The Blossoms of Love

Ivy nudged her friend, Jackie,

“Are you regretting that gorgeous top already?”

“I still can’t believe I let you convince me to buy it,” Jackie laughed, “I could have gotten, like, 10 other shirts for the same price.”

“Yes, but none of them would have been like this!”

Both girls having started full-time jobs early in the year, they no longer got to spend nearly as much time together as they would have liked. This shopping trip was the first chance they had hung out together in almost a month, but as it is with most best friends, conversation topics never seemed to run out.

Their walk back to Ivy’s apartment took them past a university. The same university Ivy’s sister Liliana attended, actually. It was a beautiful day out, the sun was shining, students were everywhere, even gardeners were at work today.

“Look at all those roses being cut off and left on the ground,” Ivy said, a slight mournfulness entered her voice. She had a soft spot for abandoned things, which apparently extended to flowers. Ivy had thought she was far enough from the gardens to avoid being overheard, but as the gardener picked up two of the roses and started towards them, she wasn’t so sure.

“For you lovely ladies,” Ivy blushed as Jackie accepted the flowers and handed one to her.

By the time Ivy was thinking straight again, the gardener and nodded to them and went back to work.

“I think someone likes you, Ivy” Jackie teased.

“What, no!” Ivy protested, “first of all, he gave us both flowers, and second, he probably just overheard my comment.”

Jackie shook her head laughing.

“Counterpoints: one, he was definitely looking straight at you when offereing these flowers, and two, we were definitely too far away for him to her your comment. He probably thought we were staring at him, not the pile of discarded roses, and figured he’d give it a shot.”

Seeing Ivy’s disbelief, Jackie continued,

“You are beautiful, dear. I know you don’t realize it, but you are. I’d kill to have your thick blond hair and emerald green eyes. Do you know how rare that combination is?”

“My hair is dirty blond, and my eyes look like cat-eyes,” Ivy countered.

“You are ridiculous,” Jackie exclaimed and Ivy rolled her eyes.

They continued bantering until they arrived back at Ivy’s apartment. Neither girl wanted their day together to end, but they both had jobs and apparently that meant they had responsibilities. Staying out all night giggling about anything and everything was no longer a possibility.

Ivy gave her friend a long hug, and the girls promised they wouldn’t wait so long to get together again.

“He likes you!” Jackie called out as Ivy was shutting the door.

Over the next couple of days, Ivy tried to forget about the random gardener who gave her a flower, but for some unknown reason she couldn’t. If she was being honest, the gardener had been quite cute with the dirt smudged on his cheek and his muscles were evident with his t-shirt.

“I’m probably just exaggerating all this now,” she mumbled to herself. It had been 5 days and she still couldn’t get him out of her head.

Ivy made a deal with herself. She would get off the bus a couple stops earlier after, which meant she would have to walk through the university. If she saw the gardener, then she would give it a go, whatever ‘it’ was. If she didn’t see him, then she would forget all about him. Or at least try.

As Ivy was walking across the campus, she was debating with herself whether she actually did want to see him again. She wasn’t a particularly shy person, but she hadn’t been on a proper date in over a year, and had become quite content with being by herself.

SHe was almost at the end of campus, when she spotted him. He was wearing a muscle shirt, showing off his farmer’s tan from working outside all summer. It also displayed his muscles very nicely, Ivy noticed, then shook her head. She was debating approaching him, when he caught sight of her and picked up one of the flowers he had trimmed.

“For you, my lady,” he said, offering her the flower. A lily this time. Ivy giggled slightly and tucked it behind her ear.

“I bet you say that to all the woman who walk by,”

He responded with a wink. Before either of them could say anything, one of the other gardners shouted,

“Oi, Alec, back to work,”

Alec shrugged, “boss is calling,” and that marked the end of their conversation.

At least Ivy now had a name to attach to the image in her head.

This quickly became a routine. Everyday after work, Ivy would walk across the campus and everyday, Alec would give her a flower accompanied with “for you, my lady.” Ivy began to look forward to this, and counted the minutes until she could get off work.

It was about two weeks later when Ivy realized she should probably let Jackie know.