Epilogue

Dom spent all day Saturday preparing for his grand push to win Nila over. It turned out he wouldn’t have to completely liquidate his funds for the venture, either. He bought a new suit, got his hair barbered and even broke down and agreed to meet Sophia at her spa for a manicure.

“Girls like it when guy’s hands look good,” she explained.

“You really ought to tell Lij that, might make him stop biting his nails,” he said.

Sophia just glared at him. The stuff he could get away with saying to her always made him laugh.

At about 6:00 that evening, he went to the florist wholesaler to pick up the flowers he’d ordered. After loading them all into the back of his SUV, he gave Elijah a quick call.

“Hey, mate,” Dom said when Lij had picked up.

“Dom, how’s it going?”

“I’m starting to get nervous, man.”

“Me too. You sure she doesn’t hate me?”

“Told me so herself.”

“Okay, good. I was worried I’d bought 56 roses for nothing.”

“56? Holy shit man, I didn’t realize you’d bought that many!”

“I decided ‘I’m sorry’ wasn’t quite enough.”

“I see.”

“What about you? You good to go?”

“I think so. Just picked up the flowers, actually.”

“Think she’ll go for it?”

“I sure hope so!”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this!”

“Why not? We agreed they were worth pursuing.”

“Yeah, but, man alive, if my buddies ever hear about this…”

“They’ll be fucking jealous that you snagged such an awesome girl.”

“Good point.”

“Good luck, mate.”

“You too.”

Nila, in a hopeless campaign to push Dom out of her mind had thrown herself completely into work. She gave all her managers opening shifts and took all the closing shifts for herself. She attended rugby practice every day, even when her team wasn’t practicing. She just showed up at the field and practiced with whoever was there. Her efforts were in vain, however. She could exhaust her body but her mind refused to shut down. She lay awake most nights mentally kicking herself for being such an idiot. Some nights it was for being an idiot for letting him go, others it was for even liking him in the first place.

Saturday night, she could feel the burnout creeping around the edge of her consciousness. She knew if she pushed it like this for another day she’d probably either black out or get sicker than she had been in a very long time.

“Just ignore it,” she convinced herself, even as she noticed her vision blurring at the periphery.

Her little brother and bouncer, Luke, was not happy with her. “I swear to god, if you do this another day, I will physically remove you from this place and lock you in your flat,” he threatened.

“Don’t you threaten me,” she told him. “I can take care of myself.”

She knew he was right, though. She’d gone a little crazy since ‘that day’ as she termed it. She just hoped and prayed he wouldn’t – and that he would – show up out of the blue one night.

She’d let herself get caught up in the stream of people that had come in that night. It was still early, but the place was already buzzing. She’d had to call Jeff in for back up. If it were going to be this nutty all night, she would never make it.

She almost didn’t see him when he first came up to the bar. “Excuse me, Nila?” he yelled over the din of the crowd.

She leaned over the bar so she could hear him better. “Yeah? What can I get for you?”

“A Guinness. Oh, and this is for you.” The man held out a gerbera daisy.

She took it from him with a puzzled look. He just smiled, took his beer and left.

“That’s Nila, just over there,” she vaguely heard Jeff tell a customer.

The young woman held out another gerbera to her.

Nila took it and started scanning the crowd. When she looked back, half a dozen other people were holding out flowers to her. She took them and reached under the bar for another empty glass pitcher. Her heart was doing flip-flops and she noticed her hands had started shaking.

“What’s going on?” she asked Jeff as a fresh batch of people approached the bar, flowers in their outstretched hands.

Jeff just shrugged and continued filling orders.

The flower parade continued for another half-hour or so before she finally got fed up and worked her way through the crowd to the front door. The whole way there, people kept pushing more flowers at her. She ended up with a full armload by the time she reached her destination.

She found Luke standing there with a big grin on his face.

“What in the name of all that’s holy is going on here?” she demanded, indicating the flowers in her arms.

Luke just gave her a wicked smile. “That’s for me to know and you to find out. I think you’re wanted at the back door,” he said into her ear.

Her heart sped up even more. She wove her way back to the bar where she deposited the last of the flowers. She’d filled half a dozen pitchers with them. Then she slipped off to the staff washroom, adjusted her clothes, tidied her hair and made her way to the back door. She felt weak and shaky, like she’d just played a full 40-minute rugby game at top speed.

When she got to the back door, no one was there. She looked both ways down the hall, but didn’t see anyone. Then she heard the knock. She slowly pushed the door open. Dom was standing there, just as she’d hoped and feared. He looked quite sharp in his new suit and she instantly remembered why she was so attracted to the man when he offered her a shy smile.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” he answered.

“Were the flowers from you?” she asked, hardly daring to make eye contact.

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Nila, I…”

“Wait,” she stopped him, nervously tugging at the hem of her shirt. “I have to ask you something.”

“Sure, anything.”

“That night you came in here by yourself – did you fancy me then?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Then why did you snog that girl the same night?”

He flinched. He was afraid this might come up. “I was drinking myself into oblivion and wasn’t thinking straight,” he said quietly, hanging his head.

“Why were you doing that?”

“Because I didn’t think you fancied me.”

She just looked at him for a long while, wringing her hands to try to make them stop shaking so hard.

“Are you just saying that so you don’t sound like a jerk?” she asked quietly.

“No. I was a jerk. Am a jerk. I don’t deserve someone like you.” He felt very heavy and started reconsidering his whole plan. “Nila, I…”

“Dom,” she cut him off, “Don’t ever put yourself down like that.”

He looked up at her. She looked nervous and tired and anxious, but there was a determination in her eyes that caught him off guard. God, he wished he could read her better.

“Well,” she said with a sudden soft smile, “Don’t just stand there. Come over here and kiss me.”

The spell was broken. He cleared the distance between them in one stride took her in his arms and kissed her. They stood like that, clinging to each other for some time before he pulled away and asked, “Do you think you can deal with my celebrity now?”

“Just so long as you don’t start thinking you’re too good for my pub,” she said.

He laughed long and loud.

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