Beautiful Mess

Much to my surprise, that was not the last time Matt asked me to lunch. It actually became so regular that after almost two months, he didn't even ask anymore, we just went.

"Why the fuck do restaurants put a pickle on your plate?" Matt said, picking up the pickle spear off his plate and wiggling it around. "Seriously, does this go with any of the food on my plate? Who the fuck likes pickles anyway?"

"I do, thank you very much!"

"Here, eat mine then!" He threw it and I squealed when it hit me right in the face.

I glared at him as he laughed uncontrollably. I grabbed the pickle and started to throw it back, but took a huge bite of it instead. He finally stopped laughing and, besides my crunching, it got very quiet. "How's Val?" I asked, even though I could have cared less. Honestly, ever since he started taking me to lunch, I had developed crazy feelings for him. Feelings I'd never felt before.

"Um, she's good," he said, giving me a crooked grin. He looked down at his food and started telling a story about something his friends had done the previous weekend.

Matt was weird when it came to Val. He never wanted to talk about her. Whenever she was mentioned, he would squirm and quickly change the subject, the way he just did. Still, every Monday he came in the shop and bought her those damn roses.

"Can I ask you a weird question?" he said, after finishing his story.

I shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

I shifted in my seat. I was definitely not expecting that to be his weird question. "I don't know. I mean, you know me, I'm not the most social person around. That makes it pretty hard for me to be in a relationship, because I tend to push guys away when we're dating."

He just nodded and gave me beautiful smile, then kept eating.

><

Later that evening, Lacey's name showed up on my cell phone for the first time in nearly two months, and I almost had a heart attack. "Hey!" I screamed into the phone.

"Hi," Lacey said with a laugh. "How are you?"

"Well I'm fantastic now that you called! Are my maid of honor duties calling my name yet?"

"I think so," she answered. "I'm sorry it took so long, but I didn't realize it was going to be so complicated. Anyway, I'm going to look at some dresses this Saturday and I want you to go."

"I'm there," I said, smiling.

"Good, I really need your opinion on everything. So, how's work?"

I groaned just from the thought of it. "Pretty awful. It's such a boring place now. The only person I have to talk to anymore is Matt, and I don't even see him that much."

"Wait, what?" she said, confusion in her voice. "Why do you see Matt?"

"We have lunch together every week when he comes to pick up his flowers. I'm guessing you haven't heard from him in awhile either?"

"Yeah, he comes over to see Johnny but he's never mentioned having lunch with you."

I couldn't help but feel a little hurt that he hadn't said anything about me. "Well, we've been doing this for about two months now. Ever since that last time I heard from you, I think."

"Hold on, you said you have lunch when he picks up his flowers," she said, obviously still confused. "Why is he still getting flowers every week?"

"He still comes in and gets them for that girlfriend of his."

"Lindsey," she said softly. "Matt broke up with Val last month."