The reality of time

DING!

[From: Grace

I know I told you that I like sunflowers, but I don't. I just said that so I'd know when you'd send me one. I'll consider it a late birthday gift—or perhaps an early one.

Thank you for the flowers. They're lovely. I appreciate them. Finally, something I can take home and put in that empty vase I got from someone last year.

P.S. You can dream of me tonight.

Xoxo,

Grace]

"..."

Haines stared at his phone, a thin layer of ice coating his eyes. His jaw tightened as he read the message, clearly oozing with mischief. Every word of it almost made his blood boil.

'I should've known…' he thought, mentally tallying another point in Grace's favor—she'd won this round again.

First, she had deceived him, making him endure an unbearably long drive just to face her direct romantic advances. Then, there were the invitations. And now, this.