Felicity winced. Welcome to the upside and downside of having a leftie hippie liberal for a sister. One’s coming out is both welcomed and leads to premature deafness.
“That’s SO cool.”
Was it? Felicity failed to see the difference in who she dated.
“You must tell Mom.”
“She knows. We talked.”
“What’d she say?”
“She’s in love with the fact that I’m dating a veterinarian who works for a charity helping homeless people’s animals.” Felicity stopped in surprise at what she’d said so easily. “Well, not dating dating. We haven’t actually—” She wondered if the pizzeria night counted as a date. Did they ever decide that?
“She’s sounds wonderful,” Heather said firmly. “So tell me about her. Sum her up for me in one word.”
Felicity frowned. She filtered through a dozen words that sprang to mind about who Cooper was. Beautiful, strong, big, compassionate, thoughtful, amusing, smart… “Kind.”
Silence fell. “You have never dated someone kind before,” Heather said quietly. “At least not someone so kind that you see it as their number one thing. You’re always about the career-climbing lawyers. So she’s a keeper, okay? You need someone kind in your life. You’ve had so much cold, you need warm.”
Felicity wanted to protest that. She hadn’t always dated cold people. Wait—had she?
“Hell, even your boss is chillier than a snowdrift, and you worship her.” Heather laughed.
“She isn’t,” Felicity said, tone grumpy. She was so over the way everyone judged Elena. “She’s just acutely aware that people expect her to be her reputation and plays it up for maximum effect. I’ve seen another side to her, and while she’s not kind, she’s…”
Felicity stopped. Wait. She remembered plenty of times she’d caught her boss out in random acts of kindness. She’d dismissed them as aberrant because they flew in the face of Elena’s ferocious Tiger Shark reputation. But what if those acts were a part of who she was? All this time she’d only ever focused on her icy-boss side—which was hard to miss—and ignored the other side.
So…Elena could be kind.
Apparently, it was just Felicity who was out of step here, the one everyone thought had few redeeming qualities. That probably explained why Elena had made no move to offer her friendship despite all the years they’d worked together. How depressing. “I’m apparently lacking a few things required to be good friendship or dating material,” Felicity said acidly. She sagged. “No wonder Cooper gave me the flick. I’m sure the evil flowers were just the last nail in the coffin.”
“No, Felicity. One bad gift isn’t the end. If you want this woman, you’ve gotta show her you have more self-awareness than a drunk duck and win her back.”
“How?” Felicity asked. “I was planning to turn up when Cooper finished work and take her to her favorite restaurant. Although I can’t very well do that since I don’t know where she likes to eat yet.”
“You were going to turn up and take her?” Heather asked. “Felicity, knowing how you do things, was your idea to roll up in your fancy car, pop the door, and suggest she get in?”
“I—yes?” That did sound rather suave, didn’t it?
“I’m not sure if you think you’re James Bond or prepping a kidnapping, but that’s not how you woo someone! People are tired when they finish work. They want to go home, get changed, freshen up, have a choice in whether they’re eating out, all that.”
“And how would I know?” Felicity asked in exasperation. “I’ve never been the wooer before!”
“All right, so the wooing with food idea is sound. But what if instead of dragging her into the car off the street—”
“I wouldn’t—”
“Close enough. Find out what she likes to eat and bring it to her at work.”
“I still don’t know her favorite food.”
“Who does?”
“Apparently, Mitch. The homeless guy who guards the charity van at night. Well, sleeps in it…guards…same thing.”
“So just ask him.”
“He doesn’t have a phone number.”
“I swear, Felicity, I don’t get how you can be such a brilliant lawyer and not see the obvious. Go and talk to him. In person. Like you should have gone and selected the flowers in person.”
“I’ll take your suggestions under advisement.”
“Don’t be afraid to grovel. Kind people are also forgiving people.”
There was that. “I’m sure they are, but I’m not the groveling type.”
“No? You sound like the desperate-to-be-with-this-Cooper-person type, though.”
“I’m not desperate!” Felicity scowled. “And I’m just strategizing my next move. That’s all.”
“Well, go strategize it with the words ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t perform a simple Google search while sending you floral tributes, but I was lazy and decided to outsource. Also you’re gorgeous and I want you desperately for lesbilicious good times.’”
Felicity glared at her phone. “Are you quite done?”
“I think so.” Heather sounded far too amused.
Inhaling, Felicity forced out her next words. “How’re things at home? How’s everyone?”
