WAR OF THE ROSES
MEL
With Tay gone that morning, as he frequently was, Mel trudged through the house with her bed head and pajama pants, glaring at the front door. It was ringing. The door was ringing. She had barely had any sleep the previous night and the door was now ringing at her. The poor individual on the other side of it had no
idea that Mel was planning their imminent death.
Tay always made it a point to at least run a brush through his hair and put on a pair of jeans before answering the door, but not Mel. If she wasn't expecting anyone, they shouldn't expect to see her at her best. Showing up uninvited was rude and inappropriate and she planned to let this person know it.
Too agitated to take the time to look through the eyehole in the door, Mel flung the front door open with a vengeance and was a little surprised to see Nikki Hanson, her future sister-in-law, standing there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Nikki's bright smile faded as she looked Mel over. "Oh my gosh, sweetie, are you okay?"
"Uh..." Mel couldn't speak. It was impossible to be mad at Nikki. For anything. Ever. Nikki always radiated kindness and happiness and, try as you might, being upset at her was never an option.
"Why aren't you ready?" Nikki asked in obvious confusion.
The near-winter chill from outside began to wake Mel up as she stood there holding the door open. "Uh, ready?"
Nikki sighed. Even annoyed, she was cute. "Mel, did you forget? I was going to take you to see the florist who did my wedding today."
Mel's hand found her forehead, perhaps a little harder than she intended, and she winced at the pain and embarrassment. "Oh shit, that's today?"
Nikki giggled. "Yes, silly! And it's freezing out here, so let me thaw out while you go and...and put yourself together."
"Yes!" Mel said, finally alert. Letting Nikki in, she offered her coffee and apologized profusely before getting herself ready to leave. She would never be as gorgeous as Nikki, but she always tried to look her best when going out with her. She figured Nikki didn't deserve to pal around with ugly people. It was a terrible sentiment, Mel knew, and she never said it out loud. If she said half of the warped things she thought out
loud, she'd be a bigger outcast than Taylor's ex wife. The thought made her shudder.
A couple of hours later, the two women found themselves inside of Stems, which was only one of their three locations in the area. Nikki had said that she was able to pull from all three shops, but this was the staff that
ultimately helped her, so this was she staff she trusted.
As they did an initial walk through of the store, Mel wasn't sure she was actually ready to pick flowers yet. She didn't dare say this out loud to Nikki, though. Not after she went through the trouble to try to help her
today. As if on cue, Nikki's voice interrupted her thoughts. "So have you talked to Drew lately?"
"Not directly," Mel answered. "She emailed. She's about to do a Bill Sparx movie."
"Bill Sparx?" Nikki's eyes lit up. "Wow that's--he's an Academy Award winner! That's incredible!"
Mel smiled. She was proud of her best friend but she just couldn't argue with that feeling that suddenly returned to the pit of her stomach. Her gut was never wrong.
"So when is filming?" Nikki continued. "Will it interfere with the wedding?"
"I don't know," Mel admitted. "But, you know, Tay and I haven't even set a date yet."
"Well it may work out for the best then. And might I reiterate how unusual it is to be planning a wedding without a set date."
"The plan was to make it less pressure."
"But how are you supposed to confirm orders and book professionals if they don't have a date to go by? You don't want them to be tied up on the date you pick. I mean, it's not my wedding, it's totally your decision.
You can tell me to shut up at any time. Just trying to give you something to think about. This isn't your first wedding, you know."
Mel sighed. "Tay and I need to set a date."
"Yes."
An impulse decision hit Mel like a ton of bricks, as sudden as a ton of bricks could be--if people actually got hit by a ton of bricks. And sometimes impulse decisions were the best ones you could ever make and with
this particular one, Mel knew that it was absolutely right. A little odd, but ultimately right. Turning to Nikki, she said, "Nikki. I want you to be my matron of honor."
Nikki's mouth dropped open and Mel couldn't help but smile. This was right. Absolutely right. "Me?" Nikki managed to squeak out. "You want ME? What about Drew?"
"It's--" Mel didn't want to say out loud what she was really thinking. She didn't want to say out loud that she was having doubts about counting on Drew--something she had never thought she would ever feel in her entire life. "I mean it would be an honor to have you as my...matron of...honor..." her eyes shifted around at how odd her statement sounded.
Nikki didn't care how odd it sounded, or she didn't notice. You could hear her shriek all over the florist and probably on the next street over. She threw her arms around Mel's neck. "I am so excited and so touched that
you asked me! Of course I'll be your matron of honor!" She pulled away and smiled at Mel, her hands still on her shoulders. "Girlfriend, we have work to do! And your first order of business is to go set a date with
that man of yours and get back to me. This will be the wedding of the century! Or maybe the decade...at least for the Hanson family, anyway. Oh, you know what I mean!"
On the way out the door, Mel picked up some business cards and brochures and promised the store owners that she would be in touch. Walking through the parking lot, Mel was smiling. She was genuinely happy with her decision and had no regrets about it whatsoever. The big hurdle would be breaking the news to Drew.
_________________________________________
TAYLOR
Taylor sat across from Mel and between his brothers, Isaac and Zac, in the conference room. Their manager and a couple of other business partners sat at the table as well. Tay had always heard that working with your
significant other was always and forever impossible, but thankfully that had never been the case for him. He had been blessed with Mel.
Until business meetings happened, that is.
Mel was a tough cookie. She had absolutely no problem seeing black and white when it came to work and home life, whereas Tay had trouble staying out of the gray area. Business meetings were either dreaded or
anticipated, depending on who you were or what mood you were in at the time. Nobody ever knew what to expect anymore.
"This will be brief," Mel started. "Basically I just had some things piling up that I wanted to get across to you guys before I started discarding some of it. This should be simple. Yes, no, maybe. As always, we have vendors who have ideas for this, that, and the other. Some of the merch ideas are pretty good, some I think are really stupid, but I don't get the final say so here. We can start with the yes, no, maybe piles, then we can talk numbers."
Tay kinda let her speech go in one ear and out the other. Merch had never really been his department. It wasn't that he didn't care, he just simply trusted his brothers' decisions enough to not have to weigh in so
much. They hadn't failed without him yet. Excitedly, he was two moves away from passing this level on Candy Crush Saga and he had them both strategically set up and guaranteed a win when Mel's voice startled him from
across the table. "TAYLOR."
Hearing his brothers snicker on either side of him, he looked up at her in alarm. She stared back at him expectantly. He had nothing. "Are you even paying attention?" she asked.
This was a trap. Or at least it felt like one. What the fuck was even happening here, he didn't know what to say! And, dammit, two more moves. TWO MORE! "Uh...yeah...of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"
Mel stared back at him without a word. Tay was scared to death. He couldn't read her. Dammit, after every meeting he swore he'd shape up at the next one. This shit was embarrassing and Ike and Zac could never
seem to get enough of it. It was his own fault and he knew it, but damn--it was never anything he and Mel wouldn't talk about later anyway.
"Mm-hmm," Mel answered shortly, looking from Tay, to his brothers, and to the three other people at the table. She then placed her cell phone face down in the middle of the conference table, and looked around at everyone else without a word.
Next to him, Ike cleared his throat and followed suit. One by one, everyone caught on and Tay was practically dying. TWO MORE MOVES! It would take him two seconds! Well, maybe not quite two seconds. Then he had to wait for the other candies to drop and see what order they were gonna land in to make sure his last move would stay perfectly in place and--"Ahem." Mel cleared her throat from across the table. "I'd like to continue this meeting."
"Uh, okay. Sorry," Tay responded. "Just give me one second."
"NOW would be fantastic," Mel snapped dryly.
Annoyed and unable to control his mouth, Tay spouted out, "You know, this isn't YOUR label. This is OUR label. And I'm pretty sure it's not your place to bark orders like that."
Mel's eyes widened in disbelief and for a moment, Tay's body felt overcome with victory and relief. THAT was how you took control back.
Next to him, he heard Zac whisper underneath his hand as he sunk in his chair, "Holy shit, Tay..."
Mel straightened up in her chair and looked around the table once more before she planted her eyes firmly on her fiancée's. "You hired me to do a job and I've worked here for some time. There's a reason you needed
someone to sit here and do exactly what I'm doing now or else you wouldn't have me doing it. Now I can continue to do my job, and do it well as I have been, or I can pack up my desk right now and throw yet ONE MORE task in your laps and you can do it all yourself. You know, since I bark so many orders that interrupt your infinite gaming there."
Tay's eyes darted around nervously. "Uh. Lemme just--"
"No. Unless we all need a Candy Crush break." She looked around the table. "Do you need a Candy Crush break in the middle of this business meeting? Do you? Or you?"
Tay furrowed his brow. "Now you're being--"
"Goddamn, Tay, you're being an idiot." Zac said as he jerked Tay's phone out of his hand and placed it in the middle of the table with the others.
A half an hour later, the meeting was adjourned. Tay dreaded what came next.
When everyone left the room and Mel gathered her paperwork up neatly, never once looking up at him. He felt like a total creep. And he knew she felt the exact same way about him.
Tay came and stood next to her. "I love you," he offered.
"Shut up," Mel responded.
He sighed and sat down. "Mel, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted like that."
"It's the same damn thing every time. Every single time I hold a meeting, you completely disrespect and embarrass me. You never know what's going on and half the time you act like you don't even care. You're my
fiancée! You're supposed to be on MY side! My partner-in-crime! Instead you never cease to make me feel like a fool. I don't care whether you give a shit about the subject or not. But be on board with me!"
She wasn't yelling. She wasn't screaming. She didn't throw anything or call him any vulgar names. She wasn't pissed off, she was hurt. And that was a thousand times worse. When he thought it couldn't get any worse than that, the next words left her mouth. "I'm disappointed in you, Tay."
That was it. Asshole Of The Year right here, ladies and gentleman. Did they make an award for that? If they didn't, they should, because he felt like he deserved it. "I'm sorry--"
Except that she wasn't finished. "I am disappointed and humiliated and undermined and betrayed. And you're not the one who should make me feel this way. I don't want to hear any more from you right now. Don't even speak, or make excuses, or whatever it is you're about to say. You've done enough for one day. We'll talk at home."
"You're going home?"
"When my day is over, yes."
"Mel--"
"At home."
And with that, she gathered her laptop and her paperwork and she was out of the conference room.
Tay's forehead dropped onto the table and, after a moment, he heard Ike's voice from the doorway. "She's pretty pissed, huh?"
"Worse," Tay's muffled voice said into the table. "She's hurt."
"Ouch," Ike responded.
Tay lifted his head and looked up at his older brother. "Why am I this way?"
Ike couldn't hide his smile. "Like what?"
"Like...this. Like...like why do I do stupid shit like I did today. It wasn't that hard to listen to what she had to say. Instead I acted like a douche. I mean, who does that shit anyway?"
"I admit, you have a slight superiority complex, depending on who the person or what the position is," Ike said.
"Well how do I NOT have that? How do I not ruin meetings like this?"
"Trust and respect."
"What are you saying?"
"Zac and I trust and respect Mel. We know what she's capable of. Hell, you know what she's capable of, even more than Zac and I do. She's a good fit here and she's done some good things for the label already. She has a great business mind. We know it and you know it, too. Instead of fighting her for power, you need to maybe follow her lead and not assume you can just skate by here because you live together. You can learn from her. Separate work from home and you'll be just fine. All she wants is respect. That's all anyone wants."
"I'm an asshole, aren't I?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"Well at least you're honest."
"I aim to please."
"So what do I do now? She won't talk to me till we get home."
"That's smart of her. But I'm not in your relationship so I don't know if I can really help you there."
"Well what do you do when you and Nikki fight and you're the one who's the asshole?"
Ike laughed. "You were married for ten years. Why are you just now asking me for advice?"
"Because--I don't know, I feel like I've never been in a relationship before this. I can't explain it, it's weird. It's like, I thought I had all the answers but in reality, I don't have ANY answers. I'm afraid to lose her again."
"Now you're just over-analyzing. And maybe over-dramatizing again, too. Look, you want my advice? Nikki took her to Stems the other day to look at flowers for your wedding. She didn't pick anything out yet. Maybe it would be a good idea to go over there and get some flower ideas for your wedding and bring her a couple of
samples."
"You're setting me up for failure."
"I'm setting you up to get laid. Trust me."
"I don't do flowers."
"No, but you do Mel. Everything else will just fall into place."
Ike's words suddenly motivated Tay. Feeling optimistic, his spirits lifted a little. He sometimes forgot how grateful he was for his older brother and sometimes he didn't know what he would do without him. "Hey,
Ike. You wanna be my best man?"
Ike smiled. "You didn't wanna ask Zac again?"
"Nah. He had his turn already."
Ike laughed and nodded. "Of course I'll be your best man. I'd be honored."
Tay smiled at his brother. "Thanks, man."
MEL
With Tay gone that morning, as he frequently was, Mel trudged through the house with her bed head and pajama pants, glaring at the front door. It was ringing. The door was ringing. She had barely had any sleep the previous night and the door was now ringing at her. The poor individual on the other side of it had no
idea that Mel was planning their imminent death.
Tay always made it a point to at least run a brush through his hair and put on a pair of jeans before answering the door, but not Mel. If she wasn't expecting anyone, they shouldn't expect to see her at her best. Showing up uninvited was rude and inappropriate and she planned to let this person know it.
Too agitated to take the time to look through the eyehole in the door, Mel flung the front door open with a vengeance and was a little surprised to see Nikki Hanson, her future sister-in-law, standing there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Nikki's bright smile faded as she looked Mel over. "Oh my gosh, sweetie, are you okay?"
"Uh..." Mel couldn't speak. It was impossible to be mad at Nikki. For anything. Ever. Nikki always radiated kindness and happiness and, try as you might, being upset at her was never an option.
"Why aren't you ready?" Nikki asked in obvious confusion.
The near-winter chill from outside began to wake Mel up as she stood there holding the door open. "Uh, ready?"
Nikki sighed. Even annoyed, she was cute. "Mel, did you forget? I was going to take you to see the florist who did my wedding today."
Mel's hand found her forehead, perhaps a little harder than she intended, and she winced at the pain and embarrassment. "Oh shit, that's today?"
Nikki giggled. "Yes, silly! And it's freezing out here, so let me thaw out while you go and...and put yourself together."
"Yes!" Mel said, finally alert. Letting Nikki in, she offered her coffee and apologized profusely before getting herself ready to leave. She would never be as gorgeous as Nikki, but she always tried to look her best when going out with her. She figured Nikki didn't deserve to pal around with ugly people. It was a terrible sentiment, Mel knew, and she never said it out loud. If she said half of the warped things she thought out
loud, she'd be a bigger outcast than Taylor's ex wife. The thought made her shudder.
A couple of hours later, the two women found themselves inside of Stems, which was only one of their three locations in the area. Nikki had said that she was able to pull from all three shops, but this was the staff that
ultimately helped her, so this was she staff she trusted.
As they did an initial walk through of the store, Mel wasn't sure she was actually ready to pick flowers yet. She didn't dare say this out loud to Nikki, though. Not after she went through the trouble to try to help her
today. As if on cue, Nikki's voice interrupted her thoughts. "So have you talked to Drew lately?"
"Not directly," Mel answered. "She emailed. She's about to do a Bill Sparx movie."
"Bill Sparx?" Nikki's eyes lit up. "Wow that's--he's an Academy Award winner! That's incredible!"
Mel smiled. She was proud of her best friend but she just couldn't argue with that feeling that suddenly returned to the pit of her stomach. Her gut was never wrong.
"So when is filming?" Nikki continued. "Will it interfere with the wedding?"
"I don't know," Mel admitted. "But, you know, Tay and I haven't even set a date yet."
"Well it may work out for the best then. And might I reiterate how unusual it is to be planning a wedding without a set date."
"The plan was to make it less pressure."
"But how are you supposed to confirm orders and book professionals if they don't have a date to go by? You don't want them to be tied up on the date you pick. I mean, it's not my wedding, it's totally your decision.
You can tell me to shut up at any time. Just trying to give you something to think about. This isn't your first wedding, you know."
Mel sighed. "Tay and I need to set a date."
"Yes."
An impulse decision hit Mel like a ton of bricks, as sudden as a ton of bricks could be--if people actually got hit by a ton of bricks. And sometimes impulse decisions were the best ones you could ever make and with
this particular one, Mel knew that it was absolutely right. A little odd, but ultimately right. Turning to Nikki, she said, "Nikki. I want you to be my matron of honor."
Nikki's mouth dropped open and Mel couldn't help but smile. This was right. Absolutely right. "Me?" Nikki managed to squeak out. "You want ME? What about Drew?"
"It's--" Mel didn't want to say out loud what she was really thinking. She didn't want to say out loud that she was having doubts about counting on Drew--something she had never thought she would ever feel in her entire life. "I mean it would be an honor to have you as my...matron of...honor..." her eyes shifted around at how odd her statement sounded.
Nikki didn't care how odd it sounded, or she didn't notice. You could hear her shriek all over the florist and probably on the next street over. She threw her arms around Mel's neck. "I am so excited and so touched that
you asked me! Of course I'll be your matron of honor!" She pulled away and smiled at Mel, her hands still on her shoulders. "Girlfriend, we have work to do! And your first order of business is to go set a date with
that man of yours and get back to me. This will be the wedding of the century! Or maybe the decade...at least for the Hanson family, anyway. Oh, you know what I mean!"
On the way out the door, Mel picked up some business cards and brochures and promised the store owners that she would be in touch. Walking through the parking lot, Mel was smiling. She was genuinely happy with her decision and had no regrets about it whatsoever. The big hurdle would be breaking the news to Drew.
_________________________________________
TAYLOR
Taylor sat across from Mel and between his brothers, Isaac and Zac, in the conference room. Their manager and a couple of other business partners sat at the table as well. Tay had always heard that working with your
significant other was always and forever impossible, but thankfully that had never been the case for him. He had been blessed with Mel.
Until business meetings happened, that is.
Mel was a tough cookie. She had absolutely no problem seeing black and white when it came to work and home life, whereas Tay had trouble staying out of the gray area. Business meetings were either dreaded or
anticipated, depending on who you were or what mood you were in at the time. Nobody ever knew what to expect anymore.
"This will be brief," Mel started. "Basically I just had some things piling up that I wanted to get across to you guys before I started discarding some of it. This should be simple. Yes, no, maybe. As always, we have vendors who have ideas for this, that, and the other. Some of the merch ideas are pretty good, some I think are really stupid, but I don't get the final say so here. We can start with the yes, no, maybe piles, then we can talk numbers."
Tay kinda let her speech go in one ear and out the other. Merch had never really been his department. It wasn't that he didn't care, he just simply trusted his brothers' decisions enough to not have to weigh in so
much. They hadn't failed without him yet. Excitedly, he was two moves away from passing this level on Candy Crush Saga and he had them both strategically set up and guaranteed a win when Mel's voice startled him from
across the table. "TAYLOR."
Hearing his brothers snicker on either side of him, he looked up at her in alarm. She stared back at him expectantly. He had nothing. "Are you even paying attention?" she asked.
This was a trap. Or at least it felt like one. What the fuck was even happening here, he didn't know what to say! And, dammit, two more moves. TWO MORE! "Uh...yeah...of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"
Mel stared back at him without a word. Tay was scared to death. He couldn't read her. Dammit, after every meeting he swore he'd shape up at the next one. This shit was embarrassing and Ike and Zac could never
seem to get enough of it. It was his own fault and he knew it, but damn--it was never anything he and Mel wouldn't talk about later anyway.
"Mm-hmm," Mel answered shortly, looking from Tay, to his brothers, and to the three other people at the table. She then placed her cell phone face down in the middle of the conference table, and looked around at everyone else without a word.
Next to him, Ike cleared his throat and followed suit. One by one, everyone caught on and Tay was practically dying. TWO MORE MOVES! It would take him two seconds! Well, maybe not quite two seconds. Then he had to wait for the other candies to drop and see what order they were gonna land in to make sure his last move would stay perfectly in place and--"Ahem." Mel cleared her throat from across the table. "I'd like to continue this meeting."
"Uh, okay. Sorry," Tay responded. "Just give me one second."
"NOW would be fantastic," Mel snapped dryly.
Annoyed and unable to control his mouth, Tay spouted out, "You know, this isn't YOUR label. This is OUR label. And I'm pretty sure it's not your place to bark orders like that."
Mel's eyes widened in disbelief and for a moment, Tay's body felt overcome with victory and relief. THAT was how you took control back.
Next to him, he heard Zac whisper underneath his hand as he sunk in his chair, "Holy shit, Tay..."
Mel straightened up in her chair and looked around the table once more before she planted her eyes firmly on her fiancée's. "You hired me to do a job and I've worked here for some time. There's a reason you needed
someone to sit here and do exactly what I'm doing now or else you wouldn't have me doing it. Now I can continue to do my job, and do it well as I have been, or I can pack up my desk right now and throw yet ONE MORE task in your laps and you can do it all yourself. You know, since I bark so many orders that interrupt your infinite gaming there."
Tay's eyes darted around nervously. "Uh. Lemme just--"
"No. Unless we all need a Candy Crush break." She looked around the table. "Do you need a Candy Crush break in the middle of this business meeting? Do you? Or you?"
Tay furrowed his brow. "Now you're being--"
"Goddamn, Tay, you're being an idiot." Zac said as he jerked Tay's phone out of his hand and placed it in the middle of the table with the others.
A half an hour later, the meeting was adjourned. Tay dreaded what came next.
When everyone left the room and Mel gathered her paperwork up neatly, never once looking up at him. He felt like a total creep. And he knew she felt the exact same way about him.
Tay came and stood next to her. "I love you," he offered.
"Shut up," Mel responded.
He sighed and sat down. "Mel, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted like that."
"It's the same damn thing every time. Every single time I hold a meeting, you completely disrespect and embarrass me. You never know what's going on and half the time you act like you don't even care. You're my
fiancée! You're supposed to be on MY side! My partner-in-crime! Instead you never cease to make me feel like a fool. I don't care whether you give a shit about the subject or not. But be on board with me!"
She wasn't yelling. She wasn't screaming. She didn't throw anything or call him any vulgar names. She wasn't pissed off, she was hurt. And that was a thousand times worse. When he thought it couldn't get any worse than that, the next words left her mouth. "I'm disappointed in you, Tay."
That was it. Asshole Of The Year right here, ladies and gentleman. Did they make an award for that? If they didn't, they should, because he felt like he deserved it. "I'm sorry--"
Except that she wasn't finished. "I am disappointed and humiliated and undermined and betrayed. And you're not the one who should make me feel this way. I don't want to hear any more from you right now. Don't even speak, or make excuses, or whatever it is you're about to say. You've done enough for one day. We'll talk at home."
"You're going home?"
"When my day is over, yes."
"Mel--"
"At home."
And with that, she gathered her laptop and her paperwork and she was out of the conference room.
Tay's forehead dropped onto the table and, after a moment, he heard Ike's voice from the doorway. "She's pretty pissed, huh?"
"Worse," Tay's muffled voice said into the table. "She's hurt."
"Ouch," Ike responded.
Tay lifted his head and looked up at his older brother. "Why am I this way?"
Ike couldn't hide his smile. "Like what?"
"Like...this. Like...like why do I do stupid shit like I did today. It wasn't that hard to listen to what she had to say. Instead I acted like a douche. I mean, who does that shit anyway?"
"I admit, you have a slight superiority complex, depending on who the person or what the position is," Ike said.
"Well how do I NOT have that? How do I not ruin meetings like this?"
"Trust and respect."
"What are you saying?"
"Zac and I trust and respect Mel. We know what she's capable of. Hell, you know what she's capable of, even more than Zac and I do. She's a good fit here and she's done some good things for the label already. She has a great business mind. We know it and you know it, too. Instead of fighting her for power, you need to maybe follow her lead and not assume you can just skate by here because you live together. You can learn from her. Separate work from home and you'll be just fine. All she wants is respect. That's all anyone wants."
"I'm an asshole, aren't I?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"Well at least you're honest."
"I aim to please."
"So what do I do now? She won't talk to me till we get home."
"That's smart of her. But I'm not in your relationship so I don't know if I can really help you there."
"Well what do you do when you and Nikki fight and you're the one who's the asshole?"
Ike laughed. "You were married for ten years. Why are you just now asking me for advice?"
"Because--I don't know, I feel like I've never been in a relationship before this. I can't explain it, it's weird. It's like, I thought I had all the answers but in reality, I don't have ANY answers. I'm afraid to lose her again."
"Now you're just over-analyzing. And maybe over-dramatizing again, too. Look, you want my advice? Nikki took her to Stems the other day to look at flowers for your wedding. She didn't pick anything out yet. Maybe it would be a good idea to go over there and get some flower ideas for your wedding and bring her a couple of
samples."
"You're setting me up for failure."
"I'm setting you up to get laid. Trust me."
"I don't do flowers."
"No, but you do Mel. Everything else will just fall into place."
Ike's words suddenly motivated Tay. Feeling optimistic, his spirits lifted a little. He sometimes forgot how grateful he was for his older brother and sometimes he didn't know what he would do without him. "Hey,
Ike. You wanna be my best man?"
Ike smiled. "You didn't wanna ask Zac again?"
"Nah. He had his turn already."
Ike laughed and nodded. "Of course I'll be your best man. I'd be honored."
Tay smiled at his brother. "Thanks, man."