Two hours later, Elly and Keith sat silently on a plane with an empty middle seat between them, a purchase that Elly thought well worth the two hundred dollars. They both stared straight ahead in their seats, Elly praying that Keith had not seen her epic struggle with the world’s tiniest seatbelt.
An overly tan flight attendant leaned over Elly with a lethargic smile. “Do you need any help? A seatbelt extender?”
Elly stiffened in her seat, feeling her face turn bright red. “No, I’m fine. Thanks.”
Keith narrowed his eyes at the flight attendant. “We’re fine. I’ll take a Guinness and she’ll have a glass of Riesling.”
The flight attendant nodded and Elly looked away from Keith. “You didn’t need to do that. I’m perfectly content.”
“Elly, you hate flying.”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Keith leaned over the seat and reached for her hand. Elly pulled hers away, an action that felt about as natural as flying. Her phone buzzed and Elly wrestled it out of her pocket. It was Snarky Teenager. “Hello! Yes, hi. Tell me what you’ve got.” In the background, she could hear the loud sounds of Florist Row: carts, men yelling, the rustling of plastic.
“Okay! I was able to secure about forty bunches of roses in different shades of pink and champagne. I bought out the pink Victoria water-lilies, all the delphinium, and every white, cream, and pink dahlia that I could find.”
“That sounds great.” Elly cringed. While those flowers were gorgeous, they were most definitely common flowers, run-of-the-mill for every florist. Definitely not celebrity wedding flowers. “Tell me that you got some peonies.”
There was a long pause. “There were only eight bunches. And they are small.”
“And the nerine lilies?”
“None.”
The plane stirred under Elly and her heart began pounding in her chest. “Tell me something good.”
“One of the Baisch and Skinner checkout guys has amazing hair.”
Elly breathed out loudly.
“I can hear your rolling your eyes from here. Okay, some good news: Anthony was able to get a ton of white-and pink-striped cymbidium orchids from the tropical shipment that came in this morning. Also, we were able to get most of the greenery we need. Bad news: the ranunculus is tiny, and we were only able to get about sixteen bunches of it.”
Elly rubbed her forehead as the safety demonstration began. The flight attendant leaned over their row. “Ma’am? I’m going to need to you turn off your phone. Now, please.”
“I just need a minute, please, just a minute.”
“Ma’am. There are no special rules for special people. You will have to hang up this phone right now. Ma’am.” If she calls me ma’am again, I will strangle her with her lanyard, thought Elly meanly. She turned her head. “Lola Plumb is getting married tomorrow night in St. Louis, and I’m doing her wedding flowers. If you let me finish this phone conversation, I will have someone get you in the door.”
The flight attendant widened her big green eyes. “Yes!” she whispered before leaving their row. “But hurry up!”
Elly turned back to the phone, where Snarky Teenager was telling Elly to say things to the flight attendant that Elly would never say to another human being. “Okay. Do you have a pen? No? You never have a pen. Okay. Look for coral, in any flower, and black and white anemones. I know, it’s not in the scheme, but trust me. Uh, and see if they have any gray berries. Dust them if you have to. Mmm-hmm…. Okay, talk to you soon.” She snapped the phone shut and took a deep breath. The phone buzzed again with a text message. It was Gemma, yelling at Elly in all caps: I HEARD FROM GREG THAT ALL THE FLOWERS ARE DEAD. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? DO I NEED TO CALL ANOTHER FLORIST?
Elly simply typed back: No. We have it under control. It was such a big lie that she felt instantly guilty. Nothing was under control. The flowers were dead, Dennis was gone, and she was on a plane headed to Ohio instead of designing the biggest wedding of her career.
Her phone beeped again. From Gemma: I HOPE SO OTHERWISE THE WEDDING WILL BE RUINED AND I WILL GET FIRED AND THEN I WILL DESTROY YOUR LIFE AND YOUR SILLY LITTLE SHOP. The phone buzzed again. THAT SOUNDED EXTREME BUT SERIOUSLY I WILL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME.
Another text. This one from Lola: Can’t wait to see my wedding flowers! It’s going to be my favorite thing, aside from Joe in a tux! XXXOO Love, Lola.
Then Gemma again: OKAY HAD SOME CAFFEINE AND TALKED TO THE PRETTY GIRL IN THE SHOP. CALMER NOW. LOCAL FLOWERS? REALLY? I GUESS YOU HAVE NO CHOICE.
With a sigh, Elly snapped her phone shut. The feeling of being watched came over her and she turned to Keith, who was simply staring at her, his gorgeous dark-blue eyes taking in every inch of her. She pulled at the neck of her maroon shirt. “Why are you staring at me?”