Even though I had no way of knowing that Mason, his name seemed to be, owned the same red sailboat that I saw on Lake Erie when I was selling my crochet at the craft fair at the lighthouse, I finally had a way of finding out. Maybe it was the main reason I was drawn to him, but he wasn't unattractive either. He seemed like he had better things to do than to focus on maintaining a perfectly well-kept appearance, but his natural confidence was much more interesting than a neatly styled haircut could ever be.

But if I found out he didn't shower regularly, that was going to be a deal breaker.

As I plopped down on the couch after work, there was more room to sit without several throw pillows I had made taking up space. The craft fair was certainly not a waste of time in multiple ways. But as I sunk down into the cushions to take a little bit of the stress of the evening off of my feet, Alex let out a high-pitched shriek of words that I couldn't understand, and I knew that I had walked into an argument.

What was the problem this time?

"MG, you're back. Would you please tell Alex that she has absolutely no taste?" Blake said and held up a harvest orange kitchen towel with pumpkin spice and everything nice embroidered on it.

"What's the issue with it? It's cute," I said. "Did you get it on Etsy?"

Alex nodded. "It was supposed to be a birthday present for you, but Blake found it and threw a fit because it's the most hideous thing he's ever seen."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, it's not for you, so what does it matter?"

"I cannot have my home looking like it was decorated by Joanna Gaines. Hell no," Blake said. "If she wanted to get you a stupid present like that, she probably should have gotten something that said it's not my fault—I'm a Scorpio or some shit. I would have been much more okay with that, and you know I know that astrology stuff is bullshit."

I had never once blamed my Scorpio tendencies on what was happening in the sky (even if it really wasn't my fault), but I let it go. "I'll keep it in my bathroom when it's finally my birthday. Happy?"

Blake paused for a moment and looked at Alex. She nodded.

"Yeah, that's fine," he said.

I smiled. "Good. Now if you all would shut up, I had a long day at work today, and I just want some peace and quiet."

Blake let out a quick breath. "A hard day of bringing people food and drinks, yes."

I raised my eyebrows. "What? It is hard work."

"Tell me that again when you get a real job," he said.

Before I could tell him that being on my feet for a whole shift was much more of a real job than sending emails for eight hours, he walked back down the hall and into his room, and he shut the door just a step below slamming it.

"I don't know what's wrong with him. Obviously, a birthday present that's over a month away is a huge deal, and you being tired after work like anyone is also very bold of you," Alex said.

"Whatever. He's just mad that I make more than him without a degree," I said.

Alex laughed. "Most likely, yes."

While Alex and I got to know Blake at two separate phases in his life—me in childhood, and her in college—when we put it all together, we had a pretty good understanding of him. At least we believed that we did. We hadn't been proven wrong yet.

I went back to the couch to sort through everything that I had collected into my purse during the day. Even though I was pretty sure it was against the rules, I always kept a few business-ish cards on me that made me look much more professional than I actually was for my craft shop to give to people who looked like they would be interested in my crochet. But what I was really looking for were my tips for the evening and that phone number.

When I looked up, Alex was gone. She always seemed to have something better to do than to talk to me about whatever was happening in my life, but for once, that was perfectly fine with me. This moment called for a little bit of privacy.

Mason. It was a nice name, and although I didn't know the person who owned it all that well, talking was the only way to remedy that.

Was it too soon? Probably. I couldn't come across as too eager or obsessive or crazy. That would most likely be a little too much Scorpio for him to handle right off the bat.

I frowned. Why did it have to be so complicated?

But seriously. Why did it have to be so complicated? Who made that rule?

Hi Mason! It's Marigold from The Lakeside Daisy. I saw that you left your number for me. And a nice tip. Thank you for that.

I stared at the message for a moment. It seemed friendly, but it also seemed a little simple. But how much pizazz was one supposed to have in an introductory text message?

I added a smiley emoji to up my game a little. Now my level two pizazz was fine for the time being.

If he didn't want to talk to me right away, he was more than welcome to ignore my text for as long as he liked. I didn't have time for games. I was way too busy with work, starting my own business, and babysitting my roommates.

And if I came across as too eager, that was his problem. Not mine.

***

What was I thinking? Now his lack of a response within an hour was my problem.

I looked up at my bedroom ceiling. Of course, there were a million reasons why he wouldn't respond right away, like maybe he was asleep, or driving, or on his sailboat, or dead, but those possibilities didn't make me feel any better.

Way to go, Marigold. You've Scorpio-ed another person away. And this one had a super aesthetic sailboat. Maybe. That fact was not quite confirmed yet.

I had a few orders that I had to ship out to customers within a few days, so instead of letting sleep distract me for a few measly hours, I decided that would be a much more productive way to waste time.

When I first decided to pick up a crochet hook and some scratchy cheap yarn, my grandmother was the one who gave me every book she had to teach me how to crochet, since her carpal tunnel left her unable to craft anymore. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was just going to let the nice people of YouTube teach me. It had been a while since I had seen her, and there really was no excuse since the Reynolds family stuck around Marblehead. How else would we coordinate trips to Cedar Point every month in the summer and fall?

Besides my adult relatives and a few distant cousins, I didn't have many family kids to play with as a kid. It made picking up the skills my grandma called arts lost on an entire generation much easier. And although I had grown up with Blake, he was never impressed by the lakeside town we called our home. I didn't think he would ever come back when he left for college, but he returned with a new friend named Alex, so he couldn't have hated the area too much.

What was there to hate anyway? We had everything anyone could need and with all the charm of a small town with an ocean (or Great Lake) view.

Just as I put a shipping label on a package that would be sent all the way across the country to California, my phone lit up and dinged with a text message.

Mason? At midnight? He most certainly had the purest of intentions.

But that didn't matter, and I read the reply anyway. I'm glad you got it. How's it going?

I smiled. What could I say? The stars were aligning for me, and we were still in Virgo season.

-------------------------------------------

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good week (and I'm sorry this is a little later in the week than usual!), and thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate your support.

So for today's question, what is a habit that you have that other people find annoying?

Mine is that I love to leave stuff in my line of eyesight. I like to keep cabinets open, stuff on counters, notifications constantly on, and stuff like that. I need to be able to see everything I could possibly need, or else I'll forget that it exists. I don't know why things that I can't see just disappear from my brain forever. But on the bright side, sometimes I get pleasantly surprised when I find things that I should definitely remember that I have!