Page 72 of Picking Daisies on Sundays

I wrapped my arms behind his neck and hugged him with the joy I felt on the first day of spring, muffling his unfinished apology in my neck. His occupied hands didn’t hesitate to hold my torso.

“What did I do to deserve this?” he whispered into the crook of my shoulder. The warmth of his breath and the proximity of his lips to my neck, flooded my body with heat.

“You bought me flowers,” I said pulling away. “Thank you.”

“I’ll buy you flowers every day for the rest of my life if it makes you this happy.” The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes, it all appeared sincere, unlike a joke or the line of a fake boyfriend, which is not what my heart needed right now when it craved him constantly.

“Thank you for bringing me clothes, I’ll be quick,” I said with a smile, taking the clothes from him.

Josh let me use the employee bathroom so I could avoid changing in a stall. I hung the skirt on the hook of the back of the door as I unbuttoned my overalls. I stepped into the skirt and zippered it up. It fit well because it was something I made for myself, but it didn’t hug my hipslike thisbefore. The feeling of fabric hugging my hips wasn’t a sensation I was familiar with, but looking in the mirror, it actually looked…nice.

“What are you possibly doing in there!” Jia shouted through the door.

“Questioning my life!” I shouted back.

The floral of the silk skirt hit my knees, a length I preferred

because it reminded me of how Europeans dressed during the

summertime. I definitely looked like I was about to go out dancing. I didn’t know where to focus: the petite heels, the knee length skirt that hugged my butt, or the top that was so tight that you could see the shape of my chest and every freckle on my back.

Opening the bathroom—

“Holy shit, I forgot what your hips looked like,” Jia said.

I smacked my hand against her shoulder. “Very funny, I get it.”

“No, I’m being serious. James Dean out there is going to start drooling when he sees you.”

I rolled my eyes. She returned it with a glare.

“This is a no though,” she said waving a hand at my hair. Without my response, she tugged the hair clip out of my hair and ran her fingers through it, bringing over my shoulders. Working her “stylist magic” as she liked to say, she rushed me back in front of the mirror to look. And, well, I, I think it worked. “You design beautiful clothes Dani, it’s time you start wearing them.”

I usually brushed those responses off but looking at myself in the mirror now without immediately critiquing myself, I said, “Maybe.”

“It’s okay to say you’re pretty, you know that right? It’s more than okay actually, because you look amazing,” Jia said earnestly, that caring look in her face that made her look like her mother.

I touched her shoulder. “I know,” I said. But the more I thought about it as I walked outside to meet Levi, I didn’t know. I never thought about saying something like that out loud to myself. But I felt good, like there was an extra muscle in my back fixing my posture.

Walking out the door, with a confused look from Josh on the

way out, I found Levi leaning against his car, looking down at his phone.

“Hey, sorry about that.” My voice startled him, driving his gaze up, and watched as his lips parted. He was either realizing how inappropriate my clothes looked because of how tight they were and what Grandma Coldwell would think. Or he was thinking what Jia had assumed; the tightness of the fabric around my hips and waist and how they would feel under his—

No. No, no, no. We were friends, and nothing more. Hormones are what carried his eyes over my clothes, not love.

I wasn’t looking for someShe’s All Thatmoment. “I know, I know. I never dress like this so I swear to God if you ever bring it up, I will personally add laxatives to the next thing I bake for you.” His mouth immediately closed, and he cleared his throat. I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet, the heels already bothering them. “Ready to see me bust out some horrible dance moves?”

He laughed. Any inclination of conflict in his face before had disappeared as he opened up the car door for me. “Just you wait until you see Sarah try to dance.”

On the ride there, I hugged the bouquet of daisies to my chest as we talked. Every few moments, Levi would glance over at the flowers and suppress a smile. Flowers weren’t meant to stay out of soil or water, so leaving the bouquet in the car as we entered the dance centerpained me.

“We can bring the daisies inside if you want?” Levi asked me with a laugh as he opened the passenger door.

“No, that’s alright. They should be okay,” I winced internally.

As you can see, I radiated this concern.