Page 36 of Because of Her

“Thanks for dinner, Cassidy.”

She hums a smile as I leave.

It’s not until I have one foot in the hallway that she calls out a goodbye.

“I don’t know if I ever said this, and I know I haven’t said it recently, but you’re a great friend. Your daughter doesn’t change that.”

Friend. The word shouldn’t hurt, but it feels like a knife. No matter how much it hurts, I’ll stab myself with it over and over until I can convince Cass we can be more.

CASSIDY

“Ican’t believe you pulled this off at such short notice.”

Making a final adjustment to a stray petal, I glance over my shoulder. I smile at Noah as I count my blessings my cousin is the events manager at such an incredible winery. He called me in a desperate state this morning, needing floral arrangements for a boujee proposal picnic. I jumped at the chance to get creative and spread love. I need the money, but more than that, I need something to take my mind off Callum. For weeks now, I can’t stop thinking about him, about us. And now I can’t stop thinking about what we could have been if he didn’t have a daughter. About what we might be now I know he does.

Trying to make sense of all the thoughts and emotions in my head is like trying to unblend a smoothie. Impossible, and honestly a little unneeded.

Kissing Callum was … amazing.

And now I know why he freaked out, I don’t feel so bad about it anymore.

But things are bound to get messy when two friends step across the platonic line. Add a child, a divorce, and my infertility into the mix and the whole thing is a recipe for disaster. I have no idea where to go from here.

I close my eyes, inhaling the sweet aroma from the roses, before shaking loose the tension in my shoulders and turning back to Noah.

“Thank you,” he offers, “this looksamazing.”

I grab his hand to pull myself up and start stacking my now empty buckets.

“I need to ask you something.” Noah wrings his hands, scuffing his black sneakers in the grass.

“What?”

“Can you be our florist?”

I turn back to the mass of flowers I’ve laid out meticulously, throwing my arms out to twirl.

“Is that not what I am?”

Walking forward to stand next to me, Noah drops his arm over my shoulder. He deposits more weight than is comfortable and I wriggle to break free from my cousin’s overt friendliness. He’s up to something, I’m just not sure what.

“I’m not good at this,” he admits. “Running everything.Planningeverything. It’s exhausting. But if you were like, the winery’s florist, you could do every event. I wouldn’t have to worry about linking customers with vendors. I’ll add you to the calendar so you can see what we have coming up. And do your flower thing without me having to act as a middleman.”

I blink away the sun, contemplating his words. If I was the winery’s sole florist my calendar would end up completely booked. I wouldn’t have to stress about finding events, they would come to me. A tingle starts in my throat, forcing its way down to my heart. My fingers twitch with excitement.

“I’ll pay you,” Noah adds when I take too long to reply.

Turning to face him, my cheeks puff with my broad grin.

“I think you just saved my business.”

Although it took me a while to find floristry as my preferred outlet, creativity has been in my bones for as long as I can remember. As a child, I played with my Barbies by hand sewing new clothes for them, or painting the doll house an array of colours. My best subject at school was always Art, and I went through a portrait phase that saw my final high school submission on display in the National Gallery of Victoria.

Until, in my final year of school, my aunt got married.

My sister and I had been called in as ‘junior bridesmaids’ and set with the task of helping set up the venue. I was fascinated watching the florist work. The way she had twisted the flower stems around one another to hold them in place, the careful consideration while filling mason jars with blooms. To see how the colours came together, how the arrangements on the wine barrels coordinated with the posies tied to chairs, and how the flowers transformed the look of the whole venue.

It was a life changing experience, standing there, deciding that this,this,was what I wanted to do with my life. I enrolled into a Cert 3 in floristry the following day and started approaching companies that week.

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