The man shuffled forward. Elly gestured to the boxes, rain dripping from her still-soaking hair. “What happened? Why are all these flowers dead? You do realize, and I hope your boss realizes, that this was about thirty thousand dollars’ worth of flowers?” Elly turned to Anthony. “I need you to get the store camera and take pictures of each and every box of dead flowers. Make sure the time stamp is on the pictures.”
He nodded. “You got it, boss.”
She turned to her young apprentice, who was looking more and more panicked. “Get Mary on the phone. Now. This is absolutely an emergency. Wake her up.” She pulled her hair back into a high ponytail and jogged back behind the desk. The man kept staring at the floor, sniffling slightly. Elly stared back at him. Breathe, she told herself. Breathe. “What is your name?”
“Andy.”
“Andy, what happened here?”
The driver looked at the floor. “It’s only my third week at this job. I’m probably going to get fired.”
“Probably?” snapped Elly, before she thought better of it. “How did this happen?”
He shrugged. “I was talking on the phone to my wife the whole way—we have a newborn, I never see her now with this job—and I guess I forgot to check the temp after I stopped in Phoenix. It was so hot there, so I thought I would just give them an extra blast of really cool air….”
“And you left it on.”
“I guess.” He ran his hands nervously through his hair. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I just forgot, it was such a little thing, just a button really….”
Elly began to feel very sorry for Andy. He was obviously in agony, and even though Elly felt like screaming, that wouldn’t help anyone. I will punch a lot of pillows later, she thought. And after that, I will eat a lot of Dove chocolates.
“I’ve got Mary!” yelled Snarky Teenager. Elly snatched the phone from her outstretched arm.
“Elly?”
“Mary. I’ve got thirty thousand dollars of dead—dead, as in frozen dead—flowers here. If they had gotten too hot, I would have a prayer, but these will never recover. They are all beyond saving. I’ll have Anthony send you the pictures within the hour, but I need to know what you can do for me right now.” She heard Mary rustling and quietly whispering to someone. Her husband, no doubt. Not everyone was sad and alone.
“Elly, I’m heading into the office. I’m not sure what I can do. You need to design tomorrow, correct?”
“No. I need to start designing today. The wedding is tomorrow night, but the photo shoot for the cameras is in the afternoon. We need to be completely camera-ready, with everything designed, by about nine a.m. tomorrow morning. We were planning on pulling an eighteen-hour-plus workday today. My extra design staff will be arriving here soon.” She took a deep breath. “There are no flowers, Mary. They are all dead. I have nothing to design with. Tell me how you will fix this.” Elly heard only silence on the other line.
“I’m sorry, Elly, I am so sorry. You are one of our favorite clients, but I understand if you want to sever this relationship after this. Even if I flew you my best flowers, it would still take a day to get together all the flowers, get them to the airport, and charter a flight to the airport. Then you would have to arrange their transport from the airport. I’m not sure if a refrigerated plane is available, which is why we normally use the van. We would cover the cost, of course, but….” There was a pause.
“And?” Elly asked nervously.
“Even if I did every single thing I could, Elly, we couldn’t get these flowers to you before maybe nine p.m. tonight, which….”
“Which would leave me no time to design.”
Mary let out a whispered sentence—Elly could tell that her beloved provider was trying to hold back tears. “I’m so sorry, Elly. I don’t know what else to say. I’ll be firing Andy when he returns.”
Elly looked over at Andy, who was staring blankly into the damp dawn. “Actually, can I have him today? If he can help us, then would you reconsider that? I feel bad for him—it was an accident that could happen to anyone. I’m extremely stressed and angry, don’t misunderstand me, and your company will absolutely reimburse whatever measures we need to use to fix this, but it was a very small, honest mistake that is causing a huge crisis.” Elly felt the eye of the camera on her. She tried to look calm and composed, but she clutched a pen so tightly that it was beginning to snap, and she was pretty sure her blond hair was falling out. I can look forward to my new gray hair, she thought with a grimace. They call me chubby grandma around these parts.
The front door clanked open and Elly looked up to see Kim carrying a sleeping Hadley in through the front door. She saw Elly on the phone and widened her sea-glass eyes. “What’s going on?” she mouthed.
Elly held up a finger. “Mary, if there’s nothing you can do for me right now, I need to let you go. I’m sorry I’m not calling with better news. I’ll have Anthony email you those pictures in a few minutes. And I’m going to need you to reimburse my account immediately, so that I can have those funds to buy a new shipment from God knows where.”