Chapter Eighty-One
Eighty-One
Due to Quaddra’s extremely busy work and traveling schedule, his and Mary’s trip back to Salzburg wouldn’t exactly coincide with their wedding anniversary.
The options were to either fly to Austria ten days before their wedding date – staying for a maximum of four days – or seven days after it – staying for a whole week.
Mary chose option two, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t celebrate on the actual date.
On the contrary, for their special day, Quaddra had booked a table at Sons & Daughters – a two Michelin-starred restaurant, located in Nob Hill, just north of Union Square.
Mary wasn’t working that Monday. Quaddra knew that, so he made arrangements for a very colorful surprise.
At exactly midday, a flower-delivery man rang the front-gate doorbell at Mary and Quaddra’s mansion to deliver a mesmerizing bouquet – pink flowers only – containing lisianthus, roses, germini, oriental lilies and soft gypsophila.
‘Wow, that’s absolutely beautiful,’ Gabriela, the younger of the two housemaids said, as she entered the kitchen, where Mary was just transferring the bouquet from its delivery package into a very glamorous dark glass vase.
‘I know,’ Mary said back, her smile brightening the room. ‘Isn’t it just? But I think that they might’ve made a mistake with the card.’
‘Oh really?’ Gabriela asked, taking a step closer. ‘Why?’
Mary pulled the card from its envelope and showed it to her. There were only two letters printed on it. The first showed right at the center of the card – the letter ‘I’. The second was down by the right-hand corner – ‘Q’.
Mary and Gabriela both knew that ‘Q’ stood for Quaddra, but what was the ‘I’ right at the center of the card?
‘That’s odd,’ Gabriela commented. ‘It’s such a gorgeous bouquet for the flower shop to have made such a silly mistake. Do you think that the printer ran out of ink and they didn’t notice it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Mary said before shrugging. ‘But it doesn’t really matter. The flowers are beautiful, and Quaddra can tell me what the card was supposed to say when he gets home tonight.’
At exactly 1:00 p.m., when the front-gate doorbell went off again, Gabriela was the one who received the second bouquet at the front door.
‘Mrs. Buckner?’ she called, carrying the new bouquet out onto the pool area, where Mary was stretched out on a sun lounger, working on her tan.
‘Either the flower shop has really made a big mistake.’ The smile on Gabriela’s lips already telling Mary that she didn’t believe that that was the case.
‘Or Mr. Buckner has decided to shower you with flowers.’
Mary moved her sunglasses up to her head, as her eyes widened at the new, exquisitely arranged bouquet – this one a striking combination of purple, blue and white flowers.
‘Or maybe the flower shop realized their mistake with the card in the first bouquet,’ Gabriela suggested. ‘And this is how they decided to apologize.’
‘What… with a brand-new bunch of flowers?’ Mary asked. ‘Some apology that is.’
‘I wouldn’t be surprised,’ Gabriela said, confidently nodding at Mary. ‘Nobody wants to lose a customer like Mr. Buckner.’
Mary got to her feet and reached for the card.
‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ she said, her head shaking at Gabriela, as she bit down on a smile.
‘What?’ the girl asked, the expression on her face was total disbelief. ‘They made a mistake again?’
‘It’s not a mistake.’ Mary showed Gabriela the card. This one had a single word printed at the center of it – ‘love’. The letter ‘Q’ was, once again, printed at the bottom right-hand corner of the card.
Gabriela looked confused. ‘What?’
Mary returned the card to the envelope. ‘How many flower vases do we have in the house, do you know?’
‘I’m not sure of the exact number, but we’ve got a few.’
‘Well,’ Mary’s head angled in the direction of the house, ‘get them all out, because if I’m right, we’re going to be getting a few more of these today.’
Gabriela still looked a little unsure of what was happening.
‘Quaddra is forming a sentence,’ Mary explained. ‘Word by word… card by card… bunch of flowers by bunch of flowers.’ Her head jerked back in the direction of the house. ‘I.’ She lifted the second card. ‘ “Love”… we’re going to have to wait to see what comes next. Typical Quaddra.’
Gabriela laughed. ‘That really is typical Mr. Buckner,’ the girl agreed. ‘And so cute at the same time.’
Mary nodded. ‘I know. He really is a hopeless romantic. C’mon.’ She turned towards the house. ‘Let’s go get some vases out.’
Throughout the rest of the day, every hour, on the hour, a new impressive bouquet of flowers was delivered to Mary – from midday, until four o’clock. Each one with a card containing a single word – I… love… you… so… much.
The last bouquet was delivered at 5:00 p.m. sharp – an incredible arrangement of large red roses. The card that came with it was a little different from the previous five. It contained six words, instead of a single one – ‘Happy One Year Anniversary, My Love’.
When Quaddra got home, an hour after the final flower delivery, Mary was sitting in the living room – three flower vases to her left, three flower vases to her right.
‘Oh!’ Quaddra paused, as if he was surprised by what he was seeing. ‘You bought some flowers?’
Mary got to her feet, trying hard not to smile. ‘You’re one silly, silly man, do you know that?’
Quaddra put down his briefcase. ‘I couldn’t choose,’ he said, matter-of-factly.
‘So, you decided to buy the whole shop?’ Mary got to him and put her arms around his neck.
‘You deserve all the flowers in the world.’ Quaddra put his arms around her waist and they kissed.
‘Well,’ Mary said, looking left then right. ‘It looks like I’ve got all the flowers in the world… and they’re all gorgeous, my love, thank you so much.’
‘Happy one year anniversary, babe.’ They kissed again. ‘The first of many to come.’
Mary’s fake smile was the most truthful she could find. ‘I really hope so.’
Quaddra checked his watch. ‘OK, our reservation at Sons & Daughters is at seven thirty.’ He grabbed his briefcase. ‘Let me drop this in my office and go take a quick shower, OK? I won’t be long.’
‘Go,’ Mary urged him, turning to face the flowers. ‘I’ll distribute these around the house and then I’ll get changed.’
As Quaddra made his way to his office, Mary tried to decide which bunch of flowers would look best in which room. They were all exquisite in their own right. The irony was that one of those magnificent bouquets was just about to flip her entire life upside down.