Chapter TWENTY FOUR
Damon
I had no idea how I was going to win Liz back.
The only thing that came to mind was sending her flowers. I knew it wasn’t the right answer, but what else was a guy to do? A guy with zero imagination. I had to do something. After ordering from the sixth florist in a row with as many roses as they would allow me, I sat back in my computer chair, put my feet up on an ottoman, and closed my laptop, pleased with myself.
“What are you doing?” asked Tabitha. “I thought you were working on a plan to win back your girlfriend. Surely you haven’t thought of one in the last fifteen minutes.”
“I just ordered five hundred dozen red roses to be delivered to Elizabeth’s house in New York. That should get her attention.”
Tabby groaned and shook her head.
She shoved my feet off the ottoman. “Idiot.”
“What? You don’t think it will work?”
“Maybe. That is, if she was actually in New York.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s in the city this weekend knucklehead. Don’t you remember?”
“Fuck! The art show. I forgot.”
“Yeah. Besides, she’d see right through that.”
I groaned. “Now what am I going to do?”
“Listen, how much does this girl mean to you?”
“I love her. Why?”
“Not enough.”
“What do you mean it’s not enough?”
“Think about it, Damon. Think about it long and hard. How does she really make you feel? What’s so different about this one from every other woman you’ve ever dated?”
I scratched my head, recalling the sweet smell of her skin against my own, the sizzling heat she kindled inside me, the moment she said my name, the sound of her laugh early in the morning. I remembered the way she looked at me, like I was the only man in the world. “Okay, it’s like this. You know when you and I trained for that triathlon three years ago?”
“Boy, was that a mistake.”
“Yeah, well I worked you pretty hard, but it paid off if you remember.”
“I have to admit that, yes. You are the king of that kind of torture.”
“Whatever. Remember how we got up every morning at the crack of dawn, and did laps across the pool and then ran on the treadmill, plus lifted weights? We didn’t stop until lunch. Remember how the first week of that schedule, you wanted to quit, you said you couldn’t take another step. That it hurt too much?”
“Damon, you f worked me like a madman!”
“We won, didn’t we? And what did I tell you?”
“You said I would be stronger for it.”
“Yeah. That’s how I feel when I’m with Liz. Stronger than I’d ever felt in my life. Like I could take on anything. She makes me a better man, Tabby.”
Tabitha nodded and her face brightened. “So go and show her.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but it has to come from the heart, and it should be kind of dramatic and…outstanding. Girls love that stuff.”
“I thought the flowers…. ”
“Everyone does flowers. Trust me on this one, Damon. Outstanding and dramatic. And don’t go barging in all half-cocked like some sort of Neanderthal. Wait for the right time.”
With that, she threw an imaginary fishing rod in my direction and pretended to reel it in. “And she’ll be all yours, brother dear.”
Suddenly, I knew exactly what to do and my grandmother was going to help. God rest her soul.