A/N: I hope to finish this up with maybe another chapter or two. Hopefully my muse cooperates, too. Thanks as always for the endless support.


"I screwed it up," I said with a sad sigh.

"What?" Mary Lou asked, looking confused. And I couldn't blame her. One moment we were talking about her kids and the upcoming plans for the long weekend, the next I blurt out something totally out of context. "What are you talking about?"

"Carlos," I just said, naming the one thing that has taken up residency in my head for the past week. Well, technically he had been living there rent-free for longer, but in the past week his existence only increased. Maybe because he still hadn't made a move and hadn't called, making me wonder whether it had been in fact too much drama-despite what he had claimed that night.

"Still no word?" she just asked with a sympathy that honestly killed me. The fact that my best friend knew right away what I was talking about as well as how I was mostly feeling told you everything you needed to know.

"Maybe it's time to move forward and forget about everything. I mean... that night was a lot. I can't blame him. Not sure how I would feel if I had a date with him and out of the blue an ex of his shows up and stirs up drama."

"First of all, you make it sound if there was ever any future between you and Morelli. It isn't like he stormed the castle and declared his undying love, or vowed to win you back or stuff like that. He just was an asshat like so often. Carlos can't expect that there isn't some sort of baggage in your past. I mean, almost everyone has at least one stupid ex that comes up every once in a while. Compared to other stories you hear or read about, Morelli showing up at your date was rather tame. If he hadn't shown up that night, chances are you and Carlos would have run into him during a later date at one of the few restaurants."

Mary Lou had a point. Of course she had. She was my best friend for a reason. But just because she was right didn't make this any less sucky. While I definitely wasn't in love or anywhere close to falling after only a date and a few text exchanges, it still sucked majorly that things obviously ended before they had a chance to start.

"Also," Mary Lou went on after a second of thought. "If Carlos scares away that easily, he is maybe not the right guy for you after all. Think about the Burg and how rumors and gossip keep that place alive. Not a day goes by without someone having supposedly an affair or hooking up with someone new. Of course, most of it is just made up and bogus, but it takes quite some strong character to put up with it. You and me are used to it since birth, but I can imagine if you are not used to it, this isn't easy to handle. And half the burg wants to see you get back with Morelli because he is one of them. It would be thrown in your face and around you all the time and if Carlos has issues now with just him showing up at your place, imagine how hard of a time he would have been confronted by it day in, day out. Especially with your mother heading the Morelli fan club."

"Are you actually trying to spin this into something positive and see the good in my misery?" I asked, not even sure why I was so miserable. It had been one date. I have had plenty of first dates and never felt like this before. Also, quite amusing, seeing how we started out and I so not wanting to actually go to that cover shot or only reluctantly agreed to dinner.

"I don't," she sputtered, seeming outraged. "I just state facts."

"Based on what?" I asked, amused, and saw her smile as well.

"Knowledge and the past," she replied mysteriously. "But honestly," Mary Lou went on, serious a moment later. "Are you okay? I can imagine it must suck, but if this little display of drama already was too much for him, he was never the right guy to start with."

Grabbing my hand, she patted it sympathetically, looking at me with concerned eyes. "Maybe the fantasy is much better than reality in this case."

I laughed loudly at her comment, shaking my head. "Isn't it always? Maybe I should stick to book-boyfriends from now on," I remarked, realizing how my statement sounded. "Not that Carlos was anything close to a boyfriend," I rushed my clarification in a moment later. "But…when you look at all my past men, they all were far, far away from what romance novels like to describe as normal. Maybe book-boyfriends are a safer bet."

"Is this you, swearing of men?" Mary Lou wondered, and I thought about her question for a moment before nodding.

"I wouldn't say I swear of them, just… maybe I should stop letting people push me into relationships, dates and meetups. I honestly believe that apart from you and Connie, every woman in my life that has the ideal guy has very different ideas what is considered ideal and their ideas usually strayed far, far away from my idea."

"I think that is only fair," Mary Lou agreed, knowing full well what I was getting at. She and I had been Burg girls through and through and therefore went usually through the same things when it came to people, expectations and gossip.

Little did I know that my new idea of staying away from men for a while would only last about until the end of the day when I came home to a huge flower bouquet that was waiting for me at my door.

It was a wild mix of possibly every flower the shop might have had, arranged in a beautiful bunch that weighed most likely as much as I did. Or maybe slightly less, but not much.

I heaved the flowers onto my kitchen counter, admiring the beauty of them, and went looking for a card. After a good minute of looking and parting flowers, I finally got lucky and fished the cardboard out of its confinement between several lilies.

Say yes to lunch? C

Since I really only knew a handful of people whose name started with C and most of them wouldn't raid a flower shop for me, I was almost certain this was Carlos, which made me smile like a lunatic. Maybe he hadn't quite forgotten about me. But why hadn't he contacted me at one point days earlier? And why this huge arrangement of flowers? Surely a message or a call would have been much more efficient and also quicker.

I pulled my phone out of my bag and dialed his number, figuring texting back and forth would once again waste even more time. Not that we were in any kind of rush, but well.

After a ring or two, I heard an automated message stating that the number I had called was no longer available. What? I called again, assuming it was probably just a mistake, but got the same message. Only then did I look at the card again in wonder whether this was not Carlos, but also questioning why the number I had for him was no longer available. I realized that the card had a number on the bottom. A number which looked like a phone number. And now I was officially confused but decide on dialing the ominous number, anyway.

Two rings after I had dialed, I heard his very smooth voice through the line.

"This is Steph," I replied to his answering the phone and heard him groan.

"Thank god," he said relieved. "I started to really lose my mind."

"What's going on?"

"Long story short, I managed to lose my phone with all my contacts and everything and while that isn't as tragic in regard to work, it is when you want to reach a really outstanding date you've been recently on and can't find a way. You have no idea what I tried in order to somehow get a clue of how to contact you."

"You lost your phone?" I asked and heard him laugh.

"That's all you heard?"

"That's all I needed to hear," I answered honestly. Because it all made so much sense now. It would be hard to call or text me for a follow-up when my number was buried deep down in your phone and said the phone was gone all of a sudden.

"Please tell me you didn't think I decided on calling it quits before we even got to the parts that are most interesting."

"I… well…. I mean, you need to admit the night had been rather dramatic and not everyone can deal with such drama right from the start. So, I figured you might have thought about that date and figured that maybe it was a little too much and you lost interest."

"You call that little episode drama? While it is maybe a little unorthodox, it is nothing compared to some drama I am subjected to in my job. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about," he urged me, making me feel all of a sudden way better.

"Good to know," I laughed, glad this really was taken care of. I was certain at one point or another it would reemerge, because Morelli was just that kind of guy to never quite vanish out of your life, but was somehow less worried now. "So… what did you do to find me?"

I heard him laugh for a long while before he answered. "I tried several angles, some of them leading me to a few friends I have in the force, but it all didn't help a lot without your whole name. I wasn't aware there were a lot of Stephanie's in Trenton. So I tried my luck with Mary Lou's, hoping that this would prove to be more productive. It didn't. I remembered you telling me on one of your messages that you liked to stop at Tasty Pastry often enough for a sugar fix, so I more or less started camping at that store, but you never showed and at one point I think the shop girls became a little nervous with me being there all the time. I guess I could have asked any of them if they knew you, but figured that makes me seem only creepier. I was about to give up when I realized I could make my agent get in tough with the company that ran the competition for the cover shot and maybe get details through them with some flimsy white lie. Turns out, I should have started with them right from the start, but I didn't actually think about that angle until the very end. And when I finally had your details, I assumed calling out of the blue after almost a week seemed odd."

"So, you bought me a whole flower shop instead?" I asked, amused and looking at the aforementioned flowers. They really were gorgeous.

"Well, since I didn't know which ones were your favorite, I figured I just buy a few of each one they had. Better safe than sorry."

"You could have gone with the classic of roses," I suggested, still finding his idea of just buying each flower they had the cutest. Of course, I wouldn't tell him anything with regard to cute, since somehow the words cute and Carlos Manoso seemed so dissimilar. There were definitely way better words to describe the man.

"It's maybe a classic, but also so common and average. You deserve better than just average or a classic."

I smiled to myself at his statement. He seemed so convinced and like it would go against each of his principles to deliver anything less than outstanding or special.

"Thank you," I simply said, not sure what to say other than that. He had a way with words that left me a little uneasy in some ways. Not bad, just overwhelmed. But maybe that was just because I wasn't used to any of it. While we definitely hadn't spent a lot of time with each other, the few hours that we enjoyed each other's company, he seemed to have always gone a little out of his way to not just impress me but go a bit further.

"Can I take your call as a yes to lunch? Or even dinner, if you prefer that to lunch?" he eventually asked after I had probably been stuck in my own head for a good while.

"Yes," I stated, without even thinking about it. "But let's agree on dinner. That way, there is no rush for either of us to be someplace afterwards and we are not as much on a time limit as with lunch."

After he agreed and we debated possible days for our second date, he wanted to be the one to plan the night once more. Seeing as our first date hadn't been too shabby-though a little unconventional-I didn't see why not and let him go crazy.

"By the way, it's Peonies," I said when he already had bid his farewell and I wasn't even sure he was still on the line.

"What is?" he asked, seeming a little confused about my information.

"My favorite flowers. It's Peonies. I figure that way you won't need to buy the whole flower shop again."

"You make it sound as if it was a hardship the first time around," he just said and I laughed. It seemed there were very few things that could phase him.

A second after we hung up eventually, I was on the phone again, calling Mary Lou to update her about this sudden turn of events.

Being my best friend, she first squealed for a slid minute, ignoring the whole 'Stay of Men' for the entire conversation, and went on to laugh. "So maybe instead of book-boyfriend you should aim for a boyfriend who's on the covers of books and make all these fantasy book-boyfriends look like losers."

Maybe I really should.