“Wow,” I said. “Are we doing something covert?”
“I don’t know,” he said, and pointed over to the desk in the front part of the office where the secretary usually sat. “That doesn’t seem very covert to me.”
Today, the secretary wasn’t there. But on her desk was the most ostentatious arrangement of flowers I’d ever seen. Pink and red carnations clashed together in a big bunch, interspersed with baby’s breath and yellow tulips. There was a teddy bear perched on one side of the basket. He was holding a red heart that said “ I LIKE YOU
BEARY MUCH!” A helium balloon was tied to one of his arms and it bobbed against the ceiling cheerfully.
I looked back at Carter. He had his eyebrows raised at me expectantly. He hadn’t… Oh my God. Had Carter gotten me flowers? Wow. This was going to be really, really awkward.
“Wow,” I said. “Um, those are… those are really nice flowers.” They weren’t nice flowers at all. But obviously I couldn’t say that.
“Yeah?” he said. “You like those, huh?” He sounded a little bit angry. Which was kind of weird. Why would he be angry about getting me flowers? I spotted a white card sticking out of the arrangement. Maybe he was waiting for me to read it. I reached over, plucked it off the plastic pitchfork that was holding it up and opened it.
JUST SOMETHING TO BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY,
HOPE YOU DON’T MIND THIS IS HOW I’M SAYING HEY!
Was that supposed to be a poem? It was awful. My hands were shaking as I turned the card over.
LOVE, ADAM!
The breath I was holding flew out of me in one big whoosh. The flowers weren’t from Carter. But the relief I felt at that fact was short-lived. They were from Adam.
Shit. Just when me and Rachel had made up, he had to go and pull something like this.
“Wow,” I said as I slid the card back into the envelope. “Did you read the card?”
“No, I didn’t read the card.”
I held it out to him, and watched as Carter’s eyes scanned over the words. “That is horrible,” he said. “Whoever sent that should be ashamed of themselves.”
“Yeah, well, the person who sent that should be ashamed of themselves for a lot more than a bad poem.”
“Like what?” Carter asked.
“Like sleeping with my roommate and then sending me flowers.”
“Wait.” Carter shook his head. “So these aren’t from the guy you were telling me about?”
“Justin?” I shook my head. “No.” I tried to imagine Justin walking into a flower shop or looking online and picking out the ridiculous bear that was sitting in front of me.
“These are from Adam.”
“Adam?”
“Yeah, he’s this guy I met at orientation. I guess we’re friends, I don’t know.
Anyway, he slept with my roommate. Like, last night.”
I turned around to look at Carter, expecting to see a look of incredulousness at the drama that was my life. But he didn’t look incredulous. He just looked exasperated.
“Listen, Lindsay, you can’t have be having shit like this sent here.”
I frowned. “But I didn’t have it sent here. He just – ”
“If you’re going to have your personal life interfering with your work, then it’s probably not the best idea that you work here.”
“What?” I shook my head, confused.
What had happened to the Carter from this weekend? The one who sat in a coffee ship with me and told me to loosen up?
“I thought you were just telling me that I needed to relax,” I smiled, trying to lighten the tension a little.
“Yeah, relax, not start bringing drama into the science office.” He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Can you imagine what would have happened if Dr. Klaxton had been here when this arrived? It’s totally unprofessional. It would have looked bad for you, and it would have reflected badly on me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “It won’t happen again.”
“Good.” He gestured to the bouquet of flowers. “Now please get that ridiculousness out of here.”
I picked it up and left the office without saying a word. And then I was forced to walk out of the science building holding that huge, embarrassingly stupid flower arrangement. Five different people laughed as I went by, including some very bitchy sorority girls. When I got outside, I almost tripped walking down the stairs because it was so hard to see in front of me.
When I finally got to the bottom of the steps, I untied the balloon from the basket and watched as it floated up toward the sky. I dropped the flowers into a trashcan.
And then I burst into tears.
***
I was still crying when I got back to my room. Rachel wasn’t there, which was a good thing. I didn’t know if I should tell her about what Adam had done. What the hell was he thinking? Why would he do something like that? Part of me wanted to call him and tell him off. But I knew that would just make things worse. So instead, I called my mom.
But she didn’t answer.
I threw myself down on my bed and sent Justin another text.
Had a horrible morning. Need you. Where r u?
I closed my eyes, not expecting to get a response.
But a second later, my phone beeped.