Get Rhythm

[FLORA]

"How has business been since opening the bakery up with the bar?"

I smiled at Fiona's interest. "Good. We could always use more of course, but ya know..." Ever since we re-opened business had been steady, but nothing to brag about. It didn't bother me because we're such a new place. I imagine we'll get more traffic when colleges start back up. I was counting down the days though, losing the money in the robbery really hit me hard. I'm not struggling, but it didn't help to lose so much money.

"I'm glad to hear that, Flor." Fiona replied. She took as sip of her wine and poured some more in both of our glasses. I picked up mine as well. "This is nice."

I started to speak but my phone began ringing. I picked it up and saw it was the number of the bakery. "I need to take this, sorry. Hello?"

"Flora, it's Carter... You need to get here... Now... Like right now!"

"Is everything alright? What's going on?" I asked getting up from the table. I went to my room and found a pair of dark denim shorts. I threw a Tom Petty shirt on quickly and slid my feet into my flats.

"We're just busier than we have been in awhile and on top of that we just got... Literally a shit ton of orders in. We need another-"

"I'm on the way," I cut Carter off. "Have we got others coming in?"

"Yeah. Brad and Jenny are coming in as well."

"Alright, I'll see you soon, Car."

"You have to go?" Fiona whined.

I chuckled, "Unfortunately. I'd much rather stay and drink wine all day, but Carter said we got a lot of orders so I need to check things out."

"Bye Flor!" The drive over only took twenty minutes. When I parked I hurried into the shop. A few customers were seated at tables chatting over a beer, some had cupcakes and beer. I walked behind the counter.

"Hey guys," I smiled.

"Get to the kitchen," Carter ushered me quickly. "We got in eight separate orders in the past hour. All these orders are at least for two dozen cupcakes, some have more though. Here everything is."

I took the papers from Carter. Brown, two dozen for Monday morning. Today being Saturday, I didn't see that order being an issue. Barlow, three dozen for Monday afternoon. Andrews, three dozen for Monday afternoon. O'Callaghan, two dozen for Tuesday afternoon. O'Callaghan, four dozen for Monday at noon. Morris, two dozen for Wednesday morning. Brock, two dozen for Wednesday night. O'Callaghan, three dozen for Friday night.

"What in the world?" I exclaimed.

"Just got in two more orders. O'Callaghan, four dozen for next Saturday night. Kirch, six dozen for Friday night." Carter said, handing me two more slips of paper.

"Hello best friend," a cheerful voice exclaimed. I looked up to see Pat, along with Jared and Garrett.

"Hey," I mumbled, still mulling over these orders.

"What's got your mind occupied?" Jared asked.

"These orders are weird..." I said, handing over the papers to the guys. Not only are there several orders for O'Callaghan, but all these orders are also huge orders. Bigger orders aren't normal, at least not all at once. Jared flipped through them and a huge smirk took over his face. He passed them to Garrett and Pat, and when their faces held the same mischievous look as Jared's I knew something was up. "What do you know?"

"John may have had something to do with these," Garrett laughed.

"All of these?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah," Pat nodded.

"Well sort of. The O'Callaghan orders are his Mom and Dad, another is Ross and Shane, another are his Grandparents. The last one is John's Uncle. Brown would be my cousins, Barlow is a good family friend of Kenny's. Andrews and Morris are both local businesses that are owned by some of John's parents friends," Jared explained.

"You guys- He- Why?"

"He said you took a huge monetary loss with the robbery," Garret shrugged. "He wanted to do something but didn't really know what, then he came of with the idea to send a bunch of business your way."

"He didn't want you to know it was him, but we thought you would want to know."

I smiled, "I'm glad. Is that why y'all came?"

"Hell no! We're here for cupcakes," Jared exclaimed. He began to say something else, but the person that walked in the door had my full attention. My eyes were crinkled from smiling so hard. I ran forward and through my body into John's. My arms were tight around his neck as he stumbled backwards. When he regained his footing his arms slowly snaked around my body.

He inhaled deeply, nuzzling my hair with his nose. "That's a hell of a greeting, Floral."

"You are a beautiful, amazing, kind, wonderful, wonderful man, John O'Callaghan."

"You forgot drop dead sexy," he teased.

I laughed, "And drop dead sexy."

"Mmm, I more than welcome all this celebration of me and up close contact, but what's the occasion?" John asked, pulling me away from him slightly so he could look at me.

"All of these orders, you're crazy."

John gave me a cheesy grin. "About you. But for real, you weren't supposed to know about me orchestrating it. Good job guys."

Pat shrugged. "She thought it was fishy, we were just letting her know she isn't crazy."

I chuckled. "Anyway, you've given me all this work to start on O'Callaghan. I gotta get to the kitchen and plan when I need to start making all this and whatnot."

He nodded in acknowledgement but didn't let go of me. He stared into my eyes for a minute and then let me go. He seemed to be thinking about something further, but shook his head slightly. "Wanna have a sleepover tonight?"

"I would enjoy that," I agreed.

"Mine or yours?"

"How about yours? I'll need to get a few things from home first... It shouldn't be more than three hours. I'm just planning right now since I don't want anyone having stale cupcakes and I need to do a few other things around this place."

John nodded. "You just let me know when you're on the way."

&&&

[JOHN]

"Hey John."

"Hey Mom," I said, hugging her. I let her go and smiled at her before sitting down at the table where my Father was reading the paper.

"So I placed my order this morning," Mom said, going back to removing dishes from the dishwasher.

"I did too. Jenny, stop. John, get up and put up the dishes for your Mother," Dad said. I laughed and stood up.

"No that's-"

"I've got it Mom, sit down. But yeah, I know. Apparently telling everyone at the same time was a bad idea because literally everyone I asked put in their order this morning. Also no one changed their names like I asked, so she literally has four O'Callaghan orders. Thanks though."

Dad chuckled, "You know, we all decided to keep our names so she would know. We're doing you a favor, Fifth."

"I would have rather it been a surprise. I don't want Flora to think she owes me anything and she's one of those people that is going to feel that way."

"When are you going to bring her over for dinner? I'd like to meet her."

"You should, she's a nice girl," Dad said. "She seems business savvy too, I'm impressed. She's different than your normal girls, John."

"What?"

"Well your other girlfriends have been nice, but... Some of them I just don't know what you were thinking," Mom said, shaking her head.

I rolled my eyes. "Flora and I aren't together. We've known each other like a month."

"Alright, alright, he's getting bothered," Dad chuckled.

"Are you staying for dinner?"

I sat down at the table again and looked at my parents. "Nah, Flora's coming over and I'm going to cook something for us. We aren't together!" I exclaimed, seeing the smiles forming on their faces.

"Alright, I'm leaving," I said, shaking my head. "I can't handle anyone else today telling me that Flora and I are supposed to be dating because we aren't!"

I left frustrated, not at my parents but at everyone's general assumption that Flora and I should be dating. The guys have been giving me shit about hanging out with her all the time... Maybe tonight isn't such a good idea.

Getting in my truck, I drove to Garrett's. Pat's car was in the driveway. I got out and walked in the house, not bothering to knock.

"Hey John Oh." Chorused through the room. I returned the sentiment and sat down beside Jared.

"What's going on with you guys?"

"Super Mario," Pat said, focused on the television screen.

"Where is Flora?"

"We aren't always together!" Everyone gave me a pointed look, making me just sigh in frustration.

"C'mon John, you guys are together a lot... And we all were with you when you made plans to hang out with her tonight... We just assumed she'd be with you," Jared said logically.

"I know... I guess I'm just feeling weird about her and everything... So many people always assume she's behind me if I walk in without her or people will ask if we're together yet... Fucking Halvo sends me at least ten texts a day that ask if I've 'ballsed up yet'... I need to get away."

"We're going to the lake this weekend," Pat said, putting down the controller as he and Tim finished the game.

"Yeah," Tim agreed. "We forgot to let you guys know, but you're all welcome to come."

"Maybe the lake would be nice," I agreed. We always had a really great time there and it would be a perfect excuse to not see Flora for a few days.

"I say it's a dicks only trip," Jared said, looking to all of us. "We haven't had a trip where it was just all the guys in awhile. Why don't we call up Halvo, Santino, Loren, all the guys?" After hearing a few more agreements we decided that was exactly what we were going to do.

"We are going to the lake and reclaiming our man hood!"

&&&

I pulled down a wine glass from the cabinet when I heard a knock on the door. I smiled and grabbed the bottle of wine to open it. "Come in!"

"Hey Floral," I smiled, wrapping my arms around her. I let her go just as quickly when the timer on the oven went off.

"Whatcha cookin' good lookin'?"

"I made us a lasagna. Here."

"Wow, make me feel like a wino!" Flora exclaimed, taking the wine from me anyway.

"Whatever," I shrugged. "It's only ready because I was getting down the glass when you knocked. Sit down." I made two plates and sat at the table across from Flora. "You know, this table probably only gets any use when you're over."

"I'm not surprised," she chuckled. "Fi and I don't really eat at our kitchen table either. I mean, I don't see that as a bad thing though."

"So I went to my parents house and they were like, 'John we put in our cupcake orders today' and I told them about how everyone did. Sorry about that, by the way... I had intended for everyone to stagger them or not put in four orders under O'Callaghan..."

She grinned, "Yeah, I kinda gathered you had something to do with it when I saw the multiple O'Callaghan orders."

"You weren't supposed to. But whatever."

"It's still a very nice gesture. You're wonderful, John."

I grinned. I said nothing and continued eating. Before long we were both finished and on our third drink. We moved to the living room and sat down on the couch.

"What do you wanna watch, Floral?"

"Matlock." I laughed. I thought she was totally kidding, until I looked to see a weird look on her face. She wasn't kidding at all.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone under fifty watches Matlock."

"Matlock is excellent and if you say otherwise you're a liar," she shrugged. "However we can watch something more to your taste."

I laughed and ignored her, already searching through Netflix for Matlock. I found it after a good ten minute search and hit play.

"Matlock," I smiled. Flora smiled at me and moved closer to my side. We settled into the couch and watched the show and by the end I actually agreed with Flora that it was a pretty good show.

"I told you!"

"Well... I don't really have a rebuttal but... You were right. You have the same taste as like, a seventy year old woman, but maybe those things aren't so bad," I said, winking.

Then, like some alarm went off only now waking me, all the reasons that everyone gave me shit about Flora were in front of my eyes. We did act like a couple. We did couple like things, we pretty much were tied at the hip. All the gestures that I thought nothing of were actually abnormal in a friendship, a lot of the stuff I did for Flora I went out of my way to do and always tried to one up myself. No one else would have come up with that cupcake plan or even took the time to think about it.

"What's wrong John?" Flora asked suddenly.

"Oh, nothing... I was just thinking."

"Oh. Alright... Are you sure because you didn't look very happy?"

"I'm fine," I replied. I didn't want to hurt Flora's feelings by explaining any of these things to her. I decided to just ignore how I felt because I would only be with Flora a few more hours and then she would go home. I think the best thing to do is just not see her until after I get back from the lake.