"Watch your step, Hales, it's slippery," warns Lori, smiling at me as I walk in. "Adam's just about to clean up the slush people've been tracking in," she continues pointedly, raising her eyebrows at the employee before going back to the bouquet she was arranging. "Ava's upstairs, she should be starting dinner soon. Just sneak in a few extra fish sticks if you feel like staying."
"Thanks Lori," I say, wiping my feet on the welcome mat before treading carefully on the wet floor. "Let us know if you need extra hands down here."
"Oh, we'll be fine for the night. If Adam would just mop up that slush already."
The abashed employee, a cousin of Ava's in the grade above us, runs into the counter in his haste to get the mop.
"You all right?" Lori calls as he ducks out of sight. We hear a muffled, pained reply. "That's my boy," Lori murmurs, shaking her head as the good-natured boy came back.
"How're you doing, Haley?" he asks, coming over to mop up the wet.
"I'm fine," I say simply. "Busy with school and such."
"I can tell that by all of the time you spend here. Must not have time for much else."
My cheeks pinking, I stammer. "I - "
"It's a joke, Hales," he says, chuckling. "Go on upstairs, Ava's got loads to tell you. She thinks she's some kind of - What was it, Aunt Lori?"
"Mythological creature of some sort, I can't remember. Just another of her phases. You've got a good heart for hearing her out every time something like this strikes her, Haley," Lori says, beaming at me around the growing bouquet. It's true - the part about Ava having so many obsessions. She's such a caring, emotional girl, easily swept up in whatever struck her fancy on any particular day. I've seen her go all out to save the whales and the rain forests, become a documentary film maker, and once had to talk her out of pretending to be a character in the Potter books. She has quite the imagination. We balance each other out well in that respect. Even as a kid, I couldn't make up a story to save my life.
"Can't wait," I say, laughing quietly as I shake off my gloves and maneuver my way through the store.
As I walk through the store, back behind the counter and up the familiar stairway, I breathe in deeply. I have always loved the smell of the Jordan's home - the main scent varied to whatever flower was in season, but there were always layers of past flowers underneath, building up into a warm smell that just made you feel good. Their place was really only a small apartment situated above Lori's flower shop, but man, it was much more of a home to me than my own. I was always welcome there, whenever my dad was working on a case through dinner and wouldn't be home until I was asleep, whenever I needed a friend, whenever I needed someone to parent me, no matter how much I hate to admit that. Avina and I have always been close, even before my mom and dad split up, but after the divorce I found myself spending more and more time in that crowded apartment with her family. With her little brother and sister Ari and Ellie (to only child me, they're the best things ever), her mom Lori (to hasn't-seen-her-mom-since-Christmas me, she's amazing), and dad Marc (to sees-her-dad-for-thirty-minutes-tops me, he's wonderful). And Adam, I guess, from time to time.
I am soon face-to-face with the door that separates the stairs from the apartment. I can hear Elisheva babbling on about something in her little toddler voice, Ari telling Ava about something cool he'd learned that day, and Ava bustling about to prepare dinner. I smile and knock on the door.