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The first time Cas noticed the man with the beautiful green eyes and that killer smile was when he stopped in on a snowy Tuesday in March. It had been a slow day in the shop, and Cas had spent most of the day flipping through magazines when the bell over the door rang when it opened, alerting him that he had a customer. He closed the magazine and looked up to see him. Goodness he was beautiful! Dressed in a well-tailored, dark gray suit and a black trench coat, the man was shaking snow from his hair. When he looked up and spotted Cas behind the counter, he eyes widened a bit and he smiled.
“Hi.”
His voice was rich and deep. Cas loved the sound of it.
“Hello, and welcome. How can I help you today?” he asked. The man’s eyebrows rose for a moment, most likely surprised by the deep, gravelly tone of his own voice, but then he was smiling wider.
“Well, since this is a flower shop, I obviously need flowers,” the man joked lightly. Cas smiled.
“Obviously. What is the occasion?”
The man seemed to blush as he looked around at the various displays.
“I…have a date. The third one, but it’s also her birthday. I wanted to get something nice.”
Well damn, the man was straight. Cas moved into professional mode, schooling his smile.
“Well, do you know what her favorite flowers are?”
The man shook his head. “No, new relationship and all. But I know her favorite color,” he joked.
Cas thought maybe he could work with that. “Ok, well…that’s a start. What color is it?”
“Purple.”
“Ok, well, since it’s March we can take a look at what flowers are in season. What’s your price limit?”
“I’d prefer no more than like seventy five if possible,” the man replied.
“We can put something nice together and stay within your budget. She’ll love it,” Cas said confidently. The man smiled wide.
“That’s good to hear.”
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Cas saw the man again in April, near the end of the month, and again in May. In May though he was stopping in for a Mother’s Day gift. Two to be specific. He walked in wearing a tee shirt and jeans, and for a moment Cas almost didn’t recognize him.
“Hey,” the man greeted.
“Hello, again. Mother’s Day?” Cas asked. The man smiled brightly.
“You know it. So, I need two arrangements. One is for my mother, so let’s work on that one first. Her favorite color is yellow, and she loves daisies.”
Cas was already walking to the coolers. “I have an adorable little bee planter she might like. She can continue to use it long after the flowers die. Daisies, jonquils, baby’s breath…” He pointed at various flowers as he went to a shelf and lifted the bee planter off it.
“Sounds nice. She’ll love it. My mom is into conservation and saving the bees is a big project of hers,” the man said.
“Oh, I think your mother and I would get along very nicely. I am involved as well in various conservation efforts and the one dearest to my heart is saving the bees. Without bees we would lose more than eighty percent of the food in the world, and nearly all flowers. People don’t understand how vital bees are to our everyday lives.” Cas was chattering away as he began decorating the planter, not aware of how closely the man was watching him.
“I’m Dean, by the way,” the man said when Cas took a moment to catch his breath. He looked up and smiled.
“It’s nice to formally meet you Dean. I’m Cas.”
He finished the first flower arrangement.
“How does this look?” Cas had even tucked a tiny bee pin into the cluster of daisies. He didn’t know Dean’s mother, but anyone working to save the bees deserved a little extra.
“I love it, and she’ll love it. Now, the second arrangement, it’s for my girlfriend. It has to be nice. She’s…kind of particular about flowers as I’ve learned.” Dean’s smile faltered.
“Did she not like the last one I made?” Cas asked.
“Not particularly. I loved it. She thought it was childish.” Dean’s smile disappeared altogether. Cas was actually a little offended by that. He had spent a half hour putting together a beautiful arrangement in a glass unicorn planter for this girlfriend, and she thought it was childish? Had she no sense of wonder or humor?
“Well, what did you have in mind this time?”
Dean perused the shelves for a long time before settling on a crystal vase. “What can we put in here?”
“Have you learned her favorite flower yet?” Cas asked.
“Hyacinth. But she likes roses and tulips as well,” Dean replied.
“Well…how do purple tulips sound?”
“Sounds great.” Dean smiled broadly. Cas smiled back.
“Good, I’ll get it together real quick.”
The vase looked nice when he was finished, if he did say so, and Dean was quite pleased. He paid for the two arrangements and promised he’d be back. Cas sighed as he watched Dean leave. Why did the good ones always have to be taken? And why did they always have to be straight?
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In June Dean stopped in for his mother’s birthday, and Cas put together a large rose bouquet for her. In July he stopped in…just because. Cas liked that Dean was thoughtful and sweet. In August he stopped in because the girlfriend got a promotion at work. He seemed tired, less bubbly, but Cas got him engaged in pleasant conversation as he put together an arrangement.
Dean didn’t stop in during September or October. In November he came in for a Thanksgiving Day arrangement for his mother. He seemed drained and somewhat upset. Cas wanted to ask how he was doing, but he didn’t want to pry.
In December, Dean stopped in again. He seemed a little happier, and Cas was glad for that. They weren’t exactly friends, but Dean was definitely one of his more regular customers. He liked having the chance to chat with the man, even if it was only as long as it took to put together an arrangement. So what if maybe he took his time when Dean came in? This time Dean wanted a centerpiece for the dinner table at his girlfriend’s house. Cas had learned several months back that her name was Lisa and that she was now a vice principal at the elementary school. Dean followed him as he put together a winter themed arrangement, complete with sprigs of juniper and holly.
“You have Christmas plans? I’m sorry if you’re Jewish, I don’t know, guess that never came up?” Dean scratched nervously at the back of his neck as he watched Cas decorate a silver sleigh.
“No, not Jewish. I usually just go spend it with my parents and my brother and sister and their families,” Cas replied.
“You’re not married? No beautiful wife?” Dean smiled nervously. Cas found it endearing.
“No, and I don’t plan to ever have one,” he said with a smile.
“Not the marrying type?” Dean wondered.
“Not straight,” Cas corrected. Dean blushed.
“Oh, then yeah, I guess a wife wouldn’t work,” he said with a chuckle.
“No, it really wouldn’t,” Cas laughed softly.
“This is my first girlfriend in two years. It’s not going as well as I thought it would. Everything I do makes her mad, from how I talk to how I breathe, to my jokes. She complains about how I dress, and it pisses her off that I can cook. Like who gets mad that their boyfriend can cook? I’d be thrilled. She thinks I’m a bad influence on her son too because I watch football on my days off, and she gets mad when I take time to take her son to the park to play. Like I’m showing her up or something. The kid gets bored, so I take him out to have some fun. It’s not a contest; I like the kid and am trying to include him.” Dean shook his head sadly. “It wasn’t like that with my last boyfriend. He wasn’t like that.”
Cas looked up in surprise but Dean was standing looking at a cooler full of roses, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans. He turned his attention back to the arrangement he was making.
“A healthy relationship shouldn’t have one person putting the other down. That’s a big reason why I’m currently single. My last boyfriend, we were together three years, and he was terribly verbally abusive almost the entire time. I finally had to leave, for the sake of my own sanity. That and he was cheating. I don’t condone cheating.”
“I don’t know what I should do.”
Cas stuck the last sprig of holly into the arrangement.
“Well, it’s actually simpler than you might think.”
Dean turned to look at him. “How do you mean?”
Cas turned to face him. “Do you love her?”
Dean didn’t answer right away. “I…try. She makes it really hard.”
“If you can’t answer immediately with a yes, then perhaps it is not the kind of relationship that you should be in, especially not one that has lasted nearly a year,” Cas said. Dean frowned.
“Yeah…”
“I don’t envy your decision. I’ve been there.” Cas held out the sleigh. It really was a masterpiece, one of his best yet. Dean smiled, but there was sadness in his eyes.
“It’s beautiful. You really work magic with flowers.”
“Thank you, Dean.” Cas preened a little at the compliment.
“Well, I suppose I better go drop this off. She’s having a dinner party tomorrow night.” Dean accepted the sleigh and they went back out front to the register.
“Well, enjoy the party, and have a wonderful Christmas.” Cas told him as he rang the order up.
“Thanks. And you too, have fun with your family.” Dean watched as Cas slid the arrangement into a box for him.
“Merry Christmas, Dean.”
“You too, Cas.”
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At the beginning of January Dean stopped in once for a quick purchase of roses. He was upset but didn’t linger to chat. If Cas didn’t know any better he’d have said Dean had been crying not long before stopping in, his eyes had been red rimmed and there had been circles under them. It had alarmed Cas to see the man looking like that. The rest of the month he didn’t see Dean at all.
February was the busiest month of the year for Cas, and his entire shop was filled with roses of every color and variety, but red was the most popular and he had more of those than anything. His brother had come in two days before to help and yesterday his sister had come in to help, but seeing as how now it was Valentine’s Day itself they were both off with their spouses and he was left to handle the rush by himself. All the orders had already been put together so it was really just a matter of finding the right one when a customer came in and taking the payment. In between those were the frantic, last minute customers that came in wanting something special for their significant other. By three o’clock he was down to only a quarter of the supply of roses. By the time he closed the shop at five he had no doubt he’d be out completely.
By four things had slowed down a bit. He had maybe two dozen roses left. Exhausted didn’t even properly describe how he felt. It dawned on him that Dean had not stopped in at all, but he didn’t have time to speculate about what that meant. At ten to five he pulled out the broom and dustpan so he could do a quick clean up. He always closed up shop the day after Valentine’s Day, to give himself the time necessary to recuperate, and he was looking forward to sleeping in the next day. As it was, he was normally closed on Sundays but there was no way he was missing out on the income that the holiday always brought, so he had opened shop, and today alone he’d made close to five thousand. When the bell over the door jingled, he suppressed the groan that wanted to escape and set aside his cleaning. He went back up front to find Dean standing by the counter.
“Oh, hello, Dean. How are you?”
“Pretty good, actually. How are you?” Dean asked back.
“Tired. It’s the busiest day of the year for me,” Cas replied with a tired smile.
“I bet.” Dean was smiling and he looked much, much better than he had the last time Cas had seen him. In fact, he looked more like he had when they’d first met.
“What can I get for you? Do you need something especially romantic for Lisa? I don’t have very many roses left; I’m sorry about that.”
“No, that ship sailed. We split at the beginning of last month. I stopped by after she’d picked a fight over the phone with me, brought her the flowers I got from you and she had another man in her house. I didn’t even leave her the flowers. I didn’t want to waste them, so I drove to my mother’s and gave them to her. Today I’d just like a single rose, if that’s ok.”
Cas was a bit disappointed, but he wasn’t going to admit that. Barely a month single and already Dean was seeing someone new. He didn’t even have a chance.
“Sure, I have a couple red, maybe one pink, and a white. What color would you like?” He asked.
“What color roses do you like?” Dean asked as he followed Cas back to the coolers.
“Red is nice, but perhaps after all of the commercialization of the holiday it’s a bit overdone. I prefer white. They symbolize many things, like purity, hope, new beginnings. And they’re beautiful,” Cas replied honestly.
“Then give me the white one,” Dean said. Cas plucked it from the case and handed it over as they started back up front.
“Do you need me to wrap it? I can add in a few sprigs of baby’s breath and tissue paper for no charge,” he offered.
“No, I don’t think that will be necessary.” Dean paid for the rose but didn’t move to leave.
“So, what are your plans tonight?” he asked.
“I don’t have plans, no boyfriend, remember? It’s me and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s, and maybe pizza later.” Cas gave an embarrassed little laugh as he began closing out the register.
“That’s actually good to hear.” Dean said. Cas looked up, tilting his head in confusion.
“It’s good I’m sitting home eating ice cream?”
“No, it’s good that you don’t have plans because I was really hoping I could take you out to dinner.” Dean held the rose out, and Cas noted the blush on his cheeks. “You can say no, I won’t be offended.”
Cas took the rose, turning it around in his fingers for a moment. “Really?”
Dean smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I sort of liked you from the first time I came in, but I don’t play the field. I wanted to give Lisa a chance. I wish now that I hadn’t, but that’s a moot point. I don’t want to focus on her. I want to focus on you. So…can I? I’m really not that bad a guy.”
Cas smiled so wide every tooth in his mouth showed. “I’d love to go out to dinner with you.”
Dean let out a shaky breath and smiled back.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Cas,” he said. Cas came around the counter to stand in front of him. Dean was even more beautiful this close up.
“Happy Valentine’s Day to you too.”
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