2 #2
The magic could come now for those who had the training.
I let out a happy sigh the moment we arrived at the florist I’d gone to with Sergey… Except it wasn’t open yet.
“I really am fucking useless,” I whispered, barely holding it together.
“Can I help you?” a woman asked from behind us as I slapped the door.
I flinched and turned around, seeing the nice witch from before. “Sorry. I was here before and—bad morning already and I wanted happy but didn’t think to check the hours.” I glanced at her door. “I didn’t do damage.”
She chuckled awkwardly as she looked at my guards. “It’s fine. I can let you in early since I’m here as long as we don’t make it a habit.”
“No, of course,” I said quickly. “I can come back and—we can get breakfast. I don’t want to put you—”
“It’s really fine,” she promised, kindness in her eyes as she took me in. “I like making people feel better.”
And she probably saw my eyes were red and I was a mess.
I thanked her again after she let us in and decided to add to my plans. The flowers Sergey had gotten me were amazing quality and the shop was apparently an ignored gem. It wasn’t a big or flashy one in the magical malls because it wasn’t owned by a top-tier family.
Yeah, that was why the council guards knew it and ordinary people used it. But ordinary people didn’t have the money to buy flowers all that often.
I did.
I went over to the roses and looked over the yellow ones. I’d really liked the tulips Kelton had gotten me. Roses were always pretty, but Winter was someone who loved nature. That seemed too… Prim for him?
No, not the right word, but typical maybe?
I kept looking and then smiled when I saw something different, a bit wild and big. The stems were. I hurried over there and glanced at the label. Forsythias? I wasn’t familiar with them, but they were pretty.
Really pretty.
I looked them up on my phone and smiled. They were shrubs that flowered and could get huge. Huge, wild, a bit crazy, and beautiful.
Perfect. Yeah, that was Winter.
I picked out enough for a large bouquet and brought them up to the counter.
She did a double take. “No fun assortment this time?”
I couldn’t hide my shock. “You remember me?”
“You leave an impression,” she chuckled.
“My crazy choices, you mean.” I shrugged. “You were polite and I know they didn’t mix, but… I got to choose it.”
“Good for you, but I meant your eyes. They’re so breathtaking and I’m a woman who loves color.” She gestured around the shop.
Fair enough. “They’re not for me. I need to apologize to my boyfriend.” I frowned. “I think.”
She frowned then too. “You think?”
“I should, but we were both wrong.”
She bobbed her head. “But men give the flowers. Not us.”
I opened my mouth to ask what she meant, but one of my guards snickered and that made me mad. “Why not?” I dug in my heels when they glanced between each other. “Why not? You guys don’t like flowers? You can’t appreciate something pretty? Don’t you like women because we’re pretty?”
“Well, yeah,” he mumbled.
“Okay, and flowers are,” I said, gesturing to the flowers on the counter. “So you wouldn’t like pretty from someone who cares about you? Like are you stupid?”
“No, and it’s always nice, but it’s just not how it works,” he hedged, realizing this was going to be a thing.
Yeah, well, they’d started it.
I crossed my arms over my chest and bobbed my head.
“So that’s not how it works. But I’ve heard you and like everyone around me complain a ton about how things work.
You hate the way things are with lots. So then you snicker when someone wants to change things and bitch about the way things are? Do I understand that right?”
“Dayummmmnnn, she got you,” the other guard said with a hiss, glancing between him and the witch, making it clear he meant her too.
“I’d love it if my ex-girlfriend had ever taken the time to care about picking me out anything to show she wanted to make up with me even if we were both wrong.
Seriously. She would just go, ‘whatever, we’re fine,’ and I hated that. ”
I felt better when the witch flinched. So clearly she’d done something like that. I decided to not push and be a jerk and thank the guard later on the side.
“Is there something I should add to this to make it better?” I asked her instead.
“I would leave them plain for the simplicity,” she answered, her lips twitching as if noting that I wasn’t going to be petty.
Glad she did.
I thanked her and had her wrap them up but then decided to get bouquets for Mrs. Reid, Tracey, and Wyatt because… Why not?
Seriously—why not? Flowers were nice and I’d made a mess so again—why not?
Yeah, I had no reason not to.
And I felt better at least knowing that I was being nice enough to appreciate them.
So nothing shocked me more than to find Winter waiting at my house with a bouquet of yellow flowers.
“You are never boring, little sexy,” he chuckled as he took in my overloaded arms.
“Only one is for you,” I told him as I moved closer.
“I guessed the yellow ones, but I was the one at fault.”
I beamed at him. “Not that I’m weird for wanting to give you flowers?”
He furrowed his brows. “I love pretty everything. How can I not enjoy something beautiful when I chase you all over?”
“Smooth,” I chuckled.
“Thank you. And before I’ve had coffee even.”
I laughed and let him inside. I set the others down and handed him his, explaining what they were.
“They’re great, really, Bev,” he accepted, and handed me the dozen huge roses. “I went with classic because I was cliché being a jealous dick.”
I moved my hand to his chest and he got the idea, leaning down so I could kiss his cheek.
“We have too much going on. If it was a normal pool party and you blew your lid that I was showing too much skin around people like you owned me, then you’d be the asshole.
You’re right that we should talk about things. ”
“I still should never make you feel you did anything wrong when it’s our society that’s fucked up and I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted. And I’m sorry that I didn’t think about how it would affect you. In the future, I’ll be more careful and discuss actions that could affect us and remember we’re the team.”
“Thanks, Bev.” He gave me a soft kiss. “These are really great. I know you took the time to pick something that made you think of me. That means a lot.”
I flushed and then showed him what I’d looked up, saying the shop was great and they’d caught my eye. I hurried to gush about my roses. They were huge and I didn’t want him to think I didn’t appreciate them.
There was nothing wrong with classic. I loved them.
I really did, and they brightened up the kitchen. My sister, Clare, said as much and made us plates. She really liked cooking and mumbled a few times that she was glad so many nice people were around who appreciated the food.
But that she was pleased we had Nelly now because she didn’t like doing the dishes or grocery shopping. She liked the cooking and meal planning, and having a housekeeper who did the rest was the perfect balance for her.
For us even.
Fair enough. I appreciated the meals and made the money so we could have them.
“This is my favorite,” I told Clare, gesturing at the egg bake thing with my fork. “It’s like the perfect blend of everything.”
“Thanks,” she said, blinking at me for a moment before clearing her throat. “I like it too. It’s simple, but if you bake just a thin layer of it, it’s more like eggy hash browns instead of mushy potatoes inside an omelet.”
“Yeah, it’s really good,” Winter agreed. “Tofu?”
“You really are a foodie,” I teased him when Clare did a double take.
He snorted. “I manage a food delivery service. I hear all about the food and this and that all the time.”
“I wouldn’t have thought tofu,” I admitted as I took another bite. The taco hides it.”
I smiled as Clare excitedly told us about how she slow-cooked a mix of ground beef and ground chicken to make the taco meat so it was healthier and we couldn’t tell it was half chicken.
That she mixed in tofu and cottage cheese for the protein, but also low-fat cheese, and half of the eggs were egg whites.
Basically, I smiled that she was doing better.
We were doing better out of that fucking house of horrors.
Even if I ruined the factory that morning. I would enjoy this moment and that my sister was able to do better.
That I could know her now and we could have something together.