Laughing I gather all the stems I can fit into my hand.
“I want to buy all the flowers inside your store,” I say, taking some of the roses and moving them around. The smell is heavenly. Her eyes widen as her face pales. A stillness falls around us as I see her thinking, watching me and thinking.
“This is no joke. I want all of them, please.” I smile at her.
“All?” she mouths to me “Si, all,” I mouth back as her husband moves forward.
“I would love to and it is an honor to buy them all. Then each week, I’d like to buy eighteen roses in all colors to send to my mother, and sixteen to send to my lady love.”
With shaking hands, she cups my face pulling me down into her as her lips kiss each cheek. Her hands are warm and small. Her scent is all flowers and pasta sauce.
“Son, you have made a very tired old lady extremely happy.” Tears fill her eyes as I place my hand on the side of her cheek.
“You have made me happy, ma’am. The uniqueness of your flowers is art the world needs to see.” Her hands fall from my face to my shoulders. Squeezing slightly, she smiles a true smile of pure appreciation as her husband steps forward gasping my hands between his. Squeezing with all his might he portrays his gratitude to me for allowing his wife’s dream to really take flight even if it was years in the making. I will from now on make sure she continues to give her very own special flowers to the world and I can’t wait to bring Tru here and show her.
“Such kindness. Let me help my Bella, then I shall feed you.”
He clasps me on the back walking inside. I stand for a few moments alone bringing the rose up to my nose. The high is all but gone from my blood stream and I am replacing it with the stunning scent of a promise and a hope. Turning my eyes toward the sky, I relish in the stillness of this moment. My mind for once is quiet and my body feels free. Opening my eyes, I see the chick with the fake smile and the body stuffed into her two sizes to small clothing taking photos of me. For a spilt second and I mean like maybe a nanosecond I wanna flop my cock out and give her something to really sell. I don’t, I just smile, wink and turn away, walking back inside the shop where they are busy wrapping the flowers. It’s small in her shop, busting with color and light from the large, front window. The alluring smell of flowers takes my mind on a journey to Tru and I. The way she smells. The way her body shone as moonlight hit her naked skin. Her laying on top of the bed, my hands roaming her body. My fingers reading her like brail, mapping each rise, fall and bump. Each ridge. The swell of her breast. The sinful way her breathing would hitch in the soft hollow of her neck as I would run my fingers up the inside of her thighs. Her hands clenching as I grab fistfuls of her hair. Her teeth biting down on the soft peach flesh of her lip. My tongue would circle around her hardened nipples sucking one between my hot lips making her moan out my name. It’s a sensual sound that I can vividly hear, now, as I pick up a bunch of pink lilies, bring them to my nose and sucking in their sweet aroma. Being inside this shop in this quiet place, I feel so alone yet so alive. The voices in my head have stopped. They are no longer telling me that I am not good enough. That I will never measure up. Here I feel I belong and am doing something great for these two souls who would have had to endure so much stress and hardship, heartache and sacrifice. It’s freeing I have found my identity. I am no longer lost and finally I can feel after years of not feeling a thing.
I pick up my phone as Bella smiles at me tying beautiful silk ribbon around the last stunning bunch of roses. Her shop is just about empty. This makes me happy as I dial an overnight courier to pick up and take the hundreds of bright and beautiful flowers tied in paper and placed in vases, boxes, baskets and you name it, they are in there. Some solo roses, the rarest of Bella’s signature varieties, they are inside stunning clear tubes tied with the finest of ribbon ready to go to the airport for a flight across the world to my lady loves. One rather special bunch that I picked out is to be sent to my mother. She will be in awe of such floral craftmanship. She is a lover of roses and a hobby gardener for herself and the church. She has run floral classes for the children since I was a kid. I need to mend her heart and be the son she deserves. She lost one son; she doesn’t need to lose me also. I am afraid over the years of blocking out that night I may have just done damage that won’t be repaired quite so easily with a bunch of roses and a phone call.
Writing a note on a square piece of paper on the counter it even smells of flowers.
To the most beautiful lady I know.
I am so sorry.
Your son always.
Jayden X
Next up on a similar piece of paper is Tru’s.
To the woman who cussed me out, sassed me, and turned a blind eye to my smart-ass ways, who avoided my advances, turned me down and called me James Dean. I am so sorry for all the ball sack shit I did lady love. It was within your arms where I was me; my walls down and soul bare. For that and the time with you I am thankful. Please choose me... please stay...
J x
(James Dean, baby)
I paid Bella, signed for the courier and left him both with a generous tip. Bella locked the door after the courier leaves, then we head out through the back of her shop into her husbands. The smells in here have my stomach turning itself inside out. Oh my god, I didn’t realize a man could be so hungry for food on the smell alone. Taking a seat, it’s not long before a feast is laid out and wine is placed down in front of me. His shop sells all old school Italian from wine to cheese, china to bakeware, plus pots and pans. Salami hangs from the corner of the old school shopping corner of the store where breads are stacked and laid out.
You can see the kitchen and all that goes on from the whole restaurant side of this amazing, has it all, one-stop shop. I am in awe. More so when I spot the corner with a tiny stage and acoustic guitar hanging on the wall behind it. A cut in half wine barrel turned into a table and a wooden crate as a seat complete the picture. A small wine cellar is located in the back, dark corner.
What I can imagine is his handmade wine bottles poking from the wall while wine glasses hang from the roof. This place would have been epic in its day. I hope it’s still just a cherished now. Tru would love this place. She loves this kind of food, these types of people and this type of living.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jayden
Upon eating with them I have come to learn that the husband is Gino. Him and Bella are sweethearts who met when they were eight, at church. Fell in love and married at sixteen. They have been here for forty-five years. They opened the shop within months of setting up. Raised two boys and a daughter from the house above their shop and only just moved to a home just out of town with a little land. Their children all chipped in and got them a proper home with glass houses set up around it for Bella’s flowers. As Bella spoke her face lit up with delight as she talked of her children. So much love that it’s overwhelming.
I mull over all they have said to me as they dance around the small dance floor. I walk over, picking up the guitar I play a small romantic tune that my granddaddy played my gram when I was little. My love for music came from him and my lifestyle came from wanting to live like Jim Morrison. They both look at me with love as Gino swirls his love around the dance floor. All I think about as I watch them is Tru. I take a sneaky picture of them and send it to her with a caption in 50 years I hope that this is us.
Then I take photos of the place I am in.
It’s honestly like walking into little Italy.
A text comes through. It’s Tru. My heart stops.
