On the other side of the bridge, Lexie drew him to the other side of the path. Since it was a weekday he didn't really expect to see very many people on the walkways.
"This area of the gardens is built around a small portion of natural wetlands. It took a bit of planning to make sure that the water didn't overflow the banks when we have heavy rains, but they figured it out and they made sure to plant a number of the local wildflowers that you'd find in the wetlands in other parts of the state."
"Huh," he nodded at the idea, "like a little capsule version of what you'd find 'in the wild.'"
"Exactly," she tugged him closer to the water's edge and pointed into the water, "do you see those?"
Those?
He stepped up beside her and tilted his head in toward her shoulder so he could see down her arm.
He could see what looked like little green fingers branching off of a single stem.
"Those finger things?"
She chuckled at his words. "I think they look like fingers, too."
"Or thinner green shrimp things like they had in Beetlejuice."
Lexie snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Yes!!"
They laughed together and she gestured at the stems. "You can't see it right now, but at the tips of each, white flowers will bloom. It changes the whole look of the flowers. The plant has two names..."
He watched as she searched her memory.
She was always gorgeous, but moments like this, when she was unguarded and excited about what she was doing? She was magical.
"Waterviolet." She nodded, smiling. "And featherfoil." With a sigh, she continued on. "One day I'm going to have to look up how they got those names."
He leaned in and brushed a kiss against her cheek. "My aunt, Leilani could talk your ear off about flowers in Hawaii."
Lexi looked up at him, beaming and again, he was stunned.
He'd never seen someone so beautiful inside and out.
"I'd love to see the flowers in Hawaii!"
He wanted to invite her to go home with him when he went back for a visit, but he didn't want to push. He wasn't sure how she'd take the invitation. Would she really go with him or would that be... too much?
"Oh!" She pointed down the path and took his hand so she could bring him along with her. "This is fireweed," she gestured at a flower with long stems and flowers branching out along it, bigger flowers at the bottom with more variations in color and as the flowers reached toward the top they were smaller and smaller.
"We have something like this back in Hawaii," he started to explain and then he hesitated, "I can't remember the whole name."
She took out her phone and snapped a picture of the purple spikes of flowers.
"Ohia," he started. "I know that's the beginning, but it's not just that."
He paused and started to go through the vowels in his head.
He didn't get past the first one before he blurted out, "Ohai! Ohai ali'i." He sighed. "It would have helped if I got the first word right."
"Well, it's better than I would have done!"
Time with Lexie was a mix of easy and fun at the same time. It was only when he was overthinking that things felt off.
He just wanted to make sure that he didn't mess things up.
He'd never expected to find someone like her in Center City. Especially not on the first day.
