Page 48 of Love Grows

Epilogue

Eighteen months later.

Mountain Ash Gum Tree

(Eucalyptus regnans)

The tallest flower and the second tallest tree species in the world, it attains a height of about 90-100 metres and a circumference of 7.5 metres. It is a hardwood and has a straight, strong trunk with smooth bark. The Mountain Ash is unusual in that it only grows from seeds inside the hard nuts which are released following fire. Then it thrives on sunlight as it grows rapidly up to a metre a year. After a fire, hundreds of seed pods are released and grow raptly towards the sun. One tree can create an entire forest.

“I’m so proud of you,” Steph murmured as we walked into the council chambers. I squeezed her hand in reply. Both of us were dressed in our flashiest suits: Steph’s a pencil skirt high heel combination that had made me weak at the knees for eighteen months now, me in a bespoke pants suit that Ted had helped me with by recommending a tailor he knew. The reason for all the flashiness was the ceremony for the services to community awards that the council gave out each year. It just so happened that the person receiving the services to the community (children) award and the services to the community (disabled) award was me, Angel Whitlock.

I thought it thoroughly ironic that the last time I was in this chamber, I’d been growling at Benjamin Walker and deciding he was a wanker. Now, here I was dating his sister and deciding that actually, after meeting him, Benjamin Walker wasn’t really such a wanker after all. Just rather full of himself with a lot of hot air which a bit of harmless teasing always popped. He’d been invited to our little community Christmas party last year and he’d declined—something about Chinese investors which had been news to Steph and I’d heard her the next day giving him a bollocking on the phone about Christmas was all about people being more important than business.

She had the authority to get stuck into her brother like that considering she was the majority shareholder and the younger sister. It still blew my mind—maybe a bit less now—when Steph picked me up in her latest model Mercedes, stepping out in sunglasses, business wear and heels. It blew up a a lot of places on my body as well. She volunteered at Dig It a few days a week and offered ideas like when she shifted all the child-friendly plants down to the bottom shelving in the store when we realised that Leroy was escaping into the foliage. I also found out who Kat was. Katherine, Ms Icy, from the council meeting. Steph had giggled when she’d heard what my first impression of Kat was.

“Oh my God. She only does that.” She pretended to wipe her hand down her face so that it revealed a stern expression. “To keep the board in check. Being senior lawyer on the Walker’s board requires a poker face, chiselled hair and an eyebrow that can hit the ceiling. In reality, Kat is a huge softie, owns a Labradoodle and plays online ‘Grand Theft Auto’.”

It took me a minute for my brain to reassign my visual imagery for Katherine Marcheson.

Mum and Dad had beamed in via FaceTime last night to congratulate me. They’d already met Steph virtually and as they’d done in every other video chat, after they’d given their laptop a hug to simulate the real version, Steph and my parents spent an inordinate amount of time gushing over European architecture.

That was the elephant in the room sometimes: the fact that I earned significantly less than Steph and wasn’t as worldly got stuck in my head little. It worried me that I wasn’t enough. She’d reiterated again only last week when I came home with the suit from the tailor’s.

“Sweetheart, you look stunning.”

Cue massive imposter syndrome. “I feel a bit like a fake,” I’d replied, with a grimace.

“Why?” She looked so concerned.

“I’m a uni drop-out who runs a nursery. I…”

“What?” She’d come close and held my waist, staring intently.

“I worry I’m not enough.”

Steph had tugged me into her so our bodies were flush, then leant back a little so she could look me in the eyes.

“Angel Whitlock, you are more than enough, but if enough is where you need to be then yes, you are enough. You are a business owner, a valued member of the community, a winner of awards for being the kind, thoughtful person that you are. You are gorgeous. You are enough. I am proud to call you my lover.”

And with that I’d cried, right there in the bedroom of my little flat next door to my little boutique nursery.

Dig It was still the same size but the growth in popularity was astounding. Steph still made herNatsNativesTikTok videos which were very successful. We had so much foot traffic that I was incredibly grateful I had wide accessibility aisles so people could browse without elbowing each other. Kahlia asked tentatively one morning last year if she could run classes for people with disabilities on how to look after natives.

“I won’t take up too much space,” she’d said, her fingers twined together over her chest, almost as if she were praying.

“That sounds like the most brilliant idea ever. There’d be heaps of people living in assisted or shared housing that could look after succulents or smaller plants. You’re a genius.” I’d leapt up and hugged her and she’d let out a whoosh of air that was laden with relief and joy.

So now, along with Bonsai Brains, we had ‘Know Your Native’: a name which had been Lucas’ idea because he said it worked well with his initiative of creating music—instrumental, mostly—playlists that could be streamed from QR codes attached to each species’s display in the nursery.

“Chill while you’re vibing with your Acacia.”

I’d stared at him. “Vibing…with an Acacia…” I’d faded off.

“Come on, Angel, don’t be old.”

So we started to become known asthatnursery, whatever ‘that’ meant. But it was working. We had mini-buses of the elderly, disabled, the neurodivergent and the simply curious. We were even the third stop on the bus tour of Rainbow Melbourne. That was once a month, so we always shuffled the plants about to create the colours of the pride flag. And the passengers always left holes in our floral artwork with their many purchases.

“And now, the award for?—”

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