Chapter Twenty-Three
Mia
Roses, roses, roses. One day I’d get sick of the smell clinging to my fingers, saturating the air I breathed, and being the central theme to ninety percent of my work, but that day wasn’t today. The shop was stuffed with pink and white blooms, my orders were full, and despite the last twenty-four hours, I felt at peace.
The day passed in a flash, and bythe time evening rolled around, I was only halfway through my working day. I locked the doors, put the radio on, and poured myself a weak white wine spritzer to help me tackle the mountain of wedding prep I had ahead of me.
I blitzed through the buttonholes first, then the flower girl crowns, and the bridesmaid’s bouquets. When they were done, I took them out to the refrigerated vintage vanI’d finally got round to buying after weeks of angsting over the cost. It wasold, with glass panels on the back doors, but I’d hidden most of the scuffed paintwork with the shop logos and advertising, and it was probably my favourite thing in my life right now.
Despondency threatened the work buzz keeping me going, but I shoved all thoughts of Luke aside. I didn’t have time to get angry allover again, but I couldn’t deny that screaming at him, flaying us both with the truth, had ripped a load off my back I’d been carrying since I was seventeen. He’d needed to hear it, and I’d needed to say it. What happened next was up to him.
If past experience was anything to go by, I expected silence—a long silence—and I already missed him so much it hurt, but I couldn’t chase him down, couldn’tforce him to unravel the mess in his convoluted soul. This time, it had to be him.
If I could just stop picturing his stricken face as I’d left, I’d be golden.
Life was never that easy, but I was busy enough to push it from my mind. To narrow my world to flowers and crap nineties pop music. The bridal bouquet took me an hour, then I moved on to the church flowers, and the table pieces.Luke flashed into my mind more than once, and my phone buzzed a million times, but somehow I managed to ignore it all.
It was dark when I took the last of my wares out to the van. With it fully loaded, I’d drive home, and then on to the wedding venues in the morning while my Saturday girl opened the shop.
The courtyard was dark, but the security light came on as I got closer to the van.I peered over the top of the overflowing box in my arms, waving the key fob vaguely towards it. The van unlocked, flashing the lights, and revealing reams of battered roses spilling from the broken back door.
“I don’t care about the police right now!” I pushed past Gus to get to the backroom fridge. “I have to replace everything that’s ruined for the wedding tomorrow.”
“Fuck the wedding!”Gus shouted. “This is serious. Luke’s tyres were slashed tonight too. That’s why I’ve been calling you all evening. You can’t ignore this anymore.”
The mention of Luke turned my stomach, and guilt that he’d been caught up in whatever this was surged in my veins. “What have Luke’s tyres got to do with me?”
“Mia.”
I pushed past Gus to the fridge and wrenched the door open, scanning themostly empty boxes for anything I could use to get me out of this bind.
Gus followed.“Mia.”
“I know,” I snapped. “Iknow, all right? But I have to get this done.”
“I’m calling the police now.”
I nodded. “What about Luke? Is he okay?”
“He’s pissed off, and so am I.”
Gus disappeared into the front of the shop. I was distantly aware of him talking on the phone but tried toblock him out as my mind whirred in a desperate attempt to recreate my butchered bouquets. My knees trembled, and my heart pounded, but all I could see was a bride rocking up to her dream wedding with empty hands. And that was without considering the fact that the van I could barely afford in the first place had been smashed to bits.
I gathered together everything of any use from the fridgeand ventured to the front of the shop. Gus was standing in the window, feet spread wide, arms folded, looking every inch a burly bouncer.
“The police are coming,” he said. “Might be a while though, it’s not considered an emergency.”
I opened my mouth to agree but thought better of it and laid the flowers out on the counter. “Damn it.”
“What?” Gus spun around. “What is it?”
“I threwmy planning sheet out. It’s in the bin outside.”
“I’ll get it. Lock the door behind me.”
“Gus, the bin is twenty feet away.”
“Just do it.”
