Page 11 of Lovesick
Ask Maggie if she’d like to make a bit of extra cash working at the shop, of course. It was perfect. College students could always use a little something extra, and I would get to keep Maggie close. Also, my mother would be thrilled. She knew Maggie was a hard worker, and Momma was also thinking about adding to our staff. Having Maggie here would give her a chance to see if there was really enough work to justify hiring another full-time employee.
Again, genius.
I had called this morning when I woke up to propose my idea, and Maggie had agreed immediately - then backtracked and cooled down a bit of her excitement to say that she should check with her mom first, just in case. After all, her mom didn’t get to see Maggie all that often and she was supposed to be going home over spring break to spend time with family.
Unsurprisingly, Maggie’s mom had no problem with her working over the break, so it had been settled. Maggie would start working at the shop this afternoon after she went home, unpacked and spent the morning with her family.
I couldn’t wait. It had taken me a few minutes of deleting and retyping words, but I had finally texted Maggie the truth - that I had missed her since high school. I just hadn’t realized it until our lunch date…and our kiss. I wanted more of that. I wanted more of Maggie, and this afternoon I would get what I wanted.
Since I hadn’t already asked if we could hire her, I planned for Maggie to come by when my mother was here so I could “introduce” them. It wouldn’t really be an introduction. Instead, it would be one of those “Momma, you remember Maggie,” moments.
I could have called and asked her about hiring Maggie, but I didn’t want to be a bother right now. I knew she was busy this morning ordering supplies. Not that I expected her to refuse Maggie a job. On the contrary, I figured she would be fine with the idea. I just didn’t want to spring an unexpected request on her and risk an unexpected reaction.
After a while, my mother rounded the corner and stepped inside the shop carrying a tablet as I peered behind the counter looking for my ink pen. “What’s that for?” I asked.
“Inventory, remember? Today is inventory day.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Taking inventory at a flower shop was an interesting task. If we didn’t sell our supply within X amount of time, the stock died or became blemished and could only be sold at a discount - or trashed. Over the years, my mother had become quite good at predicting the market for flowers and controlling what we had on hand, but we still threw out a fair amount every day.
Today, the flow of customers had been steady. So, I wasn’t expected to help with inventory. The hours sped by so quickly that I didn’t even realize it was almost two o’clock before I heard the pleasant chiming of the doorbell that indicated someone had come in.
“Welcome to-” Maggie’s smile silenced my standardized welcome for customers. “Hey, Maggie.”Welcome to hey Maggie. Sounds like some reality TV show.
“Hey.” She came over to lean against the counter. “Busy day?”
“We’ve had a fair number of calls and customers today,” I told her, seizing the chance to skirt the counter and give her a perfunctory hug. It was supposed to be quick. Instead, I ended up marveling at how she smelled like the beautiful flowers that surrounded us and almost forgot to let go. “Momma’s back here,” I told her bringing myself back to reality.
She was crouching beside a large bouquet of hydrangeas. “How’s it going,” I started, waiting until she tore her eyes away from inspecting every angle of her creation. “You remember Maggie, right?”
“Of course! Hi, Honey, how are you?” My mother dusted her hands off and gathered Maggie into a hug. “How’s school?”
“Really well, Mrs. Ellen,” Maggie said politely. “I’m graduating in May.”
“That’s great! I guess you’re home for the weekend?”
“Oh, I’m home for a whole week. It’s spring break.” When she turned away to look at something, Maggie sent me a we’re-talking-about-this-later look. Maybe I should have mentioned that I hadn’t told my mother about my master plan, after all. But it was too late now.
“Actually, Momma, I want to ask you about something.” I went on to suggest that Maggie would come to work at the shop for a few days while she was home to make some extra money. “And… and it would give you a chance to decide if you really want to hire another person.”
As I had expected, she smiled obviously pleased with my idea. “That would be perfect, Marty. And you know, being busy is a good thing, but you can’t man the register and make a delivery at the same time.” She turned to Maggie and touched her arm. “An extra hand around here would be great.”
“Oh, thank you! I hope it’ll be okay, though, if I can spend Tuesday and Thursday with my Momma and Granny.”
“That is no problem at all. I’m sure your mother and grandmother….” The two women wondered off, chatting. I followed them until I noticed a customer at the counter and broke away to handle it.
After the man left with his bouquet of pink flowers and one of the few greeting cards we kept in stock, the two women reappeared laughing. Momma’s demeanor told me she was pleased. “Marty, will you do the 5 PM delivery to the Royal Bank Building’s conference room? I’ll handle the shop. You can take Maggie with you and show her how we do deliveries and the paperwork.”
I glanced down at my watch. It was 4:15. “Sure,” I said agreeably. After she told me Maggie could go, I was fine with anything she might ask me to do. So, I got out the file and found the order. “Okay,” I said to Maggie. “Let’s load the van. I’ll show you what we need.”
The event planner had ordered flowers and rental vases for the arrangements. I wondered what the event was - maybe some work function? Of course, the order didn’t have to say what the flowers were for. Sometimes, we got one that had specific instructions, but most of the time we just showed up without any prior knowledge of what to expect.
Fortunately, it only took Maggie and me ten minutes to load the van. The place was only fifteen minutes away, so we got to the location with a few minutes to spare.
“We don’t want to be too early,” I told Maggie as she started to get out of the van. “Event planners always seem to work on a tight schedule, and they get irritated when people don’t show up when they’re supposed to. Early is better than late, but perfectly on time is best.”
We sat in the bank’s parking lot and chatted until 5 PM. Then, we both filled our arms with flower boxes and headed into the building.
