Ignitable

Ignitable - Chapter Six

Sophia...

"Do you want me to wrap these for you, Mrs Morris?" I loudly ask the very hard of hearing, but also the very sweet and elderly customer. She loyally comes in every single Saturday to buy her sister a small bunch of flowers before she goes to her house for afternoon tea.

"Yes please, dear."

"Freesias are your sisters favourite, aren't they?" I politely start chatting to Mrs Morris, she is always so lovely to talk to.

"They are indeed. Gladys will be especially pleased with her bunch today, Sophia." She watches me carefully wrapping the inexpensive pink Freesias and Gypsophilia with as much care and attention to detail as I do with an expensive bunch of flowers. As I hand the kindly Mrs Morris her thoughtfully bought flowers, she frowns at me with a worried smile on her face. "Thank you. You look awfully pale today, Sophia. Are you working too hard, dear?"

Chuckling quietly, I shake my head. "No, I'm fine. I've just had a really late night, that's all."

"Oh to be young again!" Mrs Morris chorally replies with a nostalgic twinkle in her eye as she pays for her flowers. Giving back her change with a warm and open smile, my lovely customer then sweetly says. "See you next week, Sophia." With a spritely spring in her step, Mrs Morris is soon turning to leave the shop.

Rushing to open the door for her, I broadly smile. "Have a nice time at your sisters." With a brief wave, we say our warm goodbye's and then I quickly go out to the back room to grab a new pack of assorted tissue paper. I do wrap flowers in cellophane, but only if I am asked. I prefer to dress my beautiful flowers in the delicate paper. To me, they look even more enchanting when they are swaddled in a fine pastel and papery cocoon. My gentle door bell then tells me that a customer has just come into the shop. With the tissue paper in my arms, I hurry back out to the counter. My heart momentarily stops and my stomach rolls over and over with wild anxiety. "Cade? What are you doing here?" I anxiously ask, laying the paper down on the counter as I blink in total disbelief at the confident sight of him.

With a crooked grin, he eagerly gives me his answer. "I was left feeling slightly used after last night. You didn't even say goodbye." His amused green eyes are playfully fixed on me as he pretends to be offended by my hasty retreat from his bed last night. In my tatty ripped jeans and off white T shirt, I feel totally scruffy in his clean and casual company. Even in the hair department, he totally wins. His is tidily groomed, while mine is in an unbrushed messy top bun. Cade is not only here, he is here when I am looking and feeling like absolute shite.

Feeling embarrassed, mortified and super awkward, my tone quickly becomes abrupt. "I had to work." I nervously start playing with the corners of the tissue paper, wanting to be anywhere but here.

"You look a little tired."

His warm and naturally expressed concern is kind of nice, but I still feel really uncomfortable in his surprising presence, meaning that my tone becomes even more abrupt. "I am tired." I rudely snap, trying not to think too much about why exactly I am feeling so tired. As nice as Cade is actually being, I just can't handle him being here. I came to work, not wanting to think about last night. But last night has just walked into my bloody flower shop and I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Needing to be brutally blunt, I lay my cards rudely on the table. "Look, I honestly don't understand why you are even here? Last night was last night. I'm really not comfortable with you just showing up at my place of work."

Sensing my anger, Cade is suddenly no longer displaying his overly self assured smile. In fact, all of his confidence is quickly replaced with the onset of growing disappointment. "What's wrong, Sophia?"