He Loves Me Not

Rival florists. Spite bouquets. A Monster Romance enemies-to-lovers YOU'VE GOT MAIL in the Discord age
— this flower shop has everything.

Sumi is on top of the world.

Well, as on top as one can be after learning a relative one never met has died, leaving one a small fortune.

Deciding the unexpected windfall is a sign she needs to follow her dreams, quitting her job, moving to aspirational Cambric Creek and opening a flower shop is the obvious move. Definitely not just a midlife crisis. Applying for franchise ownership with a giant flower conglomerate seems like a piece of cake — they provide the equipment, the distribution contracts, and all she needs to do is front the money and live happily ever after.

There’s only one catch . . . she didn’t realize chasing after her dream might cause someone else to lose hold of their own.

Ranar never wanted to inherit the family business.

There’s an enormous pressure to keep his family business going — started by his grandfather, passed to his father, and now to him. Pressure as a non-human business, pressure as the grandson of an immigrant, pressure as the eldest son . . . but as it is, brick and mortar flower shops are a notion of a bygone era in this digital world.

When Bloomerang, an online flower conglomerate, opens one of their soulless flower factories in Cambric Creek, Ranar knows it’s only a matter of time before he’s forced to close the door on his family’s business for good. It doesn’t matter how pretty the sylvan owner is or how friendly she seems — she represents everything wrong in the industry, in his world. She’s bound to put him out of business eventually . . . but he can make her regret it first.

Sumi is positive there is room for two flower shops in Cambric Creek, if only the owner of The Perfect Petal wasn’t such a rude, condescending, infuriatingly handsome jerk. Despite being non-human herself, Cambric Creek is a learning curve she wasn’t anticipating, and she knows she has a lot to learn about multi-species living — starting with the conundrum of her naga rival’s junk, because where is it? She’d love to discover the mechanics, if only he wasn’t so terrible.

When she joins an online server for local business owners, discovering The Perfect Petal’s owner is chatting there as well, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to discover his weaknesses and take him down . . . if she doesn’t wind up falling for him first.

He Loves Me Not is a high heat standalone monster romance in the Cambric Creek universe. One does not need prior knowledge of the world to enjoy.