Victoria knew that Shannon was teasing, but it was nice to think about someone being that willing to help her out. In thepast couple of years, she’d lost touch with many of her friends. Some of it was how much she traveled and that they had different interests. Hanging out with Shannon reminded her that she liked being social.
Shannon pulled newspaper from the box and turned to the table where dozens of index cards were spread out. “Can we move those?”
Victoria hurried over to pick them up. “Sorry. I’ve been working on my screenplay. I’m struggling with this one part at the end, but trying to deal with it made me wonder if the problem started earlier in the story.” She waved the stack of cards. “Trying to fix a completed screenplay can be daunting, so I broke it down by scene. Each scene is on a card.”
Shannon looked at the top card. “Flying to the island. Meet-cute.I don’t get it.”
“I say what happens in the scene in a couple of sentences. This is the opening. My movie’s a romantic dramedy. Half drama, half comedy.”
“Oh, I get it. They’re on a plane, then they meet. Did you fix the problem?”
“No, and I’m starting to think it might be unfixable, which is depressing as hell. Let me put these in my office, then we’ll order takeout and deal with your plant issues.”
When she returned to the kitchen, Shannon had spread newspaper over the table and was setting out three pretty pots. Victoria picked up her phone.
“I was thinking Mexican. There’s a place by me that does great street tacos. I have limes so we could make margaritas.”
“Perfect.”
She quickly placed an order, then moved close to the table. “So plants, huh?”
“It’ll help your life force.” She pointed to a tall plant with long, thin stalks or shoots or whatever in a wavy light and dark green. “That’s a snake plant. It’s toxic to pets, so if you adopt,the plant has to go.” She pointed to a shorter plant with thin, cascading leaves. “A spider plant. Not toxic to pets.”
“What’s with the yucky names? Can’t I have something like an angel plant?”
“You’re a newbie. You need to start with plants that aren’t easy to kill. When you’ve proven that you can be trusted with these, I’ll bring you something fancier. Once we get these potted, I’ll show you how much to water them. You’re going to wait for the soil to get completely dry to water them again. I’m not kidding. No overwatering.”
Victoria grinned. “You’re really tough.”
“Not always, but I can be.”
Shannon put small rocks in the bottom of the three containers, then added some soil. She showed Victoria how to take the plant out of its plastic container and make sure the roots were loose and ready for their new home.
“I’m not a big fan of dirt,” Victoria said, “But this is fun.”
“I love dirt.” Shannon’s tone was cheerful. “I love everything about gardening—even the boring parts. The most fun is planning out a refresh of someone’s yard.” Her tone turned wistful. “Every now and then, one of Aaron’s regular customers wants to make a few changes. I’m the one who talks to the owners to find out what their yard goals are, then comes up with a plan.”
“Yard goals?” Victoria teased. “Like I want my roses to be happy and planning a career in banking?”
Shannon laughed. “No, more like how they want to use the yard. Maintain versus no maintenance. Or if they don’t want to do the work themselves, how much they’re willing to spend on upkeep. Do they want to attract butterflies?”
Victoria pointed to her Lego creation. “I’m very pro butterfly.”
“Some people are afraid of them.”
“What? No. They’re beautiful.”
“They’re flying bugs. Not everyone is into that.”
Victoria supposed that was true. “It’s nice that Aaron has a landscaping business and that you enjoy it so much. He must appreciate your help.”
“It’s fun,” Shannon told her. “I’m not big on the office work, but he has a part-time person who takes care of that. We’ve talked about expanding into more design work, but I’m not sure I know enough to help him with that. We’ve considered him hiring a freelance landscape architect, but that would be really expensive.”
“Couldn’t you do it on a job-by-job basis? So only for the customers willing to pay?”
Shannon nodded. “That would be the plan. Aaron wants my help with finding the right person, but I’m not sure I’d be any good at interviewing.”
Victoria stared at her. “Why do you do that? Why do you start from a place of saying you can’t and automatically assume you wouldn’t be good at whatever it is?”
