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It was the third weekend in a row that Sethos opened her front door to find flowers on the doorstep.
Sethos was an artist and she was opening her very own art gallery this weekend. Sethos had only moved to this new apartment two months ago. She was delighted to find the flowers outside, though she had no idea where they were coming from. Her best guess was they came from some fan who was congratulating her for the opening of her gallery.
Sethos’s doberman came to the door to inspect what was going on. She sniffed the flowers before becoming disinterested, and going back inside.
“Who do you think they’re from, Cyno?” Sethos asked. The dog made no indication she heard what Sethos asked and walked back to her oversized dog bed to lounge.
However, the concerning part was that Sethos never revealed her home address publicly. Sethos often hosted streams when she drew digital art because it was a fun way to interact with people that liked her art. Sethos also often took the time to give tutorials and advice to new artists.
If the flowers were coming from a fan, surely they would have included a note. Most fans wanted to let Sethos know their names.
Sethos picked up the flowers. They had been different flowers every time. Today it was all orange and blue and made mostly of mums and roses. This bouquet was lovely. Sethos brought it inside to replace the last bouquet that was still on her kitchen counter. That one had been large yellow sunflowers with gypsophila.
When she took the flowers out of their paper, she noticed a small logo on the counter of the sheet. The previous bouquets that had arrived, Sethos meticulously checked for any sign of where they came from. Sethos was overly cautious and was worried it would be dangerous to accept mysterious flowers left at her door. Even though she checked the paper, she didn’t find any logo, business name, or signature.
Perhaps the logo had been clipped off of the previous bouquets, but it wasn’t this time.
“Cyno look at this!” Sethos exclaimed. The doberman’s ears perked up, but she stayed in her spot on the dog bed.
Printed in small text were the words “Surasthana’s Sanctuary.”
Sethos recognized the name instantly. It was the name of the plant nursery a block away from her apartment. When Sethos first moved in here, she visited the plant store to get a few things to liven up her apartment. Though she had brought home several plants, the only surviving ones were her succulent garden.
Sethos resolved to visit the nursery the next day. Maybe she could try to figure out where the flowers were coming from and ask for some advice on how to keep her other plants alive.
༻❁✿❀༺
Sethos took Cyno with her when she made her visit to Surasthana’s Sanctuary. She was sure she would enjoy the smells in the plant nursery and it would get her some exercise.
Surasthana’s Sanctuary was relatively spacious inside. The store was divided into a couple different sections for different types of houseplants, vegetables, and landscaping plants. There was also a corner in the back for fresh cut flower bouquets. When Sethos first stepped inside, she didn’t immediately see any employees around, though that likely just meant they were tending to the plants somewhere in the greenhouse.
She wandered down the aisles, letting Cyno lead her wherever she wanted.
Sethos looked through the variety of plants, spending a lot of time around the flowers. There were dozens of choices, and many of them came in several different colors. Some of the flowers, she reached out to touch their petals or leaves. There was lots of plant and flower debris on the tables and concrete floor. The floor also looked somewhat wet as if the flowers had been watered this morning.
Sethos picked up a fallen purple flower that was laying on the table. She got Cyno’s attention and got her to sit down. Sethos then placed the purple flower gently on top of the doberman’s ear. Sethos grinned to herself, taking out her phone to snap a quick picture before Cyno shook the flower off of her head.
Just then, Sethos spotted a white cat lounging among the flowers on the table, soaking in the sun. Sethos turned to take a photo of the cat just as she opened her bright green eyes and lifted her head.
“Oh sorry, did I disturb your nap?” Sethos said to the cat. The cat then sat up because she seemed to notice something behind Sethos.
“Do you need help finding anything?”
Sethos turned to see a green-haired girl. She was wearing a beige apron and had a little bit of dirt smeared on her cheek. Her name tag was clipped onto the strap of her apron and read “Collei.” Sethos smiled at her.
“Is the cat for sale?” Sethos joked.
Collei laughed at the joke, “Unfortunately no. Nahida’s actually one of the employee’s here.”
“Aww, she works so hard I bet!” Sethos said.
“Well, she’s more like the owner,” Collei added.
Sethos laughed again. “Actually, I think I could use some help. I was wondering if you guys deliver flowers.”
Collei looked puzzled for a second, “I don’t believe we normally do that unless it’s a big order.”
“Oh really?” Sethos said. “I just had some flowers left at my door and I was wondering who sent them… How odd.”
“Maybe you can talk to Scara, she runs the cut flower desk. I’m still new here, so she probably knows more than me,” Collei added. She directed Sethos over to the corner of the store where Sethos had previously seen the fresh cut flower desk. However, before it was empty, now someone was there.
Collei had left to go tend to some plant in the back, so Sethos took Cyno over to the cut flower desk.
The girl at the desk had long dark, indigo hair. She had her back turned as she worked on assembling a bouquet.
“Excuse me,” Sethos called. The girl turned around and Sethos almost gasped. She was the prettiest girl she had ever laid eyes on. A single word escaped Sethos’s lips, “pretty.”
Scara’s long hair was chopped short at the front in a hime cut. She also had bangs that lay elegantly across her forehead. The cut framed her face and drew attention to her dark eyes that were lined with a bright red eyeliner. Her lips were coated in a sparkly lip gloss. Sethos wasn’t sure if the red on her cheeks was makeup or natural blush.
“Umm… sorry?” Scara asked.
Sethos realized she had said that outloud, so she spoke up again. “I-I mean your eyeliner is so pretty! Where is it from?” Sethos breathed out a sigh of relief, her poor sapphic heart was about to beat out of her chest.
Scara paused for a long second before answering, “It was a gift… I’m not sure.” Scara’s eyes kept shifting away, as if something was distracting her. She twirled the ends of a strand of hair that was hanging at her cheek. “Did you need to place an order?”
“No, I was wondering actually… I’ve had some flowers show up at my door and I don’t know who’s sending them. I noticed your store’s logo, and thought I would try to ask.”
Scara blinked at her, and Sethos was starting to worry she said something wrong. Maybe there was something on her face. She reached up subconsciously and tried to smooth out her hair. It was curly and the humidity was bad today, so it was bound to be a mess. Sethos had come to accept as a curly hair girl, this was her reality. However, she didn’t usually have to worry about talking to the prettiest girl she’s ever seen.
“We don’t send flowers,” Scara finally answered.
“Ah, yeah that is what the other girl said,” Sethos said.
“You must have a secret admirer,” Scara replied, leaning on the desk and propping her head up on her hand as she smirked at her.
“O-oh…” Sethos said. “Aw, but that means it’s probably a man, doesn’t it?”
Scara laughed brightly at this, “What? You don’t like them?”
Sethos frowned, meeting Scara’s gaze. “Do you?” She challenged, feeling a bit brave.
“Mmm, good point. I’ll stick with women,” Scara said. Sethos couldn’t read the look behind her eyes, but there was definitely something more there. “Did you need help today with anything else?”
“Yeah,” Sethos said, being reminded of the other thing she came in here for. “I bought a couple of plants here a few weeks back and pretty much all of them are dead.”
“We don’t do refunds,” Scara said.
Sethos waved her hands nervously, “No, that’s not what I meant! I was hoping for some advice.”
“Oh. Do you know what you bought?”
Sethos thought for a minute. She should’ve taken some pictures of the plants before coming to the plant store. “Well… they were green.”
Scara giggled at this and Sethos felt her heart do a cartwheel. Scara had the cutest laugh she had ever heard.
“Most plants are. I guess you picked out some houseplants. What shape were the leaves?”
“One of them had sort of big… leaf shaped leaves. It was like a tall tree-looking thing. Another one was in a hanging basket and the leaves were sort of heart shaped,” Sethos described.
Scara pulled out her phone and typed something in. She showed the phone to Sethos. “Like this?” Sethos nodded, and Scara typed something else in before showing it to her again. “And this?”
“Yeah! How did you know?”
Scara shrugged. “They’re popular houseplants.”
“So can you give me any advice? What did I do wrong?”
“Well the tree looking one is called a fiddle-leaf fig. And what you did wrong was buying it in the first place. As for the pothos, I’m actually impressed you killed that thing. That’s usually one of the lower maintenance plants there is,” Scara said.
“Really?” Sethos asked, feeling even worse about killing it now.
“Yep, I’ll show you some new plants if you’d like,” Scara walked around the counter.
She noticed Cyno and offered a hand for the dog to sniff. Cyno’s tail started to wag and she let out a single bark.
“Hey! Cyno!” Sethos berated the dog. “Sorry, she’s normally super calm…”
Scara shrugged it off and went on to give Sethos some new advice for taking care of her plants. She helped her to pick out a new plant. She told Sethos it was called a snake plant. It was difficult to carry while walking with Cyno, but thankfully Cyno didn’t often pull on the leash or anything.
“Oh, uh…” Scara said as Sethos was preparing to leave.
It occurred to her just then she never told Scara her name. “Sethos!” Sethos said.
“Ah… Sethos. Here’s my uh number… in case you need some more plant advice.”
Sethos felt her cheek’s heat up at the kind gesture, but she smiled widely. “Wow! Thank you so much.”
With a few more words, Sethos made her way out of the plant store, and back home. Sethos felt her heart racing, unsure if Scara was just being a good employee or if she was hitting on Sethos. She and Cyno had spent way longer at the plant store than she had expected to.
Sethos got the snake plant set up properly by her window with the instructions Scara had given her.
She opened up her laptop to host a quick drawing stream. Her gallery opened tomorrow and hosting a stream would be a good way to promote it.
༻❁✿❀༺
Sethos felt super lucky to have found a studio space for her gallery that was so close to her apartment. When it came time to set up her paintings, it was easy to transport everything from her apartment, to the space.
Coincidentally, it was two doors down from the plant nursery.
The gallery opened at 2PM today and Sethos made sure to advertise the fact that the first fifty people to buy a print of one of her artworks would get a signed copy. This was really the only day Sethos would have to be at the gallery. The rest of the week, it would be manned by just a cashier and Sethos would be free to come and go as she pleased.
Sethos was nervous about opening, but it seemed a few people came to line up for the doors opening right at 2PM.
When the doors opened, Sethos made sure to greet everyone and direct them to the refreshments.
A few minutes after opening, the unexpected happened. Sethos spotted the girl from the nursery walking into the gallery.
Sethos felt her heart race, and she bounded over to greet her.
“Scara!” Sethos waved as she walked up.
Scara looked up, and gave a half-wave back.
“I didn’t expect to see you here!” Sethos exclaimed.
“There was a line of people outside,” Scara gestured towards the front door.
“Oh, right!” she said.
“So you’re an artist?” Scara asked. She peered around Sethos at the art that was hanging all around the walls. Sethos laughed, feeling self-conscious about her art suddenly. It was usually a skill she was confident in and loved to share. For some reason, in front of Scara, she felt nervous.
“Y-yeah,” she said. “My gallery just opened today.”
“I should’ve brought some flowers, then,” Scara said, glancing around the room.
Sethos laughed. “No, that’s okay!”
“Well that’s usually how these kinds of events are celebrated, isn’t it?”
Sethos couldn’t argue with that. Sethos knew she should be tending to the other guests as well. There was always the potential for her to meet a big client at a gallery opening, but she stayed with Scara as she browsed her artworks.
“For someone who is a plant killer, the way you’ve drawn these plants is beautiful,” Scara said, commenting on one piece in particular that was monochrome in blue and orange. The scene was sad, depicting the grave of a beloved family pet. All around, grew the most vibrant orange wildflowers. Sethos was reminded of the recent bouquet that was sitting on her kitchen counter, coincidentally the same colors.
“Thank you,” Sethos blushed at this compliment, even if it was delivered in a backhanded sort of way. Scara could probably slap her and she would say thank you.
“Do you have a favorite flower?” Scara asked suddenly.
Sethos paused for a moment before giving her answer. “Violets.” Scara was a florist, so surely she would know what that meant.
Scara grinned at this reply, “That’s good.”
Sethos felt the blush return to her cheeks again. She continued to show Scara around, occasionally explaining the inspiration behind some of her pieces. Scara sometimes asked questions, but mostly just gave compliments.
After some time, Scara said she had to go back to the plant store, but would be sure to be back.
Sethos didn’t see her for the rest of the day, right until the gallery was closing at 9PM. Sethos was locking up the doors, feeling like the opening was successful.
As she turned around, she saw Scara once again. She was carrying a large bouquet of pink and orange daisies wrapped in similarly colored paper and ribbons. The whole thing was huge, it looked like it came with a stand. Scara wasn’t carrying it alone, but with the help of Collei.
“What’s all of this?” Sethos asked, in surprise. There was was sign sticking out of the top that read:
Congratulations from Surasthana’s Sanctuary
“Flowers,” Scara said simply. Sethos reopened the door and helped the pair bring the large stand of flowers inside.
“I can see that,” Sethos said. “Thank you so much!”
Scara shrugged, “Nahida said it would be good for business. With how popular your gallery is, some of them might wander by and purchase some flowers.”
“Nahida?” Sethos repeated.
“Yeah,” said Scara, “she’s the manager.”
Sethos opened her mouth to say something because she thought that was the cat she saw in the plant store. But then she made eye contact with Collei who looked like she was on the verge of laughter.
“Oh, right. I guess I haven’t met her,” Sethos said.
“It’s too bad she didn’t have the idea sooner. There were quite a few people in here today,” Scara added.
Sethos scratched the back of her neck. “Well, it’s not like you knew this was opening.”
“Scara’s been watching you set up for weeks. This week in particular you’re basically all she’s talked about,” Collei finally chimed in. “She kept telling me about the fantastic art pieces she’s seen you carry by our front doors.”
Sethos felt her cheeks grow hot, but turned her attention to Scara who also appeared to be red. However, once again, Sethos really wasn’t sure if it was just her makeup.
Scara let out a nervous laugh, “Ah… Collei…”
“Oh! Was I not supposed to say that?” Collei asked. Her voice rang with sincerity, but she was smirking at Scara.
“That makes me sound creepy,” Scara mumbled, looking away now.
“I don’t find it creepy!” Sethos chimed in, maybe a tad too loud. This got Scara’s attention. “In fact, I’m kind of flattered.”
“Really?” Scara asked.
At the same time Collei said, “Really!?”
Sethos laughed again.
“Well maybe you two are made for each other,” Collei said. Sethos felt her heart rate pick up at this comment. She felt like she was reading way too into the situation. Scara and Collei shared a look that seemed like they were communicating via telepathy.
“I need to get going,” Sethos said. “I need to let my dog out.”
“Oh, of course!” Collei said.
Scara finally turned her attention back to Sethos. It looked like she wanted to say more, but Sethos waited and she didn’t.
“Thanks for the flowers again,” Sethos said, locking up the doors for a second time. And then added, “I’ll see you around, Scara?”
Scara smiled at this, and said, “Yes.”
༻❁✿❀༺
The rest of the week Sethos was busy tending to the gallery. She wanted to stop by Surasthana's Sanctuary, but she kept being preoccupied with other matters. Sometime on Thursday, she did actually go inside. However, at the cut flower station there was only Collei who informed Sethos that Scara didn’t work that day.
Sethos was a little bummed out that she didn’t see Scara again, but then she remembered she had Scara’s phone number.
Sethos took a look at the snake plant. It looked pretty much the same as it had when she brought it home from the store. She searched all the leaves until suddenly she noticed one that was browning on the tip.
She took a picture of the brown spot and found the number Scara had given her.
Sethos: HELP!! I think the new plant is dying
She attached the picture to the text and then pressed send.
Sethos gnawed on her bottom lip, waiting for a reply. It came about ten minutes later.
Scara: sethos?
Sethos: Yeah!! Scara help me! What do I do????
Scara: it looks fine to me
Sethos: Zoom in - it’s turning brown
Scara: plants just do that sometimes, it'll be fine
Sethos: Oh… okay :(
Sethos read over the messages, it wasn’t really going exactly as she had hoped. She needed a different approach.
Sethos: I tried to come say hi today, but you weren’t there
Scara: collei told me
Sethos: Oh :/
Scara: it made me happy to hear that
Sethos: OH?
Scara: yeah
Scara: my days off are wednesday and thursday – by the way
Sethos: I’ll make note of it :D
༻❁✿❀༺
It was Saturday again, Sethos woke up to take Cyno outside for her morning walk. She opened her door to find a new bouquet sitting there.
The week had felt so long since her gallery had opened and she spent so much time outside of the apartment. She had almost forgotten about her weekly bouquet.
Cyno was ready for her walk, but she noticed the flowers too. She did her usual sniff test, but spent a longer time sniffing the flowers this time. Sethos watched with an amused smile. After a minute, Cyno’s tail began to wag and she let out a single bark.
Sethos laughed, and tugged on her leash to move her out of the way.
That’s when she saw what the bouquet was made out of today: Violets.
Sethos pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the bouquet.
She opened up a message to Scara, when a thought occurred to her. Scara had asked her what her favorite flower was just a few days ago. Either the stalker was at the gallery eavesdropping on their conversation or…
Sethos picked up the bouquet and took it with her. She walked Cyno a different way. Usually, they went behind the apartment building to the trail park. Today, Sethos led her across the street to Surasthana’s Sanctuary.
She walked right back to the cut flower desk, where Scara was already at work, assembling a bouquet with her back turned, just as she was the first time Sethos talked to her here.
“Scara,” Sethos said.
“Oh, my favorite customer is here!” Scara said, turning around with a smile on her face. The smile faded when she noticed what Sethos had in her hands. “What’s this?”
“A new bouquet,” Sethos said. She was almost waiting for her to say something first.
“It’s really lovely,” Scara said, leaning on the desk, propping her chin up on her hand.
“Scara, do you know what these are?”
“Uh… no.”
Sethos rolled her eyes, “They’re violets.”
“Oh!”
“I told you my favorite flowers were violets a week ago,” Sethos pressed.
“What a crazy coincidence.”
“Scara.”
“What?”
“These flowers are from you,” Sethos said finally. “They always have been.”
Scara held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, you caught me. I saw a pretty girl and started giving her free flowers. Lock me up.”
“You think I’m pretty?” Sethos asked, heart doing cartwheels again.
Scara grinned at this. “Babe, you’re gorgeous. Don’t you own a mirror?”
Sethos dropped the bouquet on the desk, bringing her face up close to Scara’s. She gave her plenty of time to back away. Sethos telegraphed her next actions by glancing at Scara’s lips before looking back at her eyes. Scara raised her eyebrows, almost daring her to do it.
So she did. She leaned forward and lightly pressed their lips together. It was a short and sweet kiss. All Sethos could think about was how soft Scara’s lips were.
When they broke apart, Scara spoke first. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like you were in danger because you had a stalker.”
Sethos shook her head, “If I had known my stalker was as pretty as you, I wouldn’t have cared.”
“You’re weird,” Scara said, but she was smiling.
Sethos smiled back, “So are you.”
“Hmm,” Scara hummed in agreement. “Do you want to go on a date after my shift?”
“Definitely,” Sethos started to back away, but Scara caught hold of her collar.
“Wait,” Scara said. She pulled Sethos in for another soft kiss that left her weak in the knees.
“Isn’t the first kiss supposed to come after the first date?” Sethos asked.
Scara rolled her eyes. “Maybe if you’re traditional like that.”
“I guess this isn’t a very traditional start to a relationship. I mean I’m attracted to my stalker,” Sethos said.
Scara grinned and pushed her away. “It’s barely even stalking when you walk past the place I work five hundred times a day holding giant canvasses or walking your big dog. I had to get your attention somehow.”
Sethos returned the smile. She took the violet bouquet with her back to her apartment, tossing out the blue and orange flowers from the previous week. If you asked her, she would say the art gallery had been a massive success. Not only did lots of people visit and buy prints, but she was going on a date with a beautiful girl from the flower shop across the street.