Page 11 of They Love Me Knot (Starsfalls Omegaverse #2)

Daphne

I slam the door behind me as soon as I make it back to Queen of Hearts, leaning against it and panting from the effort of my run (quick walk).

I don’t think the alpha saw me leave. Or at least, I don’t think he followed me back here.

I feel flushed and my heart’s pounding, and that’s not just because of my run.

My little stumble doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to pull me against his body.

His hard, giant body.

I know he claimed he was catching me, but I don’t think I was falling to begin with.

Being pressed against him made it difficult to think, my thoughts all hazy, so I can’t even be sure about the sequence of events.

Still, it was pretty brazen of him to suggest I stay on his lap and attempt to call one of his packmates to join our cake party.

I feel tingly all over again.

I never felt like that with my exes. It must be because we were in public.

My body went crazy because of the confusion of not wanting to get caught while rubbing up against an alpha.

There’s no way I would be so hot for an alpha I don’t even know.

It took me months to warm up to my exes and be sexually interested in them.

I need to know someone well before I can open up and feel a physical connection.

Except for this baker guy.

No.

That was just because the risk of getting caught got me all flustered. I already decided this. The dampness on my thighs results from testing the boundaries of polite society, nothing to do with him personally.

Since I successfully pulled off my great escape, I can leave that embarrassment behind me. No one has to know.

“No one has to know what?” Poppy asks.

I squeak in alarm. I didn’t see her standing by the lockers.

As if my heart wasn’t already about to burst out of my chest, her surprise attack almost made me faint.

“Wha—what do you mean no one has to know?” I say nervously.

How did she know what I was thinking?? Is she a mind reader??

Why didn’t she tell me that before now. I would’ve made sure not to question her unfailingly chipper personality if I’d known she could hear my thoughts.

“You said, ‘no one has to know’ after you slammed and locked the door. I was just curious what people don’t have to know?” she says.

There’s good news at least. Poppy can’t read minds.

I guess I said some of my thoughts out loud. I do that occasionally when I’m stressed, but it’s been a while since I have.

I think.

I haven’t been stressed recently, so I’m like 95% sure I haven’t been talking to myself out loud. 69% sure at least.

“It’s nothing. I just saw, uh, a really big mouse out there. And no one has to know, cause, um, it might freak them out that there’s a giant mouse living in our alley. But he’s not hurting anyone, so I don’t want to scare him off,” I say.

I came up with that clever cover story so quickly. I’m rather proud of it.

“Aw, poor mouse. I won’t tell anyone about him, as long as he doesn’t come in and eat our flowers. If he does, we’ll have to catch him and relocate him somewhere else,” Poppy coos.

Perfect, she bought it.

“He seemed like a polite mouse from what I saw, so I’m sure he won’t cause any trouble.”

I take a deep breath and push away from the door. I survived my return mission without getting caught, so it’s time to get back to work.

I’m just tying my apron strings when Poppy continues her interrogation.

“Were you able to bring some cookies back?” she asks.

I accidentally jerk the strings too tight, knocking the breath out of me with a silent eep.

Her question is strangling me, so I can’t reply.

Oh wait, that’s still the apron. I hastily loosen the strings while I think of what to say.

“Well, you see, the mouse—” I say, but get cut off when Anicka bursts in.

“Emergency orders! We just got dozens of promposal orders. Some kid asked his date to the prom early, and that sparked a trend, so now all the students at Sunnyfalls High School are doing it. We don’t usually get prom orders for another few months, so we don’t have the stock for this.

We need to work through the ones we have and prepare for more.

Are you done with your breaks? Whenever you’re ready, I’ll need your help,” Anicka says.

“I’m ready!” I quickly reply.

Poppy also agrees, and we hurry after Anicka as she whirls back into the shop, pulling flowers from every direction and setting them on our worktables. Roses, carnations, ranunculus, and cherry blossoms stack into a floral mountain, ready to be made into the cutest promposal props.

My little field trip is quickly forgotten as we set up an assembly line to put the bouquets together, and more promposal orders roll in throughout the day, keeping us constantly busy.

I wipe down the table, pushing the stem trimmings and petals into the trash, while Poppy inventories our stock and Anicka marks off the orders we’ve fulfilled.

We worked late, well past our normal closing time. Anicka said we could go home on time, but we chose to stay and finish the job. Working odd hours is part of being a florist.

Besides, I get paid overtime.

After picking up our tools, I drop into a chair at the checkout counter. Poppy is still walking around with a tablet, taking stock of our depleted supplies.

I’m too tired to get back on my feet and help, so I pull up the orders to see what we have in store for tomorrow .

My eyes widen at the list. How many kids are at Sunnyfalls High? I didn’t realize it was so popular for students to give each other flowers.

I certainly never received flowers from my schoolmates, or anyone, not even my ex-pack.

It would have meant a lot for someone to put in the effort of picking out flowers they thought I would like, or choosing the ones that reminded them of me. Even if they didn’t know the meaning of the flowers, it would have been nice to see what bouquet they came up with.

Whatever.

I can get myself flowers. I don’t need a partner for that.

“We’re not doing too badly on stock. It’s a good thing we had that early delivery today,” Poppy says, joining me at the counter.

Anicka doesn’t say anything, frowning as she scrolls through the orders, but I smile tiredly as Poppy bumps her shoulder good-naturedly against mine.

Anicka finally turns away from the computer and rubs her eyes. “We have fifty new orders, which is more flowers than we have in stock. When Ciro was here, he mentioned they have several crops that are almost ready. I’ll send him a message and see if he can get some for us in the next few days.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to source enough between all our suppliers,” Poppy says cheerily.

I don’t comment, too busy twitching at the mention of Ciro.

I’d almost forgotten about my scare with the delivery guy after everything that happened today. I didn’t catch the Flower Gully alpha’s name earlier, but we didn’t have any other deliveries today, so that must be him.

Ciro .

No one has said anything about his attitude, and now that we need emergency flowers from Flower Gully, I can’t really start complaining about their delivery guy.

Besides, after my cake incident earlier, my run-in with Ciro pales in comparison.

I should just forget about the whole thing.

He might have been having a bad day, and I can’t blame him for not wanting me to crush the flowers.

I didn’t want to hurt the flowers either, I just didn’t realize they were flowers.

We really need to put lights in our alley. If it’s dark enough that I can’t tell if I’m being attacked by a giant insectoid in the middle of the day, then it’s way too dark and dangerous out there.

I’ll have to suggest that at some point after we deal with this deluge of orders.

“I’m sure it will work out. It may be a few long days ahead of us though, if you’re willing to work late,” Anicka says.

Poppy and I agree. It’s not like I have any personal plans in the foreseeable future.

“I think that’s it for today. We’ll start fresh tomorrow,” Anicka dismisses us.

Poppy jumps up and starts closing down the store. I stand up more slowly and stretch before joining her.

When we’re done, we all go to the back to grab our things. I pull out my phone and check the time to see if my favorite restaurant, Meat Cute, is still open. I’m much too tired to cook anything tonight, and I don’t have any leftovers that sound good.

“Here’s some money for the desserts, Daphne. Are there any left, or did you need them as fuel up for our long day?” Anicka says .

My phone falls from my fingers and bounces a few times before skidding across the room.

Poppy bounds after it before I can react.

“The screen is cracked, but it still turns on!” Poppy shows me the spider-webbed screen, which looks the same as it always does.

“It’s fine, it was already like that,” I mumble, taking the phone back.

I’ve dropped my phone on harder floors than this. I don’t know why she thinks a soft wooden floor could take it out. It’s a survivor, I’ve had it for more than half a year. That’s the longest one of my phones has ever lasted.

Even though my fumble gave me a momentary reprieve, I still have to answer Anicka. I already mentioned a mouse to Poppy, so I could use that here too. Somehow.

I take a deep breath to get into character as “someone who saw a big mouse,” but before I can say anything, Poppy interrupts.

“There weren’t any desserts left by the time she got there. You know how Flourist always sells out,” Poppy says.

She turns her head to the side to give me a big wink.

“That’s too bad. I should have sent you on our snack errand earlier. Sorry you weren’t able to get any cookies, Daphne. I know how you were looking forward to them,” Anicka says, ignoring Poppy’s not-so-subtle wink.

Or maybe it was subtle, and I only noticed because it was directed at me. Perhaps Poppy is better at subterfuge than I thought.

I wonder what else she could be hiding behind that unassuming exterior. She was able to keep it a secret that she’s psychic.

Wait, was she psychic? I can’t remember what I concluded from our conversation earlier. I was so out of sorts after the cake incident and recovering from my run.

“It’s okay. I might try to eat fewer desserts for a while anyway. I want to focus on getting enough protein while I work on improving my cardio,” I lie.

There, that should stop them from asking me to go back to Flourist. A perfect lie, and I came up with it without even thinking about it. It just came out.

“You’re training cardio? I love running! I can give you some tips if you want,” Poppy says.

Wait. No.

“Oh! Or we could go on daily runs together,” she continues.

Stop.

“I swim laps and hike, if you’re doing that too. I love all kinds of exercise. We have to work out together, it will make it so much more fun!” Poppy says, practically jogging in place as she bounces around in excitement.

Why did I say I was going to do cardio? I hate cardio! I almost passed out wobbling my way back here.

Being bad at it is no reason to practice running, it’s a reason to avoid it at all costs so I don’t accidentally stagger into the street and pass out with sprained ankles.

“It is more fun to work out together, and it’s good to stay active so you can keep moving when you’re older. I enjoy hiking in the Fossfell Mountains, in between hauling flower buckets of course,” Anicka says.

“We’re lucky to live so close to great trails,” Poppy agrees.

I nod noncommittally.

The mountains around here are nice, but I’m not into hiking hiking. A leisurely walk along a scenic route is more my speed .

“I’m glad you mentioned your plans, Daphne. My friend is coming to visit soon, and she always brings me dozens of boxes of truffles since she runs a truffle shop. I usually bring some into work to share, but I’ll make sure to keep them away from you so I don’t mess up your meal plans,” Poppy says.

Fuck.

Why did my stupid brain come up with this plan without telling me?

“Well, I’m not cutting out all sweet things. Everything in moderation, as they say. As long as I eat enough protein, I can—” I say, but Poppy cuts me off.

“You’re right, it’s so important to eat enough to fuel your runs. A high-protein diet is really helpful.”

“Sure, and I can still fit in several desser—” I try again, but this time Anicka interrupts.

“Narcissus Nice Blooms just texted back. They have several buckets of flowers they can add to our order tomorrow,” she says.

“That’s great! We’re well on our way to making everyone’s promposal dreams come true,” Poppy says, immediately switching to the new conversation.

I wasn’t done convincing them to give me snacks!

Anicka and Poppy start talking about what bouquets we’ll be able to make with the new supplies. I wait to see if I can slip in something about how eating desserts is part of my “new meal plan.”

I don’t find an opening by the time Anicka locks the door behind us, and it seems like it’s been too long since we mentioned the desserts to bring them up again.

We say goodbye when they get to their cars, and I start the walk home with a sigh .

Maybe they’ll forget about my meal planning by tomorrow, especially with all the work we have ahead of us.

I try not to think about my day on my walk home.

I’m unsuccessful.

My mind keeps replaying the scare with the rude alpha, alternating to rolling around in cake with that other alpha.

My body tingles and flushes, obviously overwhelmed by the audacity of these alphas ordering me around and rubbing against me when we’ve just met.

Once I’m home, I rummage through my nightstand for the perfect thing to alleviate my stress.

After avoiding alphas for months, somehow, I ran bodily into two of them on the same day.

And I didn’t even get any cookies.