InsaneJournal

Flowers and First Meetings
Who: Cara and Navid
What: Navid takes up Cara on her standing invitation to all Pax Residents to visit her shop.
Where: The Flower Petaler
When: 4:00 PM
Warnings: None foreseeable!


From the front window, the shop looked quaint and cozy. A swirl of color surrounded the room, blooming in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some were common -- red roses stood together, puckered and waiting to bloom and the petals of white lillies arched away from the stem in soft curves -- and others were lesser known beauties -- broad red anthuriums which looked more like leaves than flowers and the aptly named pincushion protea, whose pale yellow buds stood out against the pastel and magenta pink flowers nestled at its base. The variety seemed to somehow lead the eye deeper into the shop, each flower carefully arranged to stand out from its fellows, if only momentarily.

Stepping into the shop, a customer would be surprised at the way the room opened up. The dozens of varieties of flowers were arranged neatly, with plenty of open space for visitors to step. Small decorations – butterflies, ribbons, and decorative pots and vases -- were scattered throughout, accompanied by teddy bears, chocolates, cards, balloons. The room seemed designed to carry the customer along, flowers all subtly turned to gesture inwards. What could have been complete chaos seemed deliberately arranged, even if one could not quite determine how, as though the shop were itself an arrangement produced by the owner.

The scent of the place was, momentarily, overwhelming when one first stepped into the space. The scents of dozens of flowers assaulted the nose at once, combining into a heady, rich aroma that soon seemed to fade as the nose and brain adjusted – but, still, the scent lingered on, just out of reach of the senses until the customer strayed nearer to the flowers, searching to identify one scent from the rest.

In the back of the room, as though an after-thought, stood a broad, long counter. Its simple design made it easy to overlook among the brightly-colored flowers. A woman stood here, arranging a bouquet for a young and awkward-looking teenager. Her airy blue dress seemed somehow muted among the bright colors. She had pinned her dark hair into a carefully wound bun at the nape of her neck to keep it off her shoulders. Although her hands were currently busy – a lovely daisy bouquet stood before her, its brightly-dyed petals glowing with cheer – her green eyes rose to greet the customer as he walked through the door.

“I’ll be right with you,” she offered with a warm, genuine smile, accompanied by a gesture with a pink daisy to look around the room. The flourished daisy found a place in the bouquet and, after a few tender tucks, had apparently made itself a home between its blue and white neighbors. The flower completed the bouquet, and the teenager had soon departed with the bouquet tucked under his arm, scuttling as though he were embarassed to be seen with the arrangement.