There were cheers from the crowd.
I inspected the hydrangeas on my table and decided to learn from Hunter’s mistakes.
One of the videos I had watched recommended that you select a number of similarly colored flowers, chop them off fairly low at the stem, and then put them in a short glass cup. The vase we had been given wasn’t all that short, but maybe it would do.
I picked all the flowers that seemed about the same shade of cream and quickly snipped off the stems.
I glanced over at the table next to me. Amy had created a magnificent tiered flower arrangement that spilled out of the vase. I looked back at my flowers.
“Dude, your flowers are a micro bouquet,” Hunter said with a laugh. “The judges want a real man’s flower arrangement.” He motioned with a flourish to his own. Somehow he had managed to make a pyramid of flowers several feet high.
“Some of us don’t have anything to overcompensate for,” I shot back at him.
“Ouch.” Hunter pretended to be struck in the heart.
“Twenty seconds to put the last finishing touches on the bouquets,” Megan announced.
I stuffed a few more flowers into my vase then fluffed them up as much as I could to make them seem as puffy as possible.
“And time!” Meg called.
I waited, shifting on my feet as the other contestants one by one took their flowers up to the judges’ table.
The judges, who had been drinking all through the contest, even though it was barely noon, shrieked in laughter when Hunter brought his flower arrangement up.
“Guess we know why Meg married you!”
“I aim to please,” he said with a small bow.
Amy was next. The judges complimented her on the flower arrangement.
“It’s almost like this is your job or something!”
“Next time, you need to be on the judging board,” another woman said. “Otherwise, no one else is going to win for the next thirty years!”
I was the last person to present. I set my puffy flower arrangement in front of the judges, and they started cooing over it.
“It’s so adorable!”
“It’s a micro bouquet,” Hunter said loudly behind me.
“It’s not how small it is. It’s how you use it,” I shot back.
“Are you going to show everyone how well you use it?”
“You might have to just take Amy’s word for it,” Bettina said, peering into her empty cocktail glass.
I hoped Amy wasn’t embarrassed. Though wehadgone on a public date in town, so I was sure people were already speculating about when we were going to get married.
Wait, what? Marriage?
My life was teetering on the precipice of shambles. I couldn’t think about marriage, especially not with Amy.
“I love this bouquet,” another judge declared. “It’s like a cute little hedgehog or those pumpkins that have the two little holes for eyes and a tiny smile.”
“You can’t seriously let him win!” Amy shrieked.
“But it’s so cute and puffy,” a judge said, patting the bouquet.
