Chapter 15 #3
The remaining stallholders bustled into life as Rosie took the mop and bucket from Emma.
Emma handed them over and their eyes met for a moment, emotion written all over their faces, confusion and sadness overriding any negative feelings they’d had towards Finn.
Emma grabbed a flower tub and was attempting to haul up as much water as she could, emptying it back into the canal.
‘Finn,’ Max said, placing a hand on his shoulder to bring him round. He hadn’t moved and stood gazing, his mouth hanging slightly open. ‘Finn?’ he repeated gently. ‘Let’s try and fix the awning, shall we? Stop any more water coming in.’
‘I— You—’ He peered around wildly, but the extent of the devastation still hadn’t sunk in yet. ‘You’ll help me?’
‘Of course. Now, we need to get this out of the way.’ Max lifted the heavy, pale cream awning.
Where the water had been sitting on it, algae had turned it green, and the smell of stagnant water filled the air.
‘You’ll need to get a professional in to fix it properly.
It needs tilting more, so the rain falls back into the canal.
But we can at least do something for now. ’
‘Th– thank you,’ he stuttered, following Max’s instructions.
It took a while but eventually they made some progress.
Even some of the customers helped, sensing how devastating this could have been not just for Finn, but for everyone around him.
Almost three hours later, the awning was fixed back up, the rain had eased somewhat, and Finn’s stall was mostly back together.
His staff thanked Rosie for jumping into action, especially given how rude Finn had been to her earlier, but Finn had remained silent.
After working with Max, he’d continued alone, salvaging as much as he could.
Rosie didn’t know if he was embarrassed, angry or just trying to get a handle on the situation.
‘Aren’t you angry?’ Max asked her.
‘About what?’
‘About Finn. You save his shop, and he doesn’t even say thank you.’
She watched him move tubs around, shifting the same one from one place to another, glancing at the awning every time as if checking it was safe. Finn paused and looked down at his trousers. The bottoms were soaked, the pale beige fabric turning darker from the water.
‘To be honest, I think he’s in shock. You saw how out of it he was when it happened. Maybe he’ll say thank you tomorrow when he’s calmed down. It must have been horrible for him.’
‘I still don’t really know why you helped him when he was so rude to you.’
‘Why did you?’ she countered. ‘You helped him as much as I did. What made you do it?’
He thought for a moment, and a wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. She’d trapped him. ‘Because it was the right thing to do. And perhaps because I had a good morning sketching. I haven’t had that in a while, and I felt...’
‘Yes?’
‘Happy.’ She couldn’t stop the inane grin pulling her cheeks tight. ‘You are...’
‘Amazing? Beautiful? Clever?’
‘All of those things.’ His cheeks reddened as if he’d said it by accident while her eyes pulled wide. ‘And also, annoying and way too cheerful.’
‘It’s been said before.’
‘I’d like to say thank you.’ He picked up Zoon’s lead. ‘Let me take you out tonight. I have something I’d like to show you. Another thing in Amsterdam you must do.’
‘As a tourist or a local?’
‘Both.’
‘Do I get to know what it is?’
‘Of course not.’ He laughed and stroked Zoon’s head. ‘Come on, Zoon, let’s leave Rosie to her day. And after all that dirty water, you need a bath.’
‘Are you talking to me or the dog?’ she teased.
His eyes raked over her as if imagining her naked, and heat burned through every nerve ending in her body. ‘Zoon, of course,’ he replied, but his voice was hushed, like it was taking an effort to control it.
Rosie watched him go, her mind so focused on Max and the way he’d looked at her, not to mention what he might have planned, she didn’t hear the person clearing their throat next to her.
‘Rosie?’ She turned to see Finn, still pale and shaking a little in front of her.
‘Finn! Sit down, you look like you’re going to pass out.
’ She ushered him to the stool and waited while he sat.
He gripped the sides of it, as if nervous he might fall off, obviously unable to trust his legs.
Rosie wished she had a biscuit or something sugary to give him. He really didn’t look at all well.
‘I– I wanted to say thank you,’ he began. ‘Thank you for helping me today. I didn’t deserve it. I’m sure if you hadn’t urged everyone, they’d have stood by smiling, enjoying my shop getting destroyed.’
She thought that more than a little uncharitable but didn’t say so. She was sure everyone would have helped no matter who needed it. Some might have been reticent, but most had been more than friendly to her. Some people just weren’t good in emergencies, that was all.
‘Nobody wants to see someone else’s livelihood destroyed,’ she said gently. ‘What will you do?’
‘I’ll get someone in to fix the awning tomorrow. I haven’t lost much stock, thanks to you.’ He lifted his head to look at her, colour returning a little to his cheeks. ‘I’m sorry for the way I’ve behaved towards you.’
Rosie’s mouth hung open. She hadn’t been expecting him to say anything like that.
To be honest, she’d thought after he’d calmed down that he’d go back to his usual selfish ways, giving only a cursory thanks to those who helped him.
He still might, she supposed, but this version of Finn sitting in front of her was so different to the one she was used to, she didn’t know what to do.
‘Oh,’ was all she managed to say.
‘You weren’t expecting me to say that, were you?’
‘No. Not really.’
‘I’m not normally... how I’ve been lately. It was wrong of me to speak to you the way I did earlier. You’re right, it’s your pitch and you’re allowed to do what you want.’
‘And the talks?’ she asked, wondering just how far this change of heart went.
They’d played such an important role in increasing her takings she didn’t want to lose them, and she wasn’t interested if this was just a surface-level apology, i f tomorrow, he’d be back to his old ways.
She kept her voice soft and un-accusing, not wanting to seem mean after the day he’d had.
Finn blushed, colour flooding his cheeks under the dark tan of his face. He seemed a little more alive than he had before.
‘I’m ashamed of that.’ Rosie noticed him toying with his fingers, pushing the thumb of one hand into the palm of another. ‘It was a good idea, and I shouldn’t have stolen it.’
‘You could have just spoken to me, and we could have sorted out a schedule.’ This thought clearly hadn’t occurred to him.
She turned over an empty metal bucket and sat in front of him.
Again, keeping her voice soft, as she had done with unruly customers in her waitressing jobs, she asked, ‘Why did you feel the need to steal my idea?’
‘I don’t know. I always worry when someone new starts that they’ll be a threat and take my business. I’m always waiting for the day to come when it all goes wrong.’
That was clearly a trauma response if ever she’d heard one, but she wasn’t going to ask anything more about the cause right now.
‘You think this tiny pitch is going to make a dent in your profits? I don’t think so. You’ve got that enormous spot and two shops, so I hear. I don’t think you need to worry about me. Not yet anyway,’ she added with a grin.
Finn smiled and a softness infused his face. ‘This is how I started.’ He motioned to Rosie’s tiny pitch. ‘I’m sure that in a while you’ll definitely be competition I should worry about.’
‘You started with a tiny pitch like this?’ She couldn’t keep the shock from her voice.
For some reason, she’d always supposed he’d started with the enormous bit he had, or a shop first. She’d also assumed he’d had money to start up his business, that it had all come easily to him.
A judgement, she realised, she had absolutely no evidence for.
‘Actually, I started with this tiny pitch and a bike.’
‘A bike?’ She couldn’t stop the laugh from escaping her mouth as she imagined this refined, well-tailored man pedalling around Amsterdam.
‘I was younger then,’ he added with a hint of amusement.
‘As soon as I could afford even a little help, they’d work here, and I’d ride a bike around Amsterdam selling flowers from the basket.
It was hard on the legs.’ He rubbed his thighs to prove his point and Rosie laughed again.
‘Everything grew from there. I saved up enough for a deposit on a shop and then did the same for a bigger one.’
‘Well, that fills me with hope. I’ve got to admit I’m not finding any of this easy.’ The end of the summer felt like a million miles away, but it was only a month or so. ‘I’ve moved all this way, and I can’t afford for this not to work.’
She realised with an ache in her heart that as much as she loved her family, she didn’t want to return home.
She loved the city and the flower market, and the thought of making her life and career here filled her with a sense of purpose she’d never really had before.
She’d worked in jobs and as part of a team, but nothing gave her the sense of friendship this place– this city– did.
‘You’ve been very brave moving countries. That’s quite a commitment. I didn’t know you’d done that. Listen—’ He stood up, far more stable on his legs. ‘I’ll stop giving the talks and if I can help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask.’
‘Why don’t we try and work together?’ Rosie said. ‘Fenna loves to stock bulbs; you stock, well, everything, but lots of tulips, which is the national flower—’
‘Well done.’ That teasing tone was back again, and Rosie had the strange feeling she might actually get to like Finn if he carried on being like this.
‘And I love herbs. Why don’t we work out a schedule? See if Fenna wants to be involved too?’
‘That’s a—Wow! That’s a good idea.’
‘Here—’ She took her phone from her back pocket. ‘What’s your number? I can set up a WhatsApp group for us.’
A hint of the Finn she’d known before resurfaced as he hesitated. Then he said, ‘Are you sure she’ll want to talk to me?’ and her heart melted.
‘Of course. We’re all in this together, after all.’
He gave her his details and went back to tidying up his stall.
Rosie did the same, running over the conversation again in her head.
She couldn’t believe the man who’d just sat and talked with her was the same one who’d been eyeing her so suspiciously since she’d started working t here.
Knowing he’d begun in a similar way, with a small pitch and the basket of a bike, filled her with hope.
The rain eased to a gentle tapping and the clouds began to clear.
Rosie headed home with a spring in her step and a smile on her face, and that was before she even knew what Max had in store for her.