Ryder

thirty

Alice's POV

It was snowing.

And Gem seemed to be hating the mere prospect of it judging from the way she kept looking over to one of the lounge windows and growling at the snowflakes tumbling down from the pretty sky outside.

I picked up one of the many sunflowers lying on the marble counter in front of me, and caressed a yellow curled petal, before pointing it towards the only black kitten within my vicinity.

"Gem," I said, "you know Ryder's gonna be pissed if he finds you scratching his windows."

My baby cat didn't give me much of a response apart from one of those insistent tiny growls. They weren't scary. They were adorable.

Pushing my hair back behind my ears, I picked up the dark ceramic vase I'd found lying all alone on one of the sleek side tables. It had looked sad and empty and I'd thought the sunflowers would look so pretty in it. Though I knew I should've asked Ryder first before snooping around. It was just that I didn't know where he was, didn't know where he'd gone when he'd left the balcony to answer that phone call, and I wasn't exactly...well, I was trying to distract my mind from what had happened upstairs.

Ryder had received a phone call and I hadn't seen him since. And it was snowing. The penthouse looked so empty and lonely and it was snowing outside.

I gingerly placed the first sunflower inside the water-filled vase. It looked pretty already but also still lonely, so I added a few more flowers until they bloomed together beautifully. It was surreal, still so startling to see them in front of me--to remember that all of them were for me. Me? I'd never had...

I just never had any of this before.

I'd seen it happen. I wasn't stupid and I knew it happened a lot. Flowers being given to my friends and classmates all around me. It used to happen a lot back in high school when I was on the cheerleading team. Boys used to come by all the time, stop by the hallways, and give their girlfriends every variation of a gift starting from a flower to a sweetheart box of chocolates.

I'd seen it happen a lot. But never to me. I was the new girl there back in my senior year of high school and even though being on the cheerleading team got me invited to most of the popular parties, I was always mostly just the one tagging along the sidelines.

Always a friend. Who had casual hookups a lot of the time, never a permanent boyfriend, and who liked getting wasted occasionally. But that was it.

Besides, what Ryder and I had--whatever this was--it wasn't like any of that. He bought flowers for me because he found it hard to say sorry. It was endearing. Sad. It was fine.

Sighing, I stepped away from the sunflowers and the vase, and picked up the mug of peppermint tea that still sat near the barstool, the one Rafael had made for me and the one that had gone cold now. I took a tiny sip and grimaced at the cool taste, apologetic as I went over and drained it in the sink.

And then I washed the mug. Once, twice, and probably would've done it a third time too because my hands were itching to do something, make something all right, fix something. I don't know why I felt the way I did but it was a strange, heady feeling.

Gem mewled and I was startled at the sudden voice behind me, "What are you doing?"

I nearly lost hold of the mug as I turned around, my thoughts stuttering to a halt when I saw Ryder standing a few steps past the kitchen entrance, looking blank and then confused as his gaze darted from the dripping mug in my hands and then the ceramic vase on the marble counter which was now filled with sunflowers.