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Akito had a schedule.
Every Monday, he would open shop (because An was the daughter of the owner and always lucked out with not having shifts to open it) but he never minded that. It was nice really because the early Monday mornings where chilly and interesting. He woke up early to begin with, jogging around the area at four in the morning so what was the huge difference? Besides the Monday morning regulars were always a delight. Touya was an interesting guy, he had a small soft smile and was soft spoken around Akito. Engaging in conversation easily. Sometimes, he was joined by Rui who talked Akito’s ear off about flowers and the proper handling of them, always wasting his time as he grew impatient and antsy.
He always managed to rush them out the store, trimmed bouquets in hand as he heard the sound of a motorbike pull up. The engine revving and humming loudly before the black thing parked up on the road outside of the shop and was silenced, the girl getting off of it.
She was pretty. Always had been even if Akito stared at her openly when she walked in the first time. She was demure, soft spoken to be quite frank with large hazel eyes and short cropped mousy blonde hair that clung to her face and came down to her chin. In fact, her fringe practically covered her eyes as she walked around the shop, helmet in hand and lost in the view of the flowers.
They spoke for a little, he told some joke he thought, she laughed and purchased a premade bouquet. He invited her back to buy something else, something hand made for more money. She startled for the moment, hesitant and unsure before shaking her head and shrugging. Teasing him. Practically edging him for her response, dragging him to the edge of a cliff, teetering on the edge eagerly anticipating her return, perking up like a lost dog it made an sick.
But then, she turned up around the same time as the week after on the Monday. She lingered in line, and they spoke again and from then on a routine had been formed as he worked on her custom flowers. Not that roses were hard or anything, but he took as long as he could without it being suspicious engaging in conversation with Kohane as easily as breathing. Talking anything from the literal weather to their lives.
It never went past anything vaguely friendly and platonic, but Akito knew he wanted it to each time their hands grazed one another whilst he handed over the pastel bouquets. They would snap their gazes to one another and then Akito would feel twitchy and shy mumbling something incoherent about ‘Make sure you give them proper care.’ Kohane would giggle and smirk and humming slightly as she took them, questioning how often she needed to water them before shaking her head and leaving. Never giving him a response, but through the window, he would watch her secure them tightly, wave to him and grin before leaving.
And it rarely ever deviated from that.
Except, life never really planned on being consistent. Akito had just, for once in his long life, lucked out with everything being consistent in regard to Kohane and his feelings in general. And once you get comfortable, life was a petty mother fucker and gave you a huge ‘fuck you.’
#
Akito waited impatiently on Monday morning, very impatiently. He was used to seeing Kohane, getting to admire her face and find more ways to express his love. He was antsy, taking up a pencil and sketching whatever he could to get the nerves and anxiety out of his system. Drawing whatever he wanted to.
He glanced up as the doorbell went and in walked Kohane, but there was something on her mind. Plaguing her.
“Mornin’,” he offered her, and she returned with a small smile. He slid the piece of paper out of sight, having realised he was idly sketching her.
“Good morning Shinonome,” she returned easily. It was a part of their mini routine as she shook her hair out from the way it was pressed into her helmet.
He stared at her for a moment longer than accepted in society. She looked at him for doing so before smirking to herself, almost arrogantly with her smugness of catching him staring.
Whatever was on her mind seemed to slip away for the moment and Akito was glad to give her a moment of peace and solace. Of course, because life was cyclical and so was a human’s brain, it appeared in her mind, and she frowned.
“What’s on your mind today, Kohane?” he asked seriously, dropping his persona and attitude to stare at her. To look at her in concern because he was concerned for her.
“Nothing,” she insisted, playing with the sleeves of her leather jacket.
He hummed, unconvinced, thoroughly unconvinced. She knew that from how she laughed awkwardly and uncomfortably. Akito couldn’t press her for it, their relationship existed in this weird space, this strange nexus that made it hard to breathe sometimes. This confusing thing that made An snort as she cut and trimmed the leaves of flowers in the afternoon, and he evaded the morning conversation. This situationship where neither one of them took the initiative too afraid and caring for the others but they would have to make a move. One day.
“So, how was your week?” he asked her as he turned around. If she cared for the flowers in the bouquet, she would’ve alerted him to the fact. By now, it was evident that she merely wanted flowers or to see him.
(Selfishly, he hoped it was the latter.)
“The usual. Your life never changes much when you’re me. You just... adapt,” Kohane murmured. “There’s only so much you can do with a bike.”
“You could just leave the bike. Unless its magically attached to your legs and you have to travel everywhere with it.”
She laughed softly, it was the most precious thing that Akito had ever heard or imagined before. “It’s something magical. I only get a certain time limit to not be on the thing before I lose control of it and can never ride it again.”
“That would be such a shame, wouldn’t it? I’m glad you spend your time with me though. Your very limited time,” Akito grinned at her as he went to arrange the flowers. She flushed and opened her mouth before snapping it shut, unable to have a proper retort to him.
He laughed almost cruelly at the fact, but she didn’t seem to mind really. She didn’t mind at all actually whilst he stared at her happily.
“One bouquet of white chrysanthemums for you,” he smiled at her, and she frowned.
“Mourning flowers? Seriously?”
“That’s not all they mean, that’s what they are often reserved for here, but they mean much more than that. I hope you learn that one day.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Well, they look as good as ever. You always try your best for me Shinonome. I never know how to repay you.”
“How about you research the other meaning of them? And I see you again, next week.”
“You- you always see me…”
“I just wanted to guarantee I would see you again,” he shrugged, taking her money and placing it into the machine or whatever.
“You… I’ll see you then,” she relented, grinning at the bouquet and smelling the flowers. There was a fond smile on her lips and it warmed Akito’s heart momentarily.
She reached the door before she became bashful and looked at him. “How many times a day do I need to water and take care of them?”
“You got that far without asking me?”
“I’m thinking!” she protested softly.
He laughed at her and shook his head before she closed the gap and looked at him expectantly. “So, first you must-“ he instructed on and on and she nodded her head diligently. Listening to each and every word that he said.
She left after that, properly left and he would live the rest of the week bored out of his mind and waiting for her to return the following Monday. Waiting for her to know the meaning of the flowers and hopefully, just maybe, she would confess.
And if she didn’t confess, that he had just closed the gap between them a little more that she would speak to him openly. That she would be honest and true with him.
#
She returned the next Monday with a different air about her and a knowing gaze as he finished up with another patron, someone who had seen An grow up and gave him plenty of blackmail on her. He smiled over at Kohane when she waited at the counter.
“So, honesty?”
“You got that all in one.”
“You want me to be honest?”
“You looked troubled the other day,” Akito returned easily.
“I was just… distracted.”
“Are you distracted enough to be unable to choose a flower?”
He wiped his hands on his apron, and she bit her tongue in thought, the end of it poking through her lips as she thought before she opted to laugh instead.
“You choose. You have good choices.”
“I have choices with meaning,” Akito scoffed.
“And maybe I… I want to learn the meanings for when I take pictures.”
“You take pictures?”
“Photography is how I mainly get a pay check. Did you- did you think the bike just apparated in from the middle of nowhere and landed on my doorstep? I have to make a living, Shinonome.”
“I thought you worked but I didn’t think you did photography. Is it a company thing or freelance?”
“Company thing, I’m the owner of a business and Mondays are my days off.”
He grinned to himself. “So, I can count on seeing you here more often, right?”
“All the time. I do my errands and well, this is one of them.”
“You should show me some of your work next time,” Akito suggested on the whim, his back turned so he could school his features as he took the flowers carefully and placed them in the wax paper.
“I- I mean, there’s- there’s an exhibition opening up. Like a come around and see my work thing. You could- could visit if you have time,” she stammered. For someone who seemed so cool with the motorbike, she was really shy and bashful when alone and you actually had time to converse with her.
Not that Akito was complaining, it was sweet and cute honestly. It made their friendship, or whatever they were, interesting he supposed. That she would seem so confident but the minute you talked to her more you realised your original perception of her was false.
The same could be said for him though he kept him more ‘nice guy’ persona on display for her because it was hard to drop the persona in customer service and if he seemed like the ‘grumpy old guy’ he was, (An’s words, not his) then they would get little to no customers.
He felt bad about lying to her but if they became closer then maybe… one day maybe…
“When is it?”
“Saturday evening.”
He frowned and looked at the bouquet, taking out half of the flowers and navigating other flowers. “I can’t make it. I’ll be doing something with some friends.” He twirled the purple and blue hydrangeas in his hand as he looked at them to make sure the flowers and petals were in the best shape for her before he continued arranging the bouquet.
He frowned in thought and Kohane didn’t laugh, unlike a certain someone, and looked at him in interest as he worked on the bouquet. Taking more leaves to make it greener and fuller and lush. To make it seem alive like a sprawling garden which was contained in an orange wax paper for her though… the orange looked wrong. He sighed before taking a bright pink version and wrapping it around the stems. Smiling back at her.
“Oh. What are you to do?” she tried to sound interested and happy, but she couldn’t keep the disappointment in her visage from seeping into her voice and tainting it. She couldn’t help but be upset and so was Akito admittedly.
They were making progress in blurring those lines and here he was, insisting on reversing the fact.
“Karaoke. An and her friends want to go and sing, and I got dragged along because ‘I’m lonely and friendless.’”
“You? Lonely and friendless?”
“Hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“I can see it actually. But you aren’t lonely and friendless you… never mind.”
“Tell me, please,” Akito implored, looking at her intensely.
“Are we- are we not friends? Do you not consider us friends?” She asked easily, softly and hesitantly.
“I think we can be friends if you want us to be friends,” he shrugged easily, handing her the bouquet.
She tipped her head back and laughed. “So, do I have to do any research this time, again?”
“Do you not like it?”
“I love it. Your mind works in interesting ways, Shinonome.” He stared at her blankly at that and he shook his head in amusement. Snorting to himself.
“You’re quite entertaining, Kohane.”
“I should hope so, you’ve known me for a long time as a patron.”
“I have. There are handwritten instructions of how to care for them in there,” he continued almost sheepishly. He didn’t have the worlds neatest handwriting.
She looked at him lazily with an adorable grin and caressed the petals of the flowers carefully and cautiously. “Thank you. I’ll see you next week. Have fun at karaoke.”
“I’ll see you next week. Oh, and Kohane, you’ve got this. I want a total rundown on Monday.”
She glanced back at him over her should for a moment and waved at him. Nodding to herself easily before she sat on the motorbike, securing the flowers preciously and precariously before going off somewhere. Zooming away on her bike, her leather jacket stuck to her arms as she revved up the engine and disappeared.
She would come again another day.
#
Next Monday rolled around like clockwork and he was still suffering with a sore throat and a raging headache that kept pounding in his mind. He thought himself above karaoke but once the music began, he was lost in it. He was singing along obnoxiously and loudly; he was doing duets with An and Rui and whoever else was there and alcohol was in the mix so most of it was a blur. The whole day after was one too.
Sunday faded away into nothingness and was no longer at the forefront of his memory, he didn’t even imagine sleeping or dreaming either. He simply was there and partied and Sunday disappeared and now it was Monday, and he was half asleep. Literally, cradling a cup of coffee and holding onto it like a literal lifeline, the coffee under his nose and near his mouth as he watched everyone in there milling around and the likes. They would look like they wanted to ask him something, but he looked so dead to them all that they backed away and second-guessed it, only speaking to him if necessary.
He grumbled again lowly when the doorbell chimed in the flower shop and someone entered, a cold breeze seeping in. Something that irritated him in just that moment because he couldn’t force the fake smile on his face much longer as he wanted to drink his coffee, wait until An wandered in because she always bounced back after getting hung over and had even greeted him with a happy text message the morning after. She knew that he was… to put it nicely, irritable and moody when suffering from a hangover for more than one day and was somehow worse the days after the first day and had offered to take place in the afternoon and yet…
“Sh-Shinonome?” Kohane called out reaching the counter and he opened his eyes immediately before hissing from the sunlight through the window. Kohane frowned and stepped into the sunlight, but she was too short to do much to alleviate his pain, but the thought warmed his heart.
“Mornin’.”
“You seem like you got hit by a bus, maybe a train,” Kohane suggested. “Are you okay? Should you even be working? Should I have to go-“
“You don’t I’m just hung over from Saturday. ‘Sides, I promised you that I’d see pictures of the event because I couldn’t be there.”
“You shouldn’t have to when you’re-“
“Mondays are your free days, and this is one of your errands. It’s no problem,” he insisted, smiling tensely at her, wincing at the sunlight in his eyes. “So, tell me all about it. Do you have any flowers that meet your fancy?”
“I’m leaving it up for you to choose. I’m leaving it up for you from now on, you have good choices with meaning, and I want to learn more about you. Thank you for wishing me the good luck, it made the night smoother and eased my nerves. Oh my God, it was spectacular, I wished you were there,” Kohane pouted and the whole store fell into silence as the other patrons who lingered looked over at the two of them in their own world.
There were probably rumours about softening the beast that was him, but nothing was said aloud he supposed as they merely watched. Content with eavesdropping and casting their gaze at the two of them as they engaged in pleasantries and words that flipped and flopped. Words that were glazed in something that was unacceptable of a patron and a staff member, but they didn’t care.
Some of them were probably shocked because a couple of the women had flirted with him a time or two. When he asked An about it afterwards or she walked in midway to his flustered face, his jaw slack from the sheer audacity of the people who flirted with him because it was not only women who remarked how handsome he was. And he didn’t mind everyone finding him attractive it was just strange for people to be so brazen and open and then get upset when he rejected them, rightfully so.
He wasn’t really a people person, he could be. He had many connections and people he considered friends but there was something that made him and the whole situation feel off sometimes and he had to set clear boundaries in his head and in his day-to-day life. There was nothing wrong with that and yet, he always felt like the bad guy for doing so he supposed. It was his lying face and mask that he wore so naturally that it blended in with his actual personality and sometimes he failed to knock it down so the people who asked him out must’ve been alarmed by his ‘uncharacteristic’ actions as though that wasn’t always him and who he was meant to be.
This whole thing was strange and him openly reciprocating Kohane made it stranger he supposed. But he was happy this way and liked it as such, so there was no point in complaining. That was, at least, his logic he supposed.
“I wish I was there too. I probably wouldn’t have this hangover,” he joked with her, putting her at ease though he felt his own nerves growing admittedly.
“You might’ve, we had this really fancy champagne courtesy of my dad.”
“How fancy?”
“Like I can’t even imagine the price without feeling guilty. But it was nice, and the buzz was a nice feeling when greeting so many people. I’m shocked I made it through the whole night without making a fool of myself.”
“You? Make a fool of yourself?”
“I don’t know if you could tell it, Shinonome, I’m pretty bad with people.”
“And yet, you ride a motorbike. I thought that that would be the talk of the party and an excellent conversation starter. It makes you look so cool.”
“You know the whole thing with perception. It isn’t reality. You learn that often being a photographer and the other evening solidified that,” she admitted, and it was the bravest that she had been. “I don’t think I was right in being so anxious and terrified over it, but I wasn’t wrong for it at the same time. Though it must’ve been obvious if you were worried for me and gave me flowers about honesty and truth.”
“I’ve known you for long enough to notice small changes in your appearance,” he answered vaguely.
“It’s because we are friends. Right?”
“You said that we were last week, are you changing your mind so soon?”
“No! I mean, no, not at all but… ah it’s strange, isn’t it?”
“Not particularly. I mean, Mizuki has spent their whole life working in a café to flirt with my sister over the counter and it worked out for them. Not that I am flirting with you.”
“R-right. That’s totally not what’s happening,” Kohane agreed readily the two of them falling into awkward silence. She fiddled with her phone for the moment. Before she had made her mind up and it landed on the counter. “There’s uhm a few pictures if you want-“
“You don’t have to be so shy. I asked to see ‘em.”
“I know that but… it’s scary I suppose. I don’t want to impose or assume.”
“You are not imposing nor assuming,” Akito reassured her. He took the phone in one hand as he crafted a bouquet of gerberas. There was nothing too interesting in their lives for it to be so super specific and really hold a weight, but their relationship was a mystery and a riddle in its own right he supposed and that was how she most probably interpreted it if he had to go out on a limb there.
That was if he was assuming something, and he was probably wrong in his assumption but sometimes you had to have faith even if he didn’t believe in that.
“It looks gorgeous. And- wow,” he breathed out, utterly speechless and flawed at Kohane and the way she looked in the pictures.
In a way, some people would say she was unrecognisable, but she was still Kohane under all the lights and everything else. She wasn’t in her signature leather which he missed so used to her flexing her hands and the crack of the leather against her fingers and knuckles. Her hair was out behind her and had some clear extensions sewn in or clipped in, that he was unsure of, and it was curled beautifully that she looked almost like a princess in the black gown which was much like her. People would assume that she would gravitate to the light, and she did, but Akito thought that she didn’t want to show people that because they would think things about her, and she didn’t want that.
The black made her look so mature and matched the vibes of her photography office if the regal-esque background in the pictures were any indication. However, there were aspects of Kohane in there. The more modest side to her that was present in how even though it was all ornate there was an air of sleekness to it. There was an air of it not being over the top and over down and that it was all ordered and orchestrated. That each item had a place. It felt… minimalist in a way. Akito wasn’t the best with the style of housing and more, but that was the best thing that he could conjure when he had to find a word or two to explain what he was looking at all around.
Though he really didn’t pay much attention to the background, and it only seemed so simple because he kept looking at her in one photo where she was caught mid laugh. Where her hand was over her mouth, but it failed to cover her smile. It failed to hide how she looked behind the hand and the way her eyes closed up entirely. Her nose so scrunched it was almost like it wasn’t there and the way her hair cascaded in waves down her back.
She was truly a goddess walking among them even if he wasn’t religious or the closest thing to religious. But for her, there was a chance that he would believe in some higher power.
“You look really good.”
The whole world stopped spinning for the moment after he said that and the two of them looked at one another intensely. The two of them were the only ones left in the whole wide world and they were silent as they gazed at one another with some sort of fondness that spoke louder than words could in the silence.
Kohane looked away first and back at the table, Akito passing the phone to her, and their hands felt like electricity as they brushed past one another.
She tucked it away and into her back pocket as she twirled her card around in boredom waiting for him to approach her with flowers. With the gerberas and dahlias, grinning at her whilst she paid and they talked together for the moment, not much longer, but a little longer and she disappeared again.
The whole store seemed to freeze in place once she went and it returned to the miserable and gloomy way it was but deep inside a fire burnt inside Akito because fuck, did he love that woman.
#
It was a Thursday the next time that Kohane entered the shop. It was a deviation from the schedule and Akito wasn’t prepared for it, though neither was she with the way she had walked to the shop, and something clung to her shoulders. The way something had burdened her, An thought as she watched her enter warily and what already looked depressed somehow grew worse.
It was like there were already thick grey clouds in the sky, but they had only grown darker and thicker. Clustering together just that little bit more closer that it felt like a storm was brewing and coming over head but she wasn’t a particularly scary person An thought. She seemed like a normal young woman and yet.
“Welcome,” An smiled at her when she began to retreat back to the outside. “Is this your first time?”
“N-no. Is- is Shinonome here? Ah, never mind,” she brushed aside, lingering at the door and bracing herself for the metaphorical storm. “I need to go I just wanted to ask about these plants I got last time but.”
“What did you get last time?”
“It’s nothing,” she blushed and looked away from An and An knew who she was immediately. Akito’s mystery girl that had the whole shop floored when she entered, too many people she knew who came in the morning still there in the afternoon fighting to tell her all about it.
“Ah, well, Akito is back in on Saturday afternoon if you’re free,” An beamed at her mischievously, writing on a note to call in sick or have something come up that afternoon. Maybe Mizuki would get them out of work?
She nodded but that didn’t seem to put her mind at ease, but she was gone again. Walking once more and An was already concocting a plan.
#
Akito didn’t know what was worst opening the store or closing the store. He had to say closing it because he didn’t see Kohane this way and he hated closing it.
The door rang and he had to bite back a groan and he was glad he did as Kohane entered the shop in a flowing, flowery dress and leather jacket covering it and her hair all curled up and makeup on her face. He froze and then his heart broke for a moment because she looked as though she was going on a date. She looked like how An did whenever she got bored and wanted to be with someone. How Ena did whenever she went out with Mizuki and there was no reason for her to be that with him. It wasn’t probable and yet…
“I’m scared,” she confessed immediately.
He froze in place, and he looked at her. “What?”
“I made a mistake. I have some business meeting tonight, it’s almost like a date but I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t want to do it,” she rambled. “I came to see you the other day but the girl at the counter said you would work today and so I went off and then I didn’t have a reason to not go but I needed to see you and-“
“Woah, woah, woah. Breathe.”
She took in a staggering deep breath, playing with the edge of her dress. Her hands stopped shaking. “So, you’re on a date?”
“I don’t want to be.”
“Then why are you all dressed up and ready?”
“I thought I could- I thought I could do it and be who people see me as. You know people don’t see bikers for soft and meek things but… Akito,” his heart jumped and lept in his chest. She had called him Akito. Not Shinonome. Akito.
“Akito, I’m scared. I don’t want to do this. I don’t, I could never like them and…”
“Why did you even agree, Kohane?” he sighed, making a bouquet of orange lilies.
“I wanted- success, you know? And to get over…”
“To get over?”
“You, alright. I mean, Akito, what are we even?”
He shrugged, that was too hard to explain really because they hadn’t established anything between them, but he wanted to be more. “I like you; you like me.”
“If only life were that easy.”
“How about we…” he trailed off thinking.
“Go on a date?”
“Maybe,” he whispered quietly and hesitantly. “If you want that.”
“I would’ve appreciated this talk days ago before I made the worst mistake of my life.”
“You’re being dramatic,” he sighed, passing her the bouquet. “Take them. They’re on the house.”
“Should you really be giving away free wares?”
“An has done the same multiple times for her dates and if Ken has an issue with it, I just take an extra shift,” he reasoned plainly because it was that simple really.
“Is there a meaning behind them?”
“You should give them to your date and look it up together.”
She raised a brow at him and smirked for the moment, he smirked back at her lazily and proudly. “Interesting. So, would you still go out on a- a date with me?”
He took a piece of paper, scribbled his number on there and grinned at her. “Call me after your date.”
“I’m terrified for this,” she squeaked but there was excitement dancing in her eyes most of all. She smiled at it brightly. “I should get this over and done with to call you faster, shouldn’t I?”
“That’s the smart thing to do. Just give me enough time to close up shop before you call me.”
“You’re teasing me, Shinonome.”
“I’m giving you free flowers, we should be at first name basis mutually, right?”
“That sentence was an aneurysm and a half. But… I suppose so, Akito.”
His name sounded like a prayer from her lips and that the gate of heaven was opening up with a chorus of angels singing angelic songs and more.
She lingered for a moment but soon she disappeared, and Akito just had to wait. Oh, he could’ve told her to not go on the date, feign illness and spend the night with him but he was petty and flower language was how he conversed with her. And with her out the store, he could make her a special bouquet. He would have to dip into his wages, but Ken wouldn’t mind. He thought that at least.
The bouquet was simple, roses and love plants were always easy to arrange but to care for over the weekend and maybe longer if she felt he was too forceful and strong. But he had never loved subtly. Maybe his words were coated and laced with a deeper and hidden meaning, but that was the way of the Shinonomes. No matter how direct they all were, something else seeped in because the Shinonomes had emotions and too many emotions and feelings.
Emotions and feelings that festered and brewed and eventually spilt all over the place and sometimes, exploded with a violent and fierce rage and power that it damned you.
He could go slow but he had grown to appreciate Kohane and tiptoeing around the edge of something he hated. He would wait until it started to affect him, and he could wait no more.
He closed up the shop, taking his bag and the bouquet of flowers in his arms and he waited. He waited so long already; he could wait a little longer.
#
“Shinonome!” Kohane exclaimed scandalised and he laughed in bed, resting on the headboard, pausing a video on football because he missed it almost.
He hummed down the phone, in mock innocence and she gritted her teeth. He could just tell from the silence down the phone.
“I should send you black roses.”
“I feel like a minute yew tree would do the same thing. How was the date things though?”
“Disastrous. The only time I laughed was when we looked up the meaning of the flowers and he was so upset. But I got an idea for a photograph I suppose. I would just need a lot of them. And a house,” she mused in thought.
“If you buy them, I can provide them.”
“I should take you up on that,” she laughed down the line. “Ah, I don’t think I’d do a date like that again. Maybe one day with…”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you coming around on Monday.”
“Of course.”
“Good, I have something for you.”
“I’ll wait for it,” Kohane yawned.
“You should go to sleep. You have had an exciting day.” She nodded, he presumed from the long stretch of silence, she hummed too, sleepily.
Selfishly, he wanted to talk to her all night, but he knew he couldn’t. “Good night,” he whispered.
“M’good night,” she returned equally as hushed and then it was a sleep and a sleep until Monday.
#
She was there early than normal, eager and excited as she wandered in looking just how she would with her normal outfit and even more. She grinned up at him and he looked back at her and the custom bouquet.
He placed it on the counter and stared at her intensely. “For you, on the house.”
“Roses and…?”
“Love plants they’re called.”
“Romantic.”
“I do try.”
She smelled them for a moment and smiled all so dorkily to herself. “They’re beautiful, thank you.”
“It’s no problem. So, do you still want to go out on a da-“
“Yes! I mean, ah, uhm, if you want it, of course.”
“I’m asking you but sure I’m the one who doesn’t want it,” he snarked for the moment before shaking his head. “You wound me, ‘Hane.”
“H-h-‘hane?”
“Do you not like it?”
“I like it.”
They smiled at one another, and the flowers swayed in the wind. Someone entered the shop and stared at them staring at one another and gazing into their eyes. It was strange he supposed but subtly was no longer a thing between them.
She left eventually when it began to get busy, loathe to leave him but he knew that it would occur again and again. And he would see her next Monday like clockwork, love plants exchanged between the two of them.