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In his defense, the first time it had happened, he’d been having a particularly nasty day. Not only was the sky dreary and overcast, the air thick with choking humidity – a disgusting sensation when combined with the high heat of early summer – the monochrome clouds looking as they were ready to open the floodgates at any unperceivable moment, but he had also been told at breakfast that they had run out of tomatoes the day before and Camilla had yet to run to the grocery store, and so he’d have to settle for his cereal without his customary fruit alongside it. For a creature of habit like him, this was just a little bit disastrous. ( “You’re so OCD!” Elise had jabbed playfully at him, to which he’d just prodded stormily the innocent flakes of Special K in his bowl, drowning them beneath the milk, victims of his misdirected wrath. )
In his defense, some kid had graffiti’d “bookworm nerd!!!” on his locker door since yesterday and he’d been the one who’d gotten in trouble for it before being called in by the school counselor to talk in that infuriatingly neutral, gentle tone about whether he was having a problem with bullies. In his defense, Niles had teased him when he’d begrudgingly told him and Owain that he couldn’t hang out with them after school that day at Owain’s house for their usual ritual of Guitar Hero and junk food ( that Xander didn’t let them have in the house ) because he had to watch the flower shop.
“You’re being put on flower duty?” the second-year senior ( so went the rumor, anyway; some said that he had been there for even longer than that ) had scoffed with his somewhat wicked smirk. “I’d love to stop by, see you all dolled up in that pink apron with your cute little name tag.”
“It’s not an apron; it’s the store uniform!” Leo had griped in return, knowing full well his complaints were pointless. “Look, I have to do it. Don’t you guys think about coming by or anything. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
It was sort of an apron, he thought to himself, angrily fastening the rough fabric behind his back over his shirt and settling it in place, making sure to double check that he hadn’t gotten it inside out or backwards or something – Elise would never let him hear the end of it. The name pin took a little more effort, his usually deft hands suddenly becoming as clumsy as a bear’s when it came to performing any task related to dressing himself. After a couple pricks and more than a few muttered curses, he finally got it to sit straight.
He hoped no one wanted to buy flowers today. He hoped no one wanted to buy flowers at least for the next five hours while he watched the shop; he hoped that all the reasons to buy flowers in the world would just disappear while he was sitting in this chair, that nobody felt like being romantic today or visiting their parents’ grave today or even liked the smell and look of flowers today so he could sit and do his AP History reading in the quiet, gloomy afternoon overcast air –
The dreaded cheery jingle of the flower shop bell destroyed his subtle prayers, and he steeled himself to display the bare minimum of politesse that he could muster.
“Wow . . . “ came the wide-eyed sigh of wonder from a young girl, probably no older than Elise, dressed in pink as she clutched the straps of a pink flower-patterned bag, not even two steps into the shop before her gaze was wandering over the shelves of assorted flora. Accompanying her was a boy, too disgruntled and reluctant-looking to be her boyfriend, probably, and their similarity of features led Leo to assume that they were siblings. He looked about as happy to be there as Leo was.
“Takumi, Takumi, look! These are the ones I was telling you ab -- ! Oh!” Suddenly the girl spotted him behind the counter, watching them with an impassive expression, and gave a quick bow of greeting. “H-Hello! Good afternoon! Um . . . “ She glanced behind her quickly for her brother and Leo simply went back to his reading, hoping they would just look around for a bit and then leave. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the other boy looked vaguely familiar – he figured they went to the same school ( not uncommon, given their area ) and had maybe passed each other in the hallways before, or something. The sounds of their perusal faded to the background as he returned his focus to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Frankly, he was somewhat surprised that the girl had wanted to show her brother anything from this store – it necessarily implied that she had been here before, or at least had noticed the shop in passing, which was something of a feat in itself given that the small family-owned flower shop was pretty out of the way and didn’t get a whole lot of business on an average day. Most people that Leo had ( begrudgingly ) told about it didn’t even seem to know it existed. It had started out as one of Elise’s little enterprises, not because she or the rest of the them needed the money, but because she had come down the stairs one day saying something about how flowers made people happy and she wanted there to be more happiness in the world. Money being the only thing their father was good at giving them, he had let her set up a small shop without much complaint or input. To everyone’s surprise, the inclination hadn’t just folded after a few weeks or months, but had been going for some years now, to the point where Elise’s dedication had pulled everyone else to pitch in.
“E-Excuse me -- ”
The small voice, much nearer this time, snapped Leo out of his reading, and he glanced up from the open pages to see the girl standing in front of him now. He must have looked as annoyed as he felt because she instantly blushed and averted his eyes, fidgeting uncomfortably. “What?”
“U-Um . . . um . . . I was – I-I was wondering if you could . . . um . . . “
“Ugh, come on Sakura.” The boy walked up behind her now. “She wants to know if you know what these flowers mean. You know, in flower language. For both of them.”
Heaving an internal ( and perhaps a bit external ) heavy sigh, Leo looked at the two small pots. “Can’t you look it up on your phone or something?” he said, pulling the tags forward to read their names, missing the way the boy’s brow furrowed slightly. “This one’s rosemary. Didn’t you ever read your Hamlet? Ophelia, act four, scene five – “There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembering?”
“O-Oh, no, s-s-sorry, I didn’t know . . . “ Sakura stammered out, though Leo had moved on to the second one.
“This one’s an orchid. On the label it says “orchid: passion flower”. Can you guess what it means?”
“Okay, okay, geez, you don’t need to be so rude about it,” Takumi replied with a scowl, covering for his sister who looked like she was about to cry. When he turned to her, a hand resting on her shoulder, his voice became softer. “Sakura, how about it? Which one do you want?”
After a few moments, she managed to get out: “I-I don’t know . . . which one do you think mom would like?”
“Well . . . her favorite color is white, so maybe the orchids? They have a bit of white to them.”
“Yeah . . . b-but the meaning . . . maybe the rosemary?”
“Okay, that’s fine too. Let’s get – “
“But -- ! Maybe you’re right. The orchids are really beautiful too . . . “
“Have you decided yet?” Leo asked, impatient, his tone dry.
Takumi looked up at him then, a frown shaping the perpetual pout of his mouth. “Hey, give her a second. What’s your problem?”
Grinding his teeth, Leo reined in the biting retort on his tongue with much self-control, skin bristling with irritation. He just wanted these people to leave! But he ended up waiting for another agonizing couple minutes while Sakura waffled on her decision before finally, with some urging from her brother, picking the orchids anyway.
Whatever god was up there seemed to delight in spitting on Leo’s fortune today, because he had to drag himself through five more customers that afternoon before finally being able to close up shop, hang up the damned apron with his stupid name tag, and go home.
The day after that proved to be a much better one, at least until Xander got home from work, his serious frown particularly grave as he said Leo’s name at the dinner table. “I got a call from one of your customers yesterday while you were watching the shop.”
He didn’t know what was worse: having to have this conversation or the way Elise looked at him with those wide, worried eyes. “And?”
“And they complained that you had an abrasive and off-putting attitude. I think you realize this isn’t good for customer service.”
Leo’s irritated sigh was as good as a guilty admission as he poked at his grape tomato salad. “ . . . Sorry. I was having a bad day yesterday.” His ears still burned with shame at the memory of the counselor meeting; he still hadn’t managed to completely scrub off the spray paint from his locker, and he couldn’t get the sorry guy who had done it to do it because he didn’t know who it was.
“That’s not an excuse, Leo; this is Elise’s shop, and you agreed to take care of it.”
“I know!” He knew now was not the time to bring up that he hadn’t agreed to anything, that he’d had no other choice because everyone else was busy and he’d had an open afternoon with no commitments and they knew it.
“Leeoooo . . . “ Elise whined, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her, knowing she was giving him that annoying hurt look that meant he’d really upset her.
“Look, it won’t happen again, okay?” He said it to get them off his back because there was no way to tell them that the truth of it was he had to watch the shop alone when he did it. He was old enough to handle himself, he knew, and Elise wasn’t, so it only made sense that whenever she went over to tend to the place, either Camilla or Xander ( usually the former ) or Leo himself had to go along with her. They’d just think him childish if he said anything. “I’m sorry.”
Unfortunately for him, the time to test his fortitude came sooner than he’d hoped. Elise came down with a bad stomach illness later that week from eating something at school and, in spite of her protests that she would be okay enough to tend the shop, Camilla had refused to listen. With Xander out, the responsibility had fallen to Leo again. “I have to stay and make sure our little Elise gets better quickly,” Camilla said, digging the heated blanket from the downstairs storage closet, “so can you go watch the shop again, Leo? I know you don’t like it, but someone has to.”
He swallowed down the protest that Elise could always call them if something happened, and anyway the shop was only a couple blocks away so Camilla could just come back if she needed something, and mumbled a vague agreement.
At least he was in a marginally better mood today and it was sunny outside, shafts of bright white spilling in through large glass windows and refracting petal colors off the panes in pale spokes. Book in one hand, he was in the midst of watering the pink roses when movement on the sidewalk outside caught his eye. It took him a second, but he recognized the figure as that same boy who had first come in earlier in the week, his long ponytail making him particularly distinctive. Perhaps sensing someone was watching him, the boy – Takumi, Leo recalled – looked up, meeting his eyes for a split second. Then the other tore his gaze away – purposely, Leo thought, probably because he still remembered his rudeness. Watching him continue on his way, Leo was suddenly seized with the urge to run out and apologize to him; in retrospect, he had taken out his frustrations in the wrong way. But it would have been pointless and strange, so instead he stood there, staring at the way Takumi’s hair reflected almost white in the sunlight, until he felt water dripping onto his shoes and realized he had overflowed the rose pot. “Damn it!”
“I think you’re making sales drop, Leo darling,” Camilla sighed later that night, looking over the checkbook after he’d relayed the day’s numbers.
“I’ve only watched the shop twice!” he complained, cheeks flushing. “And six people came in today! How is that dropping?”
Camilla pursued her lips sympathetically. “But how many of them actually purchased anything?”
Pausing, Leo swallows, shoulder slumping. “W-Well . . . n-none of them, I guess.” But he hadn’t seen any problem with that. None of them had seemed to have an issue with his ‘attitude’ this time; they just hadn’t been interested enough!
“Do you talk to them, dear? Ask them if they need help, or make recommendations? These things are important, you know.”
“ . . . N-No. I didn’t know you had to.”
“Well, it’s all right. Elise should be fine again soon, and you won’t have to do this anymore.”
He supposed that in a sense, Camilla was right. Now that he thought about it, he realized he didn’t have much business social inclination at all, figuring that customers would decide whether they wanted something or not and all he was there for was ringing up their purchase and keeping the plants watered. Thinking back to the stores he’d visited though, the employees there did interact with their customers a lot more – he had always found this irritating, but maybe on a larger scale it did help to bring up sales. Well, his teachers and mentors had always praised him for his equivocation – in school, his presentations were flawlessly delivered and confident, and his friends in debate club had told him once that he had a knack for diplomatic speech, so really it was just his reluctance to talk to people on a casual ( in his opinion, pointless ) level that was keeping him from being a good shopkeeper, right?
“Leo?” Elise’s plaintive voice cut through his pleasure reading time one night a couple weeks later after dinner, and he looked up, uttering a sound of inquiry through a mouthful of tomato. “Can I ask you a favor?”
He swallowed the bite. “Certainly. What?”
Elise screwed up her face, scrunching her nose. “Ugh, you know, I’ve never heard anyone but you talk like that. You talk so funny!”
“I do not,” he protested, frowning. “How do I talk funny?”
“Like, all . . . fancy and stuff! Like, most people would just say “yeah?” or “what’s up?” or something and you’re all “certainly”. It’s so formal!”
Heaving a sigh, he turned the page of his book. “What are you here for, Elise?”
“Oh! Well . . . I know you don’t like it, but can you . . . watch the shop tomorrow after school?”
It was her own reluctance that caught him off guard and prevented him from his usual exasperated response. “ . . . What’s everyone else doing?”
“Well, Xander is Xander, and Camilla’s got a job interview tomorrow, and the cheerleading team is having a team meeting after school tomorrow, so I can’t do it.” She pouted. “We don’t want you to either cause you’re kind of mean to people, but -- ”
“I can do it,” he cut in with a scowl. “Fine. I’ll watch shop tomorrow.”
“But don’t be mean to people, okay? I know you can be really mean.”
“I won’t be mean! Now get out, I’m reading!”
“See? Meanie!”
He wouldn’t be mean, he told himself. He would be pleasant and helpful, because otherwise Elise and Camilla would complain and make a fuss and that was always so troublesome. But what he didn’t expect was for, not a half hour into his shift, the door to open, revealing the very same boy from the some time ago. “Hey,” he greeted non-committally, avoiding Leo’s eyes as he walked in, hands in the pockets of his jacket.
“Good afternoon,” came the reply, though Leo was admittedly surprised to see him. “Ah, you’ve been here before, I remember. Takumi, isn’t it? How can I help you?”
Now it was Takumi’s turn to be surprised, and when he blinked up in confusion at him, Leo couldn’t help but notice the way his hair looked extremely silky. He’d never noticed it the first time, too caught up in his own frustration. It was a little out of the ordinary for a guy to wear his hair long like that, but somehow on Takumi it didn’t look strange. It looked natural; fitting, even. “You . . . You’re a lot nicer than the first time I came here,” he said, suspicious, almost as if wondering whether he had an evil twin or something.
“I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t having the best day. Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“U-Uh . . . not really. Well -- “ Takumi paused, and Leo almost swore he looked nervous, not that he knew why. “Actually, can I get your suggestion on something?”
“Of course.” Aha! So this whole talking to customers thing really did net better results.
Takumi hesitated for a few more seconds. “What do you suggest getting for . . . um, someone – someone you like.”
His obvious embarrassment only made Leo feel awkward too, especially since Takumi was about his age. Was he supposed to offer advice as a peer or just as a store clerk? “Uh . . . w-well . . . does this person know you like them? A-Are you dating?”
“No,” came the quick response and a deeper blush. “Uh, no, they don’t know.” A sigh. “They probably don’t even really know that I exist. Well, I guess they know, but they probably don’t care. A-Anyway, I just want them to know how I feel. Do you have anything for that??” The bluster of his last aggressive question was probably to make up for the humiliation of the admission.
Leo said the first thought that came to mind. “W-Well – it’s traditional and maybe a little common, but roses are always a good option. Different color roses mean different things, and so you can tailor your message to -- ”
“Yeah! Yeah, that’s good. I’ll go with that. What do the colors mean?”
“Um – hold on, let me look it up for you.” Darting behind the counter to the computer, Leo quickly types in “rose color meanings” into google search. “Well, red – of course, you know, is for love. Um, pink is for admiration . . . yellow is happiness, friendship. White . . . well, if you’re looking for something romantic, then probably, ah . . . red or orange, lavender is love at first sight -- ”
“I-I’ll go with lavender, then.”
Leo looked up at him, almost feeling sorry for the guy. He’d try to keep this as professional as possible. “Lavender it is, then. How many would you like?”
“Uh . . . how many do you think would be good?”
“I-I’m not an expert . . . two, maybe? Three? More than that would probably be a little overboard.”
“Okay, two, then.” A silence as Leo turned to find the lavender roses. “ . . . Do you – work here often? I’ve seen you a couple times, but.”
Plucking the flowers from their selection, Leo jotted down the tag and number on the store’s record sheet. “I come in when my sister can’t. She’s the one who runs the place, but she has other things to do today.”
“So you don’t have set days that you’re here or anything?”
“No, not really.”
“Oh. ”
After ringing up his purchase and putting the roses in a plastic holder for him with instructions to put them in water with the attached flower food as soon as possible, and to gift them within a day or two before they started to wilt, Leo watched him swiftly leave the shop and sighed – poor guy. He hoped that the confession went well, for his sake.
It was seven-thirty by the time he finally got to close up shop, a late arrival having kept him busy past the usual seven PM closing time. Hefting his backpack over one shoulder, he locked the front door behind him and made his way down the couple blocks home, stifling a yawn. Everything smelled like flowers after an afternoon in there, and until the morning he wouldn’t be able to totally get the scent of petunias and lilies out of his nose.
“How was it at the shop today?” Camilla asked as he kicked off his shoes by the front door, setting down his backpack to shrug off his jacket.
“It was okay,” he replied, missing the amusement in her eyes. “This lady came in at six-fifty wanting some huge bouquet for a house party. I was nicer today and helped out the customers like you said.”
“Oh, did you?”
“Yeah. It’s harder than I thought, but . . . not totally bad, I guess. You were right, though, it helps with sales. I think three out of the four people today actually bought something.”
“Mm . . . yes. Speaking of which, did one of them happen to be a boy about your age? Long hair, absolutely adorable? I think his name was . . . ”
Leo paused halfway through picking up his backpack again to take upstairs. “Takumi?”
“Yes! That was it.”
“ . . . Yes, he was – buying flowers for his crush, I think. How did you know?”
“Oh, just a guess. Why don’t you head up to your room now? I’m sure you have a lot of homework to do. Oh, and Leo, thank you for watching the shop today. And for being nice to the customers. I’m sure Elise will be absolutely delighted.”
A small smile curved the edges of his lips. “Yeah, no problem.” Turning, he made his way up the stairs to his room. Closing his door behind him, he realized there was something sitting on his bed. A plastic flower holder with a pair of lavender roses – the same . . . no, it couldn’t be. The same ones he’d sold? Why were they here? Confused and unsure if he was reading the situation correctly, Leo stepped over to where Camilla must have put the flowers after receiving them on his behalf, and saw a little note taped to the plastic. Cheeks coloring, he picked it up to read more closely.
Leo ( I got your name from your name tag ),
I know I just got these flowers from you. I’m sorry I was probably really awkward but I want you to have them. Lavender roses mean love at first sight, and even though you were a jerk when I came in with Sakura a few weeks ago, I really liked you when I first saw you. You’re really handsome. I know you don’t know me, and I don’t really know you, but it took me a long time to work this up so I just wanted you to know. I hope you’ll be at the shop again soon.
Takumi
None of his siblings expected it, but they all seemed to knowingly approve when he asked to watch the shop again the next day of his own free will.