“Sana’s just a kid, Jenn. I don’t need to worry her yet.”
“She’s a hell of a lot smarter and more grown-up than we were at her age,” Jenn says.
They’re both silent for a bit. I wonder if I should go upstairs… but then I’ll never find out what Mom’s keeping from me.
Finally, Jenn says something. “Are you going to accept the offer?”
“I don’t know,” Mom says.
“You may not have a choice. I heard that Rossi’s wants to take over the vacant space next to it to open a floral and garden department.”
Ugh. Rossi’s is the chain gourmet store that opened nearby. If they start selling flowers, it would suck for Mom’s business.
“That shouldn’t affect me,” Mom says. “My wedding and event business is keeping me afloat. No one goes to a chain grocery store for their wedding flowers.”
“It would affect your walk-ins. They’re already down,” Jenn says.
Mom sighs loudly. “Yeah. If interest rates were lower, I wouldn’t need to rely on walk-ins.”
I frown. She’s probably talking about hermortgageinterest. Mom owns this building—with the shop downstairs and the apartment upstairs—and I know she had a meeting with the bank this week. I bite my lip. Here I am stressing about not having a prom date, and Mom’s worrying about being able to pay her mortgage.
“Interest rates aren’t going to change,” Jenn says. “If your sales don’t go up, you’ll have no choicebutto sell the building.”
What?Mom had an offer to sell the wholebuilding… including the apartment we live in? Why is Mom keeping this from me?
“Hopefully it won’t come to that. They don’t need an answer right away.” Mom pauses. “Let’s see what happens this summer. And don’t worry. I’ll talk to Sana before making any decisions.”
I exhale a shaky breath. I can’t keep listening like this. They only sent me to get a flower from the cooler. It shouldn’t take this long. I call out, “Got a ranunculus!” as I loudly run up the stairs.
No one talks about interest rates or selling the business once I’m back. But it’s all I can think about. I wish there were something I could do.
Mom starts cleaning up after Jenn leaves. “Can you cover the flower shop for a few hours on Sunday after your brunch?” she asks while she’s washing the brushes. “I have to head up north. Nani and Nana need their gutters cleaned.”
Mom’s parents, my Nani and Nana, live about an hournorth of us. Mom gets called if there are any chores that need to be done in their house since she’s the only one of her siblings somewhat close by.
“Yeah, of course,” I say, still thinking about why Mom would keep this huge secret from me. “Mom, would it help if I left Cosmic to come work for you instead? You seem so… busy lately.”
Mom shakes her head. “Absolutely not. Partially because Jenn would kill me, but also, I can’t give you the hours she does. You’re making money for school.” Mom smiles, but it seems kind of forced. “You need to worry aboutyou, Sana, not me. So, why do you need a prom date? I thought you were going with Priya? I hope you two work it out. She’s such a nice girl.”
Had she been listening at all at dinner? “I don’t want to get back together with Priya,” I say. “But seriously, I can at least cover more hours at the flower shop. I have time.” I have no idea how else I can help, but I have to dosomethingso she won’t sell the building.
“You’re such a good girl. I’m fine though.” She yawns. “I’m meeting that bride again tomorrow… I need to get some inspiration pictures together before bed.”
“Okay.” I reluctantly head back to the couch to study, even though I know there’s no way I’ll be able to focus on this essay now. I put my hand on the locket on my neck. Maybe this message isn’t a good omen for me only, but foreveryonehere on Love Street, especially my mom. Because we all could use some good fortune right now.
I do a little bit of googling that night about interest rates and what would happen if Mom can’t pay her mortgage.I don’t understand a lot of it, but it’s clear that salesneedto increase this summer—otherwise Mom might sell the flower shop and the apartment we live in. Hopefully the BOA can do something.
On Saturday I go home after my shift at Cosmic to get my history books so I can study at LoveBug before the BOA meeting. I see Mom at the workbench in the flower shop on my way out, so I pop in to say hi. Mom looks so pretty in her floral dress with Converse sneakers and a denim jacket. She has a beautiful little bouquet in front of her made with the pink ranunculus from the cooler earlier.
“That’s so pretty,” I say. “I love ranunculuses.”
“Yeah, waste of time though. As soon as I finished it, the customer called saying they don’t need it anymore.” Mom sighs, shaking her head. “A theater company ordered it for a play, then decided to use silk flowers. At least they paid up front. Too bad I can’t sell it—I’m about to close for the day.”
“Oooh, if you don’t need it, let me take it to LoveBug and take some pictures! I can put them up on the flower shop’s Instagram.”
Mom shrugs and hands me the bouquet.
“So, are you coming to the meeting?”
