the afternoon was not what he had been expecting. The light glinting through his tiny windows alluded to the day, but he’d slept almost twelve hours, his face smooshed against his keyboard.

He’d managed to get most of his translation finished, and he’d heard Milo’s truck pulling away sometime around midnight. He meant to go down and chase him out before then, to make him go home and get some rest, but he’d been so caught up in the words, he hadn’t noticed how late it was getting until the rumbly sound of the engine pulled him out of the story.

And now here it was, two hours past noon, and Will was just waking up.

He stood and walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth. They were fuzzy, and although he’d slept forever, he felt like he’d spent the night with his head in a vise. When he was sufficiently freshened, he walked to the window and peered out, only to see Milo’s truck back in its spot.

He smoothed down his wrinkled two-day-old clothes and set off for downstairs.

What greeted him when he walked into the shop was completely unexpected. He didn’t know where to look first.

“Holy shit,” Will said, for the second time that morning.

Milo spun around wielding a paintbrush that was actively dripping onto his hand.

“God, you scared me,” Milo said, laughing.

“You did all this?”

Milo lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “It’s not a big deal.”

“The hell it isn’t. How did you do all this?”

The bookcases they’d worked to construct the day before had been pushed against one wall and moldings installed to give the appearance of built-ins. He’d painted everything so it blended seamlessly. The rich chocolate brown walls were flawless, and behind the counter, he’d blocked in a section with more moldings to create a massive chalkboard with paint. Will was nearly speechless. Never in a thousand years could he have imagined his shop would look like this. Gone were the stark walls and cold, hard angles. Everything seemed warmer, softer. It was beautiful.

“Most of the work was done. The shelves were assembled. All I did was add the moldings and paint. My dad’s a contractor, so I took measurements yesterday, picked up some leftover stuff from him, and installed it this morning.”

“This is incredible. I don’t even know what to say… I just… thank you.”