Worth the Wait(58)

I looked down at the bundle in my hand and shrugged. “I dunno. What the hell is a stargazer lily?”

“Shit.” Sneeze. “I can’t be…” sneeze… “around stargazer…” sneeze… “lilies. They make my…” sneeze… “allergies act up…” sneeze.

Son of a bitch. “Beauty, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Her eyes began to water, making black shit run down her face. “It’s okay…” sneeze. “Can you just…” sneeze… “take them…” sneeze… “out of here?” sneeze.

“Shit. Yeah,” I rushed out, heading for the backdoor. I threw it open and hurled the bouquet into the backyard like a football without a second thought. What a waste. I’d spent two hundred bucks on fuckin’ flowers that almost made my girlfriend sneeze herself to death.

“I’b jus gonna…” she started, beginning to sound like she had toilet paper shoved up her nose. “…take an antihistamine and fix my makeub.”

Fuck me sideways. The night was already going down the shitter and the date hadn’t even officially started yet.

The evening only got worse from there. I’d made reservations at a fancy restaurant about thirty minutes outside of town. It was the most expensive Italian place I could find within a fifty-mile radius of Cloverleaf, and everyone on Yelp said it was the shit. I was certain the place was a winner.

“You sure you don’t want to just go home?” It was the third time I’d asked her that since leaving the house. We’d just been seated at our table. The lighting in the restaurant was dim, the glow of the candles on the tables made everything seem more romantic. But I was still able to make out her red nose and puffy, watery eyes perfectly. She looked miserable.

“I told you. I’b fine,” she mumbled, trying her best to give me a sincere smile, which couldn’t have been easy considering she had to breathe through her mouth. “Let’s just order and enjoy ourselves. This place is so nice. Look,” she said, pointing to the menu excitedly. “Eberythings in Italian.”

I loved seeing her face light up like that, even if it was still slightly swollen.

The waiter came over with our drinks and took our order. We spent the time waiting on our meals talking quietly about where we saw our relationship heading. It was amazing. If I’d have been asked to draw up the perfect woman for myself, I never would have come close to all that was Kenzie. It was as if she had been born just for me.

Our food arrived and we both immediately dug in. The next minute or so was filled with nothing but moans over how fantastic everything tasted.

Yeah, Yelp knew its shit. The restaurant was phenomenal.

“Oh, baby,” I groaned as I took another bite. “You have to taste this. It’s so damn good.” Spearing a piece with my fork, I lifted it to her mouth for her to try.

“Mmm, that is good,” she said around the bite. “What is that?” she asked once she finished chewing, having savored the bite for as long as she could before swallowing.

“Lobster ravioli. Excellent, right?”

I’d already taken another bite before I noticed her face had turned an unhealthy pale color and a weird wheezing sound was emitting from her chest.

“Lobster?” she croaked. She started trying to suck in deep breaths, but seemed to be having trouble.

“What’s happening? What’s going on?” I rushed out when she grabbed her purse and began to dig around frantically.

“Allergic to shellfish,” she wheezed.

The white of her face quickly morphed into an angry purple-ish color. This was not good. Not good!

“EpiPen,” she choked out, still digging in her purse.

“Shit! Fuck!” I jumped from my chair so quickly it went flying into the table behind me, but I didn’t give a damn. I was on her side of the table in a flash, jerking the purse from her grasp and upending it onto the table, sending the contents scattering.

“Found it!” I shouted triumphantly, holding the pen up in the air like a goddamned trophy.

“In…” wheeze… “my…” wheeze… “thigh.”

“Shit, right!”

Popping the top off, I quickly stabbed the needle in Kenzie thigh and depressed the button, praying that she’d soon start to breathe normally again. That blue-ish color her face was turning couldn’t have been a good sign.

After a few seconds, she relaxed back in her chair and sucked in a deep breath.

Thank baby Jesus.

The waiter came scurrying over in a panic. “Is everything all right?”