Breathe roses and sip Rosè

Bryce and I returned to Foreston's with full stomachs and headaches of flowers. Not only did our heads hurt from the number of flowers we looked at but from all of the number of smells of flowers. Joe was diligently running reports in his office. Mr. Gold sat at his desk like he always does doing sudoku.
"Ah, you're back." He looked at us over the brim of his glasses. "How did it go?"
"I have a headache from all those flowers," Bryson complained.
"From the smells and looking at them," I added.
"Did you get any good information?"
"We did, did you know they use babies to breathe  as a filler in most bouquets." Gold and I both stared at Bryson strangely.
"I think so." I took over the conversation. "Most of it is stuff Joe will have to run reports for." I frowned. I flopped into my chair across from his as Bryson sat on the arm. "Now what?" Gold glanced at his watch.
"Well, you could help Henry close up then home." Shrugging my shoulders, I headed upstairs.

Henry had his back to us as he locked the doors.
"Hello, hello," I called into the empty room. Smiling, he turned to look at me.
"And what do I owe the pleasure? Especially, Lawrence in a dress?" He teased.
"Gold." I started to fall back into an old routine of helping close up. Bryson awkwardly stood near the door entering the shop. "Oh, Bryce," I remembered he had never done this before. "Want to help me lock up gun cases?"
"Sure." I tossed him the keys and pointed at which ones would need locking.

In a matter of minutes, the store was completely closed and cleaned.
"Thank you for the help." Henry flicked off the lights.
"What can I say, I'm just gracing people with my presence left and right today." I joked. Bryson laughed.
"I'm blessed to live with the queen." I smacked his shoulder playfully. We grabbed our clothes from storage and headed for the car.
"Goodnight," Henry called after us.
"Goodnight!" I sang back to him.
"You're in a good mood for someone who protested about planning a wedding."
"I think the headache wore off and that's exciting." He chuckled.
"Fair enough."

At the apartment, Bryson and I made a frozen pizza and some french fries. After, I lay on my bed while Bryson played games on the computer with Lee and Dustin. My phone buzzed, it was Joe.
"Hey, girl hey."
"Hey, lovely lady. How are you?"
"Oh, you know, living."
"I was thinking of going out to the bar for a few, are you in?" I scoffed.
"Honestly offended you even asked." I paused for dramatic effect. "Of course, I'm in." His laughter rang over the line.
"Perfect, meet you there in a half an hour?"
"You're on!"

I bounded over to Brysons' room. I knocked in a random pattern despite his door being open.
"Hold on, the queen is at my door." He smiled before he slid his headset down. "The guys say hi."
"Hi Lee, Hi Dustin," I yelled from the doorway so they could hear me.
"What's up?"
"I am going out shortly and will be home later." He wrinkled his brows together.
"Where are you going?"
"Bar." He looked at the time and looked back at me
"Is that a good idea?"
"I spent all day pretending to give a shit about flowers." I paused. "And pretending to be getting married as a whole. If that isn't a depressing reminder of how single I am. I don't know what is. Please just let me go out. It's just with Joe." I gave him puppy dog eyes. "I promise not to talk to any strangers." I half teased. Secretly, I was still shaken over Sebastian.
"And I'm assuming I can't come."
"Girls Night." I flicked my hand. A smile broke out on his face.
"Fair enough. One of these nights I'd like to be invited."
"Can't promise anything." I gleamed over my shoulder before bouncing back into my room.

I was tired of wearing a dress and figured due to our wedding mission I would find myself in many more. Scrounging around in my closet, I found my favorite jeans and grabbed a few different shirts. My favorite jeans were distressed, dark-washed, skinny jeans. I grabbed all t-shirts or long sleeves. Having people on me was something I was trying to avoid recently. After an intense game of eeny meeny miny moe, I finally landed on a tie-dye shirt I made with my family. It was pastel that I tied in the front and added a v-neck too. Grabbing a shiny necklace I walked out into the living room. Bryson was laying on the couch with the tv on, fast asleep. His ability to fall asleep at the drop of a dime still baffled me. Smiling to myself I pulled the blanket over him.
"Can't even hang," I whispered, slipped on my boots, and left.

Joe was already at the bar when I made it in. He was talking to our normal bartender, Hollie.
"Hello." I slipped my arm around Joes' neck in a hug.
"There she is." He squeezed my hand and turned to smile at me.
"Here I am." I sat down.
"She'll have a glass too," Joe ordered for me.
"Oh, what are we having?"
"Rosé." I smiled at the irony. Flower shopping all day to drinking the wine version of a flower. "So what did you two do today?"
"Flower shopping."
"Flower shopping?" He repeated as if his ears failed him. I nodded.
"Well, Bryce and I are practically planning a wedding," I said. Joe looked at me with wide eyes.
"You're engaged?"
"No. Gold is making us plan a wedding for this mission. It's all about weddings or marriage." I shook my head, taking a sip of wine.
"Well, that's quite a sticky situation." A hollow chuckle escaped my lips.
"You're telling me. It's hard. They both think I'm weird for like fighting back on it, but this is hard. I mean, I want to do this stuff for real with him not just for a mission. The line between reality and fantasy is blurring." Joe sighed as he mulled over his thoughts.
"I think you should embrace it. I mean, when are you going to get the chance to plan the dream wedding with the guy you have feelings for? I mean this is the ultimate forbidden love dream. Planning a future even if you can't have it." He talked about it like this was a movie. Like we are fictional characters in a Hallmark movie. But we're not, this is real life, we are real people.
"But that will make me sad, which will make me feel pathetic. I mean, seriously. I'll pick out flowers, venues, and church and never get to do it. I won't get to walk down the aisle with the flower arrangements I picked. I won't get to get married at the church with the beautiful stained glass. I won't get to dance to a DJ at a beautiful venue. I won't get whatever cake I want and have caterers from some nice restaurant. I won't get to marry Bryce. It will all pretend, a daydream." Joe smiled but sadness pulled at his features.
"I, unfortunately, do not have advice for you, but I have more wine?" I laughed.
"Wine will do." He topped off my glass.

Hollie had left us a new bottle with us after our first two glasses, and we gladly finished the whole bottle. Joe told me how he had signed up for a few online dating profiles but hated most of them. I had never online dated so this was all new to me.

Sometimes I forgot what it was like to have friends outside of my family and Bryson. Usually, I was texting Scott, Bryson, or my mom. Joe and I hung out at a bar every once in a while but even then work can get dragged into the conversation. After I explained how the mission was going on my end, we didn't talk about work the rest of the night. We laughed and talked with Hollie since tonight was pretty slow. Taking a guess, I'd say she's somewhere in our age range. She gave us a shot of tequila, on the house, for the three of us to do. She was cool. My phone buzzed on the countertop.
"What's good?"
"Dear God, you are not drunk. Are you?"
"What? No."
"What have you had to drink?"
"Uh, half of a bottle of wine and a shot of tequila, why do you ask nosey?" I heard Bryson sigh through the line.
"I'm coming to get you, and Joe and take you both home."
"Ooo, that's spicy." Joe watched me. My cheeks felt hot.
"Is that Bryson?" He whispered. I nodded. "Can he pick us up?" I could hear Bryson in the background putting shoes on.
"Yeah, he's gonna come abduct us." He signed again.
"Please do not tell people I'm going to abduct you."
"It was just Joe."

Bryson made it a point to stay on the phone with me while he was on his way. The drive wasn't far but it took some time, according to Joe. We even did another shot, despite Bryson's protests.
"There he is!" Joe held his arms wide with a smile. I looked over my shoulder. Bryson stood near the end of the bar, keys in hand. He was still wearing the same outfit we went to the floral shops in.

Somehow Bryson managed to wrangle us into the car. Joe automatically let me have the front seat next to Bryson. The alcohol hit hard than anticipated.

I stared at Bryson as we drove. The car jostled us back and forth but I paid it no mind. My heart ached. Why couldn't we have met earlier? I could have been there when his dad died. He could have been there all those times my mom got deployed. We could have been dating before Forestons. Why did the world have to work so backward?
"Why are you staring at me?" Blinking, I turned to face the road.
"I didn't mean to, I was just thinking."
"About?" Joe stayed quiet in the back, and so did I.

To avoid further prosecution, I closed my eyes. Alcohol always makes me sleepy.
"Rene?" I was too tired to open my eyes or even respond, I just laid in my seat. The car had stopped, we were at Forestons.
"You know, she's a good person to have in your life." Bryson hummed in agreement. "You are very protective over her," Joe said in a low voice. My cheeks felt warm.
"That's my job."
"Your job ends the second you walk out of those doors. You're supposed to be just friends at the apartment."
"Well, aren't you supposed to protect your friends?"
"Yeah, but you also protect the ones you love the most." Without another word from anyone, he got out of the car. Before he closed the door he said one last thing. "She just as protective over you, you know." There was a pause. "Goodnight." The door shut in the back seat. The car didn't move for a second. Bryson mumbled something before throwing the car in reverse.