Work Text:
I stretched my arms out in front of me, interlacing my fingers before pushing my palms outward. I felt the satisfying pop of my vertebrae, the noise bouncing off the exposed brick walls of the otherwise quiet shop. I took a second to luxuriate in the feeling of the tension beginning to be released from my back.
As I basked in the moment, I took a second to take a cursory glance around the shop. My shop. The thought of it was still so surreal to me. My shop. A year ago, owning my own flower shop was nothing more than a pipe dream yet here I stood, between the four exposed brick walls with rows upon rows of plants lined up along shelves I had put up myself for patrons to peruse and purchase. I felt a wide smile begin to stretch across my face. I had done it. The physical reminder that I had done it was evident as I gently shook my neck back and forth, trying to work some of the knots out of it.
I had spent the past 4 weeks painting, decorating, putting up shelves, hauling around plants and small trees, wiring up the cash register and finally, the fruition of my labour could be seen. And felt. My neck, back and shoulders felt like there was a forest fire burning across them, the kind that only alights through muscles that have been overworked. But I didn’t mind the pain. It was a reminder of how far I had come, how hard I had worked. I put my hands in my pockets, rubbing the dirt from hauling in the final small pumpkin tree in to the shop. I loved it so much I was almost tempted to keep it for myself. I dismissed the thought. Running a flower shop that didn’t actually sell the flowers and shrubs inside it wouldn’t exactly make for a profitable business plan.
As I pulled my hands out of my pockets, I noticed a few small, rough callouses that hadn’t been there 4 weeks ago. Not that I minded. They seemed like a small price to pay for a dream come true. The exhaustion of several weeks hard work had taken its toll on me and I felt my legs begin to tremble slightly. In my haste to get the shop ready in time for opening tomorrow, I had skipped lunch. Manual labour on top of an empty stomach, it turned out, was not a good combination. I could feel myself waver and decided to sit down before I fell down. The cold concrete of the floor was a nice contrast to the burning of my skin and muscles, so I decided to lay my body fully on top on the concrete floor. The cool concrete pressed against my exposed shoulder blades and the flat of my back. My tank top was so dirty at this point, so soaked with sweat, I decided to peel it off my warm, sticky body. It wasn’t like anyone was going to see me. Or so I thought.
Just as I sat up and finished peeling the more than likely ruined white tank top over my head, I heard the tell tale jingle of the bell I had screwed above the front door to alert me to the presence of a customer entering the shop. In my haste and exhaustion,I had forgotten to lock the door before I lay down. For a moment a slight panic ran through me. What if someone had come to rob me? My panic was quickly abated when I got to my feet and saw the person responsible for causing my front door bell to ring. The reaction I had to her was almost visceral. The first thing I noticed were her eyes. Such a stunning cerulean blue, like the petals of a Himalayan blue poppy. I was mesmerised. My eyes moved from hers to the razor sharp cut of her jaw. As I continued to look on in awe, I noticed that large wire framed glasses sat perched on her nose, I found myself wanting to run my finger along the soft skin of her strong jaw, could feel my hand almost moving toward it, drawn to it like a magnet. I had to clench my hand in to a tight fist to stop myself. From her face my eyes travelled along her body, meandering across two perfect collar bones, down along 2 sinewy and compactly muscled arms, exposed by her sleeveless tank, black and tucked in to a pair of loose fit boyfriend jeans. It seemed unfair that someone dressed so somewhat unkempt could look so ethereal.
I noticed her feet were ensconced in well worn’ heavy combat boots. Her hair fell in soft waves, long chestnut lengths of hair running down her back. As I drank her in I realised 3 things. 1. In the whole time it had taken me to observe her, I had been holding my breath and was now struggling for oxygen. 2. I hadn’t said a single word to her in the almost 2 minutes since she had walked through my shop door and we had been stood mired in silence as I stared at her with zero subtlety. 3. I was currently standing in nothing but my black sweat soaked Calvin Klein bra and denim cut offs in front of this gorgeous stranger. All 3 of these realisations hit me at once, with the force not unlike that of a freight train. One of my realisations I knew needed to be remedied the quickest. The partial nudity situation. With all the grace of a limbless sloth I wrestled my way back in to my tank top, only to realise that I had somehow managed to poke my head through the arm hole of it and it was sitting on my body askew. However, it seemed like a slight improvement on the partial nudity. The second was the breathing scenario. I had been unconsciously holding my breath for so long that when I did finally remember to breathe, it came out as one huge gasp, like a drowning woman coming to the surface and trying desperately to fill her lungs with air. My gasp caused the breathtaking (literally) stranger in my midst to take care of the third realisation.
The huge gasp that had escaped me must have led this beautiful woman to think I was choking or in some kind of distress. She shuffled forward somewhat cautiously, her combat boots sliding along the concrete. She reached out her hand and began to run small circles across the exposed skin of my back. I had only thought my skin had been on fire from the physical exertion, but her hands on my skin caused a whole new kind of heat to rise. Her fingertips left behind little rivulets of magma, searing my skin in the most delectable way possible. I felt my temperature begin to rise under her careful ministrations. “Are you ok there?” The mellifluous sound of her voice washed over me like a balm, like the first splash of warm water as you stepped in to a bath after a hard and arduous day, working the tension out of the muscles in my body and causing me to lean back ever so slightly in to her comforting touch. “There you go, you’re ok” she continued to murmur, my body getting slacker with each whispered reassurance. After what felt simultaneously like an eternity and a nanosecond, she removed her hand from my back. I immediately missed the contact. She took a step back allowing me to take her in again in all her glory.
My initial viewing of her really hadn’t done her justice. The woman before me was truly like some goddess plucked from the pages of the histories and myths of old. She was Aphrodite, Athena, Helen of Troy, all rolled in to a sleeveless shirt, jean clad dream. She stuck out the hand that had been rubbing circles along my back towards me and offered me a crooked yet dazzling smile. “I’m Agatha. I’ve seen you a couple of times over the past few weeks and now that we are officially neighbours, I figured I would come over and formally introduce myself. I own the tattoo parlour next door. Guess that means we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. And from what I’ve seen already, I can’t help but think that can only be a good thing” She finished her comment with a wink and a sexily raised eyebrow. Usually such an overt come on and a reference to my previous partial nudity would have annoyed me, but
I couldn’t helped but be charmed by her rakish grin, the curious tilt of her head, the way she peeked her tongue out to wet her lips and the slight theatrical cadence that laced her words.
I found myself chuckling at her comment “You know I was kind of hoping you would do the polite thing and ignore the state of undress I was in when you came in and caught me somewhat unawares” Agatha let out a hearty laugh. “Nah. Where would be the fun in that. Besides. I’m a great believer in acknowledging beauty when I see it.” Beauty. The word caused my ears to ring. She thought I was beautiful. I felt all of the blood in my body rush to my face. My hand was still grasped loosely on Agatha’s , neither her nor I had let go. I shook the haze of her from my brain and somewhat regretfully pulled my hand out of hers “Wow. You really are something aren’t you Agatha. Well. I’m Rio. And in the spirit of acknowledging things, I’ll say this. I look forward to us seeing more of each other too” Agatha smiled, dazzling me with her pearly white teeth. “Well. I’ll leave you alone to get settled in. I’ll come visit you tomorrow. It’s your opening day right?” I nodded. “Well alright then. I’ll see you tomorrow Rio” With that, Agatha turned on her heel and walked out the door, leaving me alone in the shop once again. I shook my head a few more times and wondered. Did that really just happen?