Nobody would do that on purpose, surely?
‘You’re so forgiving,’ Sarah said guiltily.
As she hung up, Lou fought back a yawn. She’d always taken care of people – friends, family, colleagues – but it was exhausting. Being everyone’s go-to person took it out of her. She took a reviving sip of coffee and sat back in her chair, but the phone rang again.
She dealt patiently with the new caller and then raced up to Oszkar’s office, which was on the second floor. Lou had dressed up today in a chic A-line navy cotton dress which skimmed her figure in a forgiving way. A-line was her friend, along with her signature watermelon pink lipstick and a dash of sheeny blusher on each rounded cheekbone. Even when her uncurated collarbone-length dark hair was sticking out at all angles, the lipstick, blush and severe dress made her look put together. With tortoiseshell glasses over her chestnut brown eyes, she had the look of an academic, her daughter, Emily, liked to say.
‘Your dad’s the academic,’ Lou reminded her daughter ruefully, because Ned was an engineering professor and was academia through and through.
‘But you look it in those glasses,’ Emily would say.
Lou didn’t have a college education, unless her secretarial course counted. She’d planned to go to college but her mum had been involved in a painful car accident just before, so Lou had put off the term start for a year and somehow, she’d never made it to college.
Upstairs, Oszkar’s office was empty, so she went to the window to look out at the busy street below and waited. Oszkar was always late.
‘Lou, sorry. I was getting coffee,’ he said, five minutes later, rushing into his office, his startling height dwarfing even Lou, who was five ten.
He sat down with a sigh, and Lou did the same, making sure her posture was upright and her smile friendly but professional – this was still a job interview and she wanted to do it properly. She’d written a proper new résumé for the application, even though she’d been with Blossom since they’d started up and they all knew each other inside out. She smiled to herself, thinking of Oszkar back then: he’d been so young, tall and skinny and finally making his dream come true by opening a flower shop.
The company had until then been based out in the sticks in an industrial estate, which was a million miles away from their current swanky town centre premises. Oszkar’s wife, Bettina, had just given birth to their first daughter and Lou had taken care of baby Bianka many times, babysitting so her young employers could go out. She’d even stood in for godmother when Bettina’s mother got stuck in the airport in Budapest because she’d left her passport back home in the family home in Dabas.
Lou had saved the day for the company often, including when Blossom had teetered on the verge of collapse because of a misorder for a hugely important wedding, the one that had put them on the map because it was a grand movie star one with paparazzi in attendance. Lou knew she’d rescued it all that day: an entire night spent on her feet making up the emergency bouquets and table settings because the delivery of precious white Vendela roses had not come so Lou had begged for hundreds of white O’Haras from all her florist friends.
Not that she minded: it was what she did. Fixing things brought her joy.
She smiled at Oszkar now.
It would be a whole new chapter for them all. The previous office manager had taken a better-paid job and Lou had plans for enlarging their current business and—
‘The thing is,’ Oszkar rubbed his pale blue eyes. He suffered dreadfully with dry eyes, which was not an advantage in a florist.
‘Will I get you some drops?’ she asked solicitously. She always kept some in her drawer.
Oszkar sighed.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Lou, I am sorry, we cannot hire you for this new job.’
Lou stilled.
‘You are an excellent worker, but ... we need someone with a business degree and you do not have such a thing. A strategy manager needs degrees.’
Oszkar was still speaking in his very formal English. He and Bettina spoke Hungarian when they were working together, a fluid rush of language that had always sounded like mysterious music to Lou.
‘It is not that we are not grateful for all you do, but we need more experience if we are to expand.’
‘I understand,’ said Lou, flattening back all the emotions. She would not cry. Not now.
He was probably right, after all. Of course he was right. Blossom needed someone else. Why had she been so foolish as to imagine she was it?
Oszkar spread his long fingers. He had huge hands, perfect for hand-tying bouquets.
‘I wish it was not this way, Lou, but I must think of the shop. You understand?’
‘I understand,’ said Lou, holding the tears in.
Oszkar would be upset if he thought he had upset her. He and Bettina must have worried themselves sick over this decision. It could not have been easy. She would not make it worse.
‘I understand,’ she repeated, more in control of herself. She could handle disappointment, couldn’t she?
