“You’re not into astronomy, too, are you?”
“Nah. I don’t know what they’re all called, but I like stargazing to clear my head. One of the benefits of living in the country.” He climbed the steps to his front porch. “Night, Tahira.”
I headed toward the backyard and the tiny house. “Night, Plant-Boy.”
13
SUCKY NIGHT WITH SUCCULENTS
Itexted Shar as I walked through the backyard, letting her know I was home from Niagara Falls. She hadn’t given Gia and me a curfew or anything, but I didn’t want her to worry.
Gia wasn’t in the tiny house when I got there. I kind of wished I had my best friend to talk to right now, but she was probably still with Cameron.
I headed for bed, not expecting to get any sleep. And sure enough, I spent most of the night staring at the pine ceiling three feet from my head while feeling sorry for myself.
I must have slept some, though, because Gia was in her bed when I woke at eight. I dressed quietly so I wouldn’t wake her, since she wasn’t working today. Being surrounded by city streets and stores always helped me clear my head, so I headed downtown for a few hours before work. There weren’t a lot of people around since it was a Monday morning, and of course, this was Bakewell, not Toronto. I didn’t really feel any better after wandering the sleepy town for a while. Eventually, I parked myself on a bench outside the city council building and colored in some sketches of clothes I’d made a few days ago until it was time for work. The art pencils Rowan gave me weren’t the same brand I used,but they were good quality. Focusing on my designing helped—I did actually feel a bit better.
Lilybuds was pretty dead all day, but that was fine because a large shipment had come in, and everything in the store needed to be rearranged to fit the new stuff.
“I never would have thought these would work at Lilybuds, but I love them,” Shar said, holding up a loose, leaf-print, unisex button-up I’d picked for the Lily collection. It was more “natural” than I normally went for, but at least it was just a leaf print and not flowers.
“Should we put them with the green high-waisted skirts?” Juniper asked. She had a good eye for merchandising. And thankfully, she hadn’t mentioned anything about my breakup last night, or mentioned Rowan picking me up from the pond. I loved her for that.
“Yeah,” I said. “Hey, Shar, can we move the white linen shorts there, too?”
“Absolutely! Move whatever you like. Anything to breathe some life into the stock.”
For the next few hours, June and I set up the new Lily section. Rowan was right—keeping busy was a great way to keep Matteo and all the other crap going on off my mind. After about half the new stock was out, I took a step back to inspect our handiwork. The corner definitely had a younger vibe, and even the few older pieces I’d moved there now seemed trendier. But the space was missing something. It didn’t look like a distinct line, like I’d imagined.
After my whole store rebrand had been rejected last week, I’d created a mock-up sketch of this new Lily section, keeping it simple, with no new fixtures and only the small circular logo on the wall that I planned to paint myself. But now I could see it wasn’t enough.
“What do you think is missing?” I asked Shar while Juniper was helping a customer.
Shar came around the counter and put her glasses on. “I think it looks wonderful. I love the pop of color with the white and black pieces. You’ll take pictures for the store’s new social media, right?”
I had planned to photograph each new piece for the Lilybuds Insta, but I wasn’t sure the whole section was ready for a close-up.
“It doesn’t look enough like a distinct line within the store.”
Shar tilted her head. “What about your idea of wallpaper or a mural? We could do part of the wall, just behind that section, instead of the whole back wall.”
I turned to face Shar. “You’d be okay with that?”
“Sure, as long as the cost is reasonable. Designer wallpaper is probably too much, but there is cheaper stuff out there. Or you can do a painted mural. I really liked that sketch with the one that looked like the mural at Wynter’s. Maybe we can find out who painted that?”
That wasn’t a bad idea. I squinted and imagined a smaller mural—maybe seven feet wide and floor to ceiling, right behind the Lily racks. Like the one at Wynter’s, with the interlocking triangles of purple, blue, and green. I could still paint the Lily logo in the middle of the mural.
“I know who painted that,” Juniper said, joining us after her customer left.
“Great! Can you ask if they’d do a smaller version of it here?”
Juniper laughed. “I could, but you could ask, too. That mural was Rowan’s grade-twelve art project.”
Jesus, Rowan again? Was there anything he couldn’t do? Why hadn’t he told me that the art was his?
Shar beamed. “Oh, how wonderful! A small piece surely won’t take him long. I’ll pay, of course.”
Juniper nodded. “Let’s ask him tonight, since our team is getting together anyway.”
