Juniper draped a hand over the fingers clutching the flowers reflexively, hoping to keep him from crushing the stems in reaction to the woman's words. It would only make them die faster if he wasn't careful. And she didn't think he wanted that. She didn't want that for him, though she wasn't sure why she cared. The flowers were new and Juniper was a very physical person, though usually not with strangers.
"Or maybe she's just rude." She replied with a shrug. "Or senile." Because she knew it bothered him even if she didn't know why. And she wanted to make him feel better since he'd done something ridiculously nice for her.
"Oh." It was so abrupt that the change took her by surprise. But not enough to catch her too off-guard that she couldn't keep up with his switch. He wanted to see her again? "Good." And she smiled, pleased more than she had any right to be. "I'd like that." Still holding the flowers in one hand, she dug through her purse in the other, dragging out a scrap of paper and a pen which she paused on the side of the street to use quickly.
"Here." She handed him a business card from NYU's lab with her name on the front and her office hours. On the back was a hastily scribbled set of numbers - her phone number - and a rough sketch of a flower. "So you remember me when you find this in a few weeks." It was a little self-deprecating but mostly humorous. Wasn't there a guy code about how long you had to wait to call? How many days? Something her brothers always said about it - and she'd always rolled her eyes.